New Tenancy Question - Uninhabitable Property?

Distillerdude

Hi all. We were supposed to move in to a 2 bed property on Saturday, but after receiving the keys we opened the place up to find a terrible pungent smell throughout the whole house. There was no bad smell when we looked at the property a couple of weeks before.

It looks like the onus was on the previous tenant to professionally clean the carpets and they may have mucked this up by leaving the carpets wet for a few days with all doors and windows closed.
The Estate Agents are professionally cleaning the carpets for us today, but if the smell is still there, where would we stand?

We are holding off moving into the property until this is sorted (we have a 2yr old who we dont want in that environment).

Another thing that the Agent said to us yesterday was that the previous tenant had a dog (and we will be bringing our dog) and if the landlord had replaced all carpets between tenants, they would not have allowed us to have dogs. Obviously a neither here nor there comment, but one that leads me to think that we might have a fight on our hands to get the Agent/landlord to rectify the carpet issue.

Am I right in saying that it's 100% the landlord/agents problem to fix this problem asap?

Guest101

Yes and no.

But lets start from the beginings, what have you paid so far? have you signed and returned the tenancy agreement?

The carpets should get cleaned, but i doubt they will be replaced.

Distillerdude

Yes, we've signed and returned the tenancy agreement, and they've already had the deposit and month in advance. The inventory we signed clearly states on moving day that the carpets need cleaning and that there was a pungent smell coming from them. We also have clear notes on the inventory that there will be a professional clean from the Agents throughout the house, especially concerning the carpets.

I'm just afraid that the dampness from the previous tenant's botched cleaning attempt will mean that the padding underneath the carpets may need to be replaced.

Guest101

Think you could be stuck, but the council may help. Let them do their clean, make sure its clearly noted that you have not lived there for atleast 4 of the days of the tenancy, get it refunded.

If they do a botched job, contact the council.

Distillerdude

Thanks for that. Very helpful. Hopefully the clean will fix things as everything else about the property we love!

What council department would I need to contact if the clean was botched? And how could they help?