Landlords agents disputing cleanliness of property.

crabeyes

Hi all, just wondered kindly if anyone has some advice on this situation.

I rented a property for 3 years during this time I painted the exterior of the building, new bits and bobs through out the house and repaired holes in the walls also painted rooms and cleaned guttering's etc. replaced toilet.

House was in better condition then i left it however i failed to clean only the skirting in a room so it was dusty and missed a cupboard in the kitchen.

I took pictures when i left showing how clean the property was,

Landlord would not see me at end of tenancy said was too busy - so i just dropped keys through letterbox.

Now he agents have contested that the property was "filthy" and un lettable - i said this was garbage after an argument on the phone i said that i would go and clean whatever was deemed unacceptable and i would have known had they checked out.

I have pictures of when i moved in and the carpet's where filthy ( I mean black up the stairs) - they where cleaner when i left and took pictures. Now i'm told it will cost £200 to dust a bit of skirting and clean a cupboard which i agreed to do - however the im not allowed re-entry of property, i guess as agents wanted to extort this ridiculous cleaning fee. I'm disputing with DPS.

Have pictures of the garbage outside the the front of the house when i moved in too (taken by the agents themselves)

Should i dispute this or just pay up. I really dont want to pay as i have spend hundreds of pounds on the property and it was cleaned thoroughly when i left apart from some very small points which i offered to rectify.

Thanks for your advice,
Jamie

ey143

I would personally fight it out of principle - but do you have the time and energy?

Doozergirl

You'd get really good answers to this on the house buying, renting and selling board! There will be plenty of previous threads on there to refer to, as well.

macman

Since no proper checkout was done, what evidence do they have?
That state the property was in when you took it over is not really relevant to this dispute.
I'd fight this all the way on principle.

DigForVictory

Fight. If your health & strength allow, fight. (Especially for those who lack the health & strength.)

Talk to CAB? Talk to the local press? If you've photos of it as you left it (timestamped?) & the landlord didn't check within 24 hours, could the premises have been entered & messed up by a third party?

All the best!

jamski07

Fight it! An old landlord tried to take over £700 of us once and the £250 for a 'deep clean' he ended up with will bug me forever and a day!!

Don't let them get away with it. Too many landlords think new tenants should be able to move straight in without a penny being spent!

allybee101

Most EAs seem to have a bad habit of doing this. I insisted on being present at the check-out inspection for my last 2 rentals for this reason, I had scrubbed those places within an inch of their lives, cleaned carpets etc. Sounds like the EA is trying to make themselves some extra cash.
Dispute it, you have the photos to show what it was like before you moved in. Do you have any 'afters' for comparison?
Reasonable wear and tear is allowed, so a bit of dust is hardly likely to be a significant. Your issue is with EA not landlord if EA is responsible for property mgmt.
Good luck