End of tenancy house clean - how much?!

olly300

Your contract is a rolling or "periodic" tenancy which means the same terms apply. However only the "fair" terms can legally be enforced.

That statement in your tenancy agreement about eviction is unfair. They have to follow the correct procedure to evict you by going to court.

I suggest you write a letter to the landlord and copy it to the letting agency now keeping a copy and sent by recorded delivery stating something like:
1. The rough date you reported the toilet not working
2. The letting agency asked me to do these things in a note dated followed by a bullet point list of items the agency asked you to clean/repaint/professionally clean
3. That while there is an inventory it does not state the condition of any of or of each individual item in the house when your tenancy first began on [date]
4. You will leave the house in the state you received it in at the start of your tenancy agreement [date] as you are legally obliged to apart from reasonable wear and tear.

Anything they say/write to you from now on and you dispute it put it in writing, send by recorded delivery, keep a copy and the recorded delivery receipt. If you need a reply to any letter ask for a written reply in 5 days at the end of the letter.

That way if you have to go to court you have evidence.

lynzpower

Monkey1977 wrote: »

Right.
Had a normal 1/4ly inspection yesterday. We've had these all through our 2 1/2 yr tenancy and never had anything other than excellent comments and "thanks for looking after the house".

Last night I returned to a note telling me we had to:

Repaint the hallway ( not fair wear & tear, this is betterment and they know it, or they should- let them take you for it you can claim back through court)
Professionally clean the oven (including the knobs) ( why professional clean?)
Prune the garden (this was done 2 weeks ago) ( well you can do this again before you leave, stuff will grow- take a before & after photo to prove it in court )

It also said that because one of our toilets didn't flush properly that this was our fault for not cleaning it properly. Despite the fact that we have called them before about this, and the plumber never mentioned it was anything to do with us, and the other toilet is fine (both are spotless btw) ( get the contact details of the plumber &u get them to put in writing the fact that its not due to you that the lo isnt working)
They also mentioned that the decking was very discoloured (its painted blue and has faded with weather), but then added that this was te landlord's duty so she would tell them (so why mention it!!) ( get herr to send you an email to this effect)
In addition she said that any curtains that were marked should be cleaned (they aren't and the ones that are up are our own!). ( send her an email to this effect)
Now I'm livid and will call trading standards today. It seems to me a blatant attempt to make it as difficult as possible for us to get our deposit back and I'm cynical that even if we do all this they will still find petty things wrong after we move out. ( this is why you need to have a full inventory done and compare with the one when you move in- have you got one of these?_

I'm tempted to cancel our last month's rent payment to make sure we get our deposit, but don't know where I would stand with this. Our contract states that if we are more than 10 days late with rent they have the right to take possession of the house and contents!

they cant take possession within 10 days, its not legal.

Dont withhold your rent you are breaking the terms of your contract and the law and this will be frowned on by the court

Does anyone have any advice??

Yes, report them to trading standards.

Monkey1977

Thank you lynzpower. We have an inventory but it doesn't state the condition of things like oven etc, just that there is one. She hasn't said why professional clean, although she does specifically say 'professional oven clean' in her note.

We will write to them today once my OH has spoken to trading standards and try to find out the plumber's details.