LA actioned cleaning without making us aware?

sworrubs

Hi there,

Short version: Letting Agent ordered the extra cleaning needed after checkout before we were told it needed doing/received any literature from the checkout. Initially tried to deduct £175 which turned out to be an arbitrary number they had applied and final invoice came to £150. The issue really stems from the fact that quotes we gathered ourselves came in at around £45 and were not given a chance to consult.

Questions: 1) Should we have been notified before any actions were undertaken (especially considering they were listed as 'Tenant Responsibility')?

2) Should we have been given the potential to question their choice of cleaners?

Long Version: We recently moved out of a flat and were essentially told that there was no way we could be there for the inventory/check out which seemed a little odd but not due call for concern in itself. However we did have difficulty actually getting a copy of the inventory for us to look over: We were told it was in the post on Monday, again on Thursday and then it was finally emailed through the following Wednesday, with a paper copy arriving the day after with Wed's post date on it).
The items listed under TT (Tenant Responsibility) were extra cleaning (mostly dust?) which we do not necessarily have an issue with however there was a charge of £175 attached to this cleaning. From there I called up a local cleaning service that guaranteed their work and was quoted £45 - which of course made me question the fees.
Upon speaking to the Letting Agent it appeared that the £175 was a number she had decided to apply herself and was not based on any quote, I then offered to organise the cleaner myself only to be told that they had already had the cleaning done?

We feel that we were unfairly charged a higher cleaning fee than was available without being consulted and that they effectively spent our deposit without letting us know? Is there grounds for a dispute in here?

Any help would be much appreciated! Oh, and 'Hi! I'm Scott '

ll123_2

Hi Scott

Make a claim against whichever scheme your deposit is protected in for the amount they are disputing.

It is very unlikely the agent will win in this instance as they will have to prove to the arbitration service the cause for cleaning and justify their fees.

sworrubs

Thanks for the reply, I have since been on the phone to both the Letting Agents and The Dispute Services who suggested something similar:

Of course the Letting Agent is adamant that they didn't need to give us any notice to sort things out ourselves. Essentially stating that we had a chance to clean it before we handed in the keys, on one hand that's fair enough, we did, however in my mind we're now in a new round of negotiations that commenced at receipt of the check-out/inventory and all issues are separate from anything that has gone before.

The Dispute Services seemed to agree in so much as we should have been notified and offered the option of sorting it out ourselves. They advised that the best thing to do from here was to bring together all the quotes for the same job that we have and present them to their adjudicator - and that 3 should suffice.

We shall see!

PoisonIvy

I would dispute it. OP, when you got your quotes, was it for an end-of-tenancy clean? I've been through similar and found that a "domestic clean" comes in at around £40-60 for a 1 or 2 bed flat, but end-of-tenancy tends to come in at around £150-180. This is in London, and I admit it was about 2 years ago that I looked into it.

sworrubs

Admittedly the quotes requested were specific to the cleaning itemised in the checkout report only. As the LA has yet to send us a copy of the invoice it may very well be that they paid for an 'end-of-tenancy' clean. If that's the case then I guess we'd have grounds to dispute that as well as that's not what was called for.

For what it's worth this is for a two bedroom flat in Southampton.

sequence

Did you leave it the same cleanliness as when you moved in or not ?

PoisonIvy

Sworrubs, I nearly got burned by the same thing. My last flat the inventory at checkin said it had been "domestically cleaned" (ie previous tenant cleaned it), but they tried to sting us for the cost of a "professional clean". I disputed that and they backed down.

Flat before that one - inventory said "professionally cleaned" at checkin. Flatmate and I cleaned it like mad but didn't quite get everything (forgot one cupboard). We got charged for a professional to sort the bits we'd missed.

But either way, check your inventory.

G_M

What conditiona was it in when the tenancy started?

How is the condition described in the check in inventory?

What condition did you leave it in when you left?

sworrubs

Ironically in some areas we removed stains that were there when we moved in but they don't really give you any form of congratulations.

One of the things we are kicking ourselves for was moving out roughly two weeks before the tenancy ended, leaving enough time for dust to settle. Sure enough almost all the listed items were for 'slight dust'.

As mentioned however we aren't actually disputing the need for a clean, if there was dust then we can understand that that shouldn't be there - instead we are (considering) disputing the manner and cost at which that cleaning was under taken. I.E. Undertaking it before we received the inventory and at a cost which has yet to be justified.

In my mind, and I may be entirely wrong, but nothing on the inventory which requires action should be done until all parties have been notified? Otherwise what's the point of opening it up for dispute if things are just going to be done anyway?

I do appreciate all your replies, thanks!

G_M

G_M wrote: »

What condition was it in when the tenancy started?

How is the condition described in the check in inventory?

What condition did you leave it in when you left?

These are relevant questions.

sworrubs

Hi G_M,

The condition when moving in was 'fair' with plenty of descriptions such as 'Stain to right side, spot marked throughout' and 'Some burnt on grease, sticky mark to right side of hob' along with notes of water marks and scale in the inventory so obviously not immaculate.

As mentioned the condition that we left it in was, in our mind the same if not slightly better with stains on the carpet present when we moved in being lifted by our carpet cleaners.

Obviously because we moved out early factors such as dust become a factor - hence why we're content with dust removal being an acceptable concession. Just not a £150 concession.