Agency billing for cleaning services by fake company?

karenol

Hi,

I believe our letting agency is routinely making fradulent deductions from tennants deposits. After we moved out we got a massive bill for a range of things, all of which we disputed, such as items supposedly missing from the house (they were left out of the inventory, but were visible in the photos), dilapidations which were apparently new (again, we used photos to dispute this) and the biggest charge of all... professional cleaning services to the tune of over £200. The thing is, the house was filthy when we moved in (we have evidence of this) and we actually returned it in better condition than we found it. The agency dropped the bill by over 80% when we threatened to go to the dispute service and showed them all the evidence in our favour.
When we asked them for invoices and proof of payment for this cleaning that was supposedly done, all we got was a dodgy looking invoice for a cleaning company with no phone number on it. There was an address but I couldn't find anything through google to show that this company existed. I called directory enquiries and they couldn't find this company either. So I think this company doesn't exist and the agency bills people for cleaning servises that are never carried out (we have spoken with the new tennants and they say the house was not satisfactorily cleaned when they moved in).
What I want to know is, how do I go about finding out for sure whether this company exists? I would like to report the agency to the Trading Standards board, but I want to have my facts very clear first so that there is no room for doubt. Any help much appreciated!

Gra76

Companies House will be able to tell you if it's a registered company or not, but it not coming up in a Google should set alarm bells ringing.

Better_Days

Is the cleaning business trading as a limited company? eg A Smith Ltd? Is there a company registration number on the invoice?

Alternatively the cleaning business could be trading as sole trader/partnership from a home address. The business could be trading in the owners name or another name eg A Smith Cleaning or London Cleaning Services.

The telephone number may be in the name of the resident and not the name of the cleaning business.

Or as you say the LA may just have made up an invoice and printed it off.

Trading Standards may take further on your behalf. I found them to be proactive, although rather slow. I did have to chase them up.

Fire_Fox

Agree Companies House and Trading Standards. Also you might consider disputing the remaining 20%, this might flag up with the deposit service that this agency is dodgy and help future tenants, or even writing to the landlord directly.

bebewoo

Definitely dispute the remaining 20%, if you have proof that it was dirty to start with then they cannot charge you for cleaning afterwards, even if they did use a genuine cleaning company.

tbs624

OP - leaving aside the potential dodginess of the LAs cleaning company, have you finalised your deposit return? There are time limits for getting disputes resolved and you can do the reporting to the TSO bit at a later date if necessary.

Welcome as a newbie btw

karenol

Thanks, this is helpful. Have looked on google street view and there's nothing to indicate a business there. The invoice had no company registration number, VAT number or phone number. There was only an @live.co.uk email address which could have been set up by anyone. It wasn't listed as a ltd. company. I'll start with Companies House and give Trading Standards a call too, see what they say about making a formal complaint.

Fire_Fox

karenol wrote: »

Thanks, this is helpful. Have looked on google street view and there's nothing to indicate a business there. The invoice had no company registration number, VAT number or phone number. There was only an @live.co.uk email address which could have been set up by anyone. It wasn't listed as a ltd. company. I'll start with Companies House and give Trading Standards a call too, see what they say about making a formal complaint.

A cleaning business could be run from a private home - in fact the one that cleans our apartment block is - and I don't *think* all businesses need to be VAT registered.

ash28

I thought a business only needed to register for VAT if turnover was above the VAT threshold of £77k.

A lot of small cleaning businesses are one or two person operations and wouldn't turnover anywhere near £77k.

I would imagine they would be sole traders.

There isn't necessarily anything fraudulent about it.

Lots of small businesses operate from home.

DRP

karenol wrote: »

Thanks, this is helpful. Have looked on google street view and there's nothing to indicate a business there. The invoice had no company registration number, VAT number or phone number. There was only an @live.co.uk email address which could have been set up by anyone. It wasn't listed as a ltd. company. I'll start with Companies House and give Trading Standards a call too, see what they say about making a formal complaint.

i would concentrate on disputing the deposit deduction.

It (almost) doesn't really matter whether the cleaners are bona fide or not.As posted above, it is probably impossible to say whether they're a real outfit as they could be sole traders.

CKhalvashi

DRP wrote: »

i would concentrate on disputing the deposit deduction.

It (almost) doesn't really matter whether the cleaners are bona fide or not.As posted above, it is probably impossible to say whether they're a real outfit as they could be sole traders.

So would I.

If you search on Google for the larger companies we have, all (with the exception of one) will come up with the website straight away.

If you put 'CK taxis' (not real name) in, you'll get nothing at all, as I'm licensed, but don't advertise (all my work comes from a separate company, I only own my own car), and I don't believe I've ripped off anyone yet.

CK