Estate agent's trying to clean up on cleaning bill

bashout

When my girlfriend and I decided we wanted to get a cat at our rented property the estate agent said they would need to check first that the landlord was okay with that. Fine, the landlord came back with his approval and they said we could go ahead with that but that we would also need to pay a non-refundable pets deposit of £100.

The addendum said that it was agreed we could have a cat at our property providing the following measures were met,

1) The carpets are professionally cleaned at the end of the tenancy

2) A non-refundable £100 is to be taken to pay for the carpets to be cleaned

3) Any damages made from keeping a cat in the property are to be repaired from the tenant deposit which was paid at the start of the tenancy.

This seemed to be pretty clear at the time and indicated to me that we wouldn't need to do anything else at the time of moving out. Now we are set to move and the agent has turned around and said that we need to get the carpets professionally cleaned, with proof, or they might deduct the cost from our main deposit. We've argued that the pet 'deposit' although non-refundable should surely be used by them to pay for those costs. They're saying it's a fee not a deposit now, or at least should be treated as such.

What can we do about this? Is there an authority who governs these agents that we could take our grievance too? Don't think we've been treated fairly on this on and it's all in black and white too.

angrypirate

What do you have in writing?

princeofpounds

There is no real authority that governs agents. There is an authority that governs deposits, but this appears to be a fee and not a deposit.

A non-refundable £100 is to be taken to pay for the carpets to be cleaned

This is key. What evidence do you have?

DVardysShadow

A 'non returnable deposit' can only be a fee. As PoP states, it all hangs on the evidence you have for what the fee was supposed to cover

bashout

angrypirate wrote: »

What do you have in writing?

Well I have the addendum itself, which is the document that we signed as the tenants and that was countersigned by the agents.

This document literally stated that for (this address) and between (these landlords) and (us) it is agreed that from (this date) we can have 1 cat providing the following measures are met. Then the three conditions are listed that I mention in my opening followed by the parts signed by us and the landlords agents i.e. the estate agents.

As far as the proof goes, the second condition explicitly states that the non-refundable £100 is to be taken for the carpets to be cleaned. Problem is that these people have always been...difficult. They certainly act like they have no clue what's going on, whether this is intentionally or not I don't know. The property manager wasn't even sure what their pet clause was when we rang about it. She had to 'look it up'. Still tried to fob it off as a fee.

I'll email them our problem again stating that it clearly says they should pay the cleaning bill from that but what if they just act (or remain) dumb and stick to the story of it being a fee? Without someone mediating I guess we would have to do as they ask?

girl_withno_name

To me, it sounds as though (1) and (2) are pretty much double counting cleaning ... (1) saying you must get the cleaning done while also still charging you in (2) to get the cleaning done!

lighting_up_the_chalice

Clearly, you are in dispute over the deposit, having accepted that the £100 is a carpet cleaning fee. So, just raise a dispute with whichever scheme your deposit is protected with and an independent body will adjudicate. It's the whole point of the scheme.

bashout

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

Clearly, you are in dispute over the deposit, having accepted that the £100 is a carpet cleaning fee. So, just raise a dispute with whichever scheme your deposit is protected with and an independent body will adjudicate. It's the whole point of the scheme.

I have accepted that the £100 was a carpet cleaning fee, but I want them to use it to clean the carpets, which they're not going to do. We gave them that money in the belief that they would use it to sort out the carpets when we moved out.

They've said that was to have a cat and could we now clean the carpets and provide them proof. So they've just passed the money onto the landlord and will not be using it for what it was intended as laid out in the addendum we all signed.

They've also deliberately kept that 100 separate from the initial deposit we paid, the proper deposit, in all likelihood to avoid the safeguards of the protection scheme.

BitterAndTwisted

Just dispute their claim for cleaning the carpet if you choose not to do it yourself via the tenancy deposit scheme's arbitration procedure if they insist on making a deduction for it. They can't get away with charging you an up-front fee to have it done and then demand that you pay for it again.

If you believe that the paper-work is absolutely clear that you've already paid for the carpet-cleaning they won't get way with it.

In the meantime put your position in writing to the landlord now as you'll need that for the arbitrators.

DVardysShadow

If you have evidence that the fee was for carpet cleaning, I would say the situation could be to your advantage. You could quite reasonably argue that the £100 is in fulfilment of your carpet cleaning obligations.

So if the bill comes in at £140, and they tried to deduct you another £40, I would be arguing that the £100 fee was paid in full and final settlement of all carpet cleaning obligations.

bashout

Well, this problem is still in its infancy I will admit since we still have two weeks left until the actual move and about three left until we check out. I haven't had much contact with the estate agents just yet but I am trying to make sure we are prepared in the event of a dispute. That's my natural pessimism talking though and, who knows, maybe their first response won't be to automatically go on the defensive and become all obtuse.

Tomorrow we will merely try to point out our position in an open and friendly manner and remind them of what is actually written in the addendum and, hopefully, all will be well.