Real-life MMD: Should I sneakily keep some of ex's deposit for cleaning?

shumicat

As the owner (and sole cleaner) of a holiday cottage and a landlord of several flats, I can assure you that the cleaning of those is fa,r far more time consuming than the every day cleaning of my own home. I certainly don't clean out the fridge, wash down the skirtings and clean the windows etc at home on a daily basis.
However, I'm not sure that keeping an extra £100 is entirely right. £50 by negotiation would be much fairer on the basis that I have to pay a cleaner £8-£10 an hour when I'm away.

Talent

Yo need to give her £400. Then tell her she owes you a slap up dinner for cleaning the place. If she's a good friend and values you and your honesty, you'll get it. If you don't get it, then she's not worth worrying about. Either way, you're quids in.... metaphorically (I think!).

sarahw6845

Give her full share of the deposit back to her. This situation does not reflect well on you and do you really want to earn a reputation for not playing fair if she remembers what the actual amount should be? Is £100 worth the loss of possible friendship and trust of other people ( whom she may tell)? The wrong course of action can come back to bite you.

baroley

Karma. You were living there, she wasn't. Do the right thing.

bionda

You seem to have had a fairly amicable split. Why not come up front, say you got £800 back but did at least £200 worth of cleaning so hope she is ok with the £300 she was expecting. That way, you might even get thanked, and get to be recompensed for your cleaning and you get no guilt feeling either.
This is assuming of course that when you were co habit ing that you equally shared the cleaning.....you did dint you??
Whatever happens, don't get mean over the small fry. It will stop you moving forwards

Fujiko

bogwart wrote: »

Seriously? What kind of person are you? I think your ex had a close call and was lucky to break up with someone who'd screw her out of a measly £100.

I don't know why she walked out, but I suspect it may have been when she realised she was living with someone who had such a mean streak. Quite frankly, she is well rid of you!

joehoover

Why are you even asking this? The cleaning has nothing to do with it and that is a separate issue. It comes down to she is owed half the deposit and you are swindling her out of her half. She would have been in her right mind to ask for it when she left, maybe she didn't ask as it may have hurt you financially to part with £400 at the time and was being considerate. So with this in mind are you still prepared to try and withhold £100.

Just pay her half, she'll respect you for correcting her error and you can part as amicably as possible.

People have lost basic decency, the amount of times I read peoples comments on these threads where people put themselves first without any thought to others...

sarah_loobylou

Give her the £400.

Your time cleaning isn't worth £200, are you mad?! Cleaning isn't that difficult if you keep on top of it. But that's not really the point here...

Essentially if she finds out and you try to lie your way out of it saying it was the cost of cleaning, she may ask (should ask) why you didn't give her the opportunity to help out! I know I would.

If you're really that hard up, maybe you could try and negotiate some of it back sensibly?

i.e. If you had to hire a carpet cleaner or buy lots of products, you could ask for a contribution? That is of course presuming that she didn't clean before she left...

bobkat_2

Absolutely No you shouldn't keep it. If you are prepared to 'steal' money that is rightfully hers I think she made a very good decision to end the relationship.

ellymoo

chocaholicmanc wrote: »

moved out a month before me and done the same.

The couple still living in the house did not return either of our full deposits telling me repeatedly that they would and telling our other housemate that the landlord had retained some of the deposit for 'cleaning'. The landlord confirmed he'd paid back the full deposit!

We both moved out over a year ago and will clearly not be getting our money back given that the girl in question is now completely ignoring us.

This is theft and I would tell these people such. Tell them the landlord confirms the whole deposit was returned and unless your portions are returned to you you will go to the police/small claims. It might freak them out into paying you back.