Carpets not cleaned on moving in - do we need to clean to move out?

sidhead

Hello,

We moved into our current house a week after the landlord moved out. It stated in the contract that the landlord would have the carpets cleaned prior to us moving in, and that we had to do the same when moving out. The carpets were definately not cleaned and both myself and the inventory company noted this.

At the time I raised it with the agent employee and they appologised that it hadnt been done and said that maybe it was because they were going to change the lounge carpet (this had been promised, mainly as they are currently trying to sell the property too). As we had already moved in I said it was not convenient for them to be fitting a new carpet, and he agreed (verbally!) that we would not need to clean the carpet when moving out.

This guy has since gone and of course they are saying that we have to get the carpets cleaned. To me this is a unfair in 2 ways - 1) they didn't afford us the same courtesy, 2) the landlord will be changing the carpet anyway.

The general house is much cleaner now since we have been there, I would have been embarrassed to let tenants in if I was them, but the lounge carpet is as it was when we moved in. There are lots of marks about on it.

Now presumably, if we don't get the lounge carpet cleaned they will stop some money from our deposit - but what recourse do we have that they didn't clean them for us? Surely we should be able to "fine" them the same amount, and therefore the one cancels the other?

Would be interested to hear what other people think, particularly any legal professionals as we're running out of available time to get to CAB.

G_M

sidhead wrote: »

Hello,

...... It stated in the contract that the landlord would have the carpets cleaned prior to us moving in, and that we had to do the same when moving out. The carpets were definately not cleaned and both myself and the inventory company noted this.

.

Your obligation is to return the property at the end of the tenancy in the same condition as it was at the start, less fair wear and tear.

Whatever the tenancy agreement says.

Is your deposit registered? Which scheme? Check yourself!

Fire_Fox

Welcome! It's worth running an advanced search, similar issues come up regularly. You only need to leave the property in the condition it was handed to you, it is for the landlord to prove that you caused damage or additional dirt not for you to prove you did not. Who is 'they' that are saying you must professionally clean the carpets? Is your deposit lodged with one of the three schemes?

Shelter are more specialist than CAB. loads of advice on their website http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/paying_for_a_home/tenancy_deposits/return_of_a_tenancy_deposit_when_a_tenancy_ends

ruggedtoast

When this happened to us, apart from cursing and swearing, I immediately wrote (not emailed) to the landlady and asked her to either clean the carpets or remove the clause.

She wrote back saying she could either clean the carpets with us in situ and keep the clause, or let us clean themselves and then absolve us from cleaning again when we moved out.

sidhead

Thanks for the replies so far.

I did scan through search before posting but nothing quite fitted. The "they" I have referred to is the letting agency.

The additional problem I can see coming up is that we have pets. This states carpets and curtains where they are allowed to go (that's just the lounge) should be cleaned. We put their curtains away in storage so as far as I am concerned only the carpet is the issue. I would be surprised if a cleaning company would clean the carpet anyway, it is very bad quality and has "patches" of different carpet to replace where the landlord had built-in furniture.

LEJC

I think if you have pets then you may need to consider that the carpets will need to be professionally cleaned to a standard that eradicates any possibilities of fleas etc

aside from the fact that the carpets may be in a poor state due to wear and tear the next tenant would want to be sure that they are not taking on any unwanted "pets"

sidhead

But as it was stated that they should do it too, one should cancel the other? They SHOULD have had it done before us so no different to having it done now - except actually they will just change the carpet as they had planned to do to make the house more saleable.

Fire_Fox

Cleaning and defleaing are two separate issues, cleaning does not destroy all flea eggs they are hardy little devils. Deep cleaning would be required to remove any allergenic dander tho.

As G_M said "Your obligation is to return the property at the end of the tenancy in the same condition as it was at the start, less fair wear and tear."

sidhead

Both the clauses for landlord and tenant just state "professionally cleaned" - i.e. the same so why should we be charged if we don't do it if they didn't do it. We have rabbits and a tortoise - so fleas not a usual problem really.

We've had all manner of issues with both the house and the letting agents else I wouldn't be thinking along these lines. At the last 2 places we just got the carpets cleaned and even if they hadn't been done when we moved in I would have done that - as the whole dealings were reasonable. This time however we've been having a rough deal and all this after moving into a dirty house (we had driven 2 van loads of stuff 2.5hrs to find this).

sidhead

I've just found the email where the guy said we didn't have to have the carpets cleaned, hopefully that will help - i've just fired it off to the property management lady dealing with our termination.

Fire_Fox

sidhead wrote: »

Both the clauses for landlord and tenant just state "professionally cleaned" - i.e. the same so why should we be charged if we don't do it if they didn't do it. We have rabbits and a tortoise - so fleas not a usual problem really.

We've had all manner of issues with both the house and the letting agents else I wouldn't be thinking along these lines. At the last 2 places we just got the carpets cleaned and even if they hadn't been done when we moved in I would have done that - as the whole dealings were reasonable. This time however we've been having a rough deal and all this after moving into a dirty house (we had driven 2 van loads of stuff 2.5hrs to find this).

Tenants and landlords have responsibilities in the AST and responsibilities in the legislation. Where these two fight, the legislation trumps the AST - your landlord cannot enforce any clauses that are unfair such as "must make the landlord a roast dinner every Tuesday".

As G_M said "Your obligation is to return the property at the end of the tenancy in the same condition as it was at the start, less fair wear and tear."
We can't be any more clear than that.