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Reasonable deductions from deposit
kiss_me_now9
Posts: 1,471 Forumite
Hi all,
Our tenancy ended last month and we're still trying to get our deposit back.
Originally the LL wanted to charge us to do a professional clean throughout even though the inventory marked the cleaning as 'fair' and more than acceptable. (The property was not professionally cleaned when we moved in) They have now dropped this. We spent two days cleaning it and left the place immaculate - in a far better condition than when we moved in!
They now want to charge us £60 for two lightbulbs, cleaning supplies to clean one tiled wall in the kitchen* and dust throughout and repaint some scratches on the hallway wall where we scratched it moving the sofa in.
*This is not messy but just needs a wipe over with a bit of wet kitchen towel
Is this reasonable? Not being funny, but I could buy all of the items needed for the tasks above for <£20. Can I go back with an itemised breakdown of what I think the items should cost?
Our tenancy ended last month and we're still trying to get our deposit back.
Originally the LL wanted to charge us to do a professional clean throughout even though the inventory marked the cleaning as 'fair' and more than acceptable. (The property was not professionally cleaned when we moved in) They have now dropped this. We spent two days cleaning it and left the place immaculate - in a far better condition than when we moved in!
They now want to charge us £60 for two lightbulbs, cleaning supplies to clean one tiled wall in the kitchen* and dust throughout and repaint some scratches on the hallway wall where we scratched it moving the sofa in.
*This is not messy but just needs a wipe over with a bit of wet kitchen towel
Is this reasonable? Not being funny, but I could buy all of the items needed for the tasks above for <£20. Can I go back with an itemised breakdown of what I think the items should cost?
£2023 in 2023 challenge - £17.79 January
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Comments
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No it's not reasonable. Just go straight ahead and claim the whole deposit back with your deposit protection scheme. They will only be allowed to deduct for damage they have evidence for.Changing the world, one sarcastic comment at a time.0
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kiss_me_now9 wrote: »They now want to charge us £60 for two lightbulbs, cleaning supplies to clean one tiled wall in the kitchen* and dust throughout and repaint some scratches on the hallway wall where we scratched it moving the sofa in.
Is this reasonable?
Actually I think this is not unreasonable.
To pay someone to go in and do those small jobs would cost about that much. You can't assume that the LL is just round the corner and able to do it themselves.0 -
slopemaster wrote: »Actually I think this is not unreasonable.
To pay someone to go in and do those small jobs would cost about that much. You can't assume that the LL is just round the corner and able to do it themselves.
They're not but I am - can I offer to do it for them?!£2023 in 2023 challenge - £17.79 January0 -
OP hasn't mentioned anything beyond normal wear and tear.slopemaster wrote: »Actually I think this is not unreasonable.
To pay someone to go in and do those small jobs would cost about that much. You can't assume that the LL is just round the corner and able to do it themselves.
OP don't bother negotiating or trying to say what is reasonable. Just claim the whole thing back. Then it's up to the LL to justify their silly charges.Changing the world, one sarcastic comment at a time.0 -
kiss_me_now9 wrote: »They're not but I am - can I offer to do it for them?!
Well you could have, but it's probably too late now if you left last month!0 -
But surely you were given the option to do these small jobs before you handed the keys back....kiss_me_now9 wrote: »They're not but I am - can I offer to do it for them?!
I tend to agree that they are reasonable costs given the fact that the LL may need to employ someone to carry them out.....in relation to the painting of the wall it is not unreasonable for paint to cost £10 and it cost a further £50 for a half day labour charge to apply it.
Dependant on the light bulbs again it is not unreasonable for certain types to cost £5-10 each...
If it really was a case of a piece of wet kitchen towel needed to clean the kitchen wall...why didnt you do this as part of your clean prior to leaving the property.
What may seem small and inconsequential points will probably take a handy man half a day to rectify...therefore the charge IMO would seem reasonablefrugal October...£41.82 of £40 food shopping spend for the 2 of us!
2017 toiletries challenge 179 out 145 in ...£18.64 spend0 -
OP hasn't mentioned anything beyond normal wear and tear.
OP don't bother negotiating or trying to say what is reasonable. Just claim the whole thing back. Then it's up to the LL to justify their silly charges.
Cleaning is never wear and tear.
Scratches are not wear and tear.
Better to negotiate.
If the dispute has to go to the deposit scheme to arbitrate, they will look for whether the parties have tried to negotiate reasonably.
And it sounds like the LL can justify the charges, as they have inventories. Be seen to be reasonable.
I have heard of cases where tenant refused to negotiate on paying a reasonable contribution, so LL claimed through deposit scheme for every little thing, and ended up with far more than they would have settled for in the first place.0 -
OP hasn't mentioned anything beyond normal wear and tear.
OP don't bother negotiating or trying to say what is reasonable. Just claim the whole thing back. Then it's up to the LL to justify their silly charges.
Personally I wouldn't call scratches on a wall caused by moving in furniture is normal wear and tear.It's someone else's fault.0 -
The real question is:
what does the inventory say?
What does the check out report say?
What are the differences between the 2. The rest is just opinions.0 -
But surely you were given the option to do these small jobs before you handed the keys back....
I tend to agree that they are reasonable costs given the fact that the LL may need to employ someone to carry them out.....in relation to the painting of the wall it is not unreasonable for paint to cost £10 and it cost a further £50 for a half day labour charge to apply it.
Dependant on the light bulbs again it is not unreasonable for certain types to cost £5-10 each...
If it really was a case of a piece of wet kitchen towel needed to clean the kitchen wall...why didnt you do this as part of your clean prior to leaving the property.
What may seem small and inconsequential points will probably take a handy man half a day to rectify...therefore the charge IMO would seem reasonable
Not really, these things were pointed out to us as we were leaving - if we had noticed them whilst cleaning then we would have sorted them; the kitchen lights weren't noticed because it's a light fitting with five different bulbs in and the two that have blown are facing the same direction as two others so it's not really noticeable.
We cleaned everything we could but sadly when it's two people cleaning for two days solid you're going to miss *something*. In this case, it's two lightbulbs and a splash of tomato sauce on the back tiles...
I'm happy to negotiate with them - I accept that these need to be fixed as at the end of the day they were not that way when we moved in - but I feel like they're asking too much money for a really simple fix.
ETA - I've just gone back and re-read the email and it says they 'want to buy cleaning supplies to clean the wall with' not 'they want to hire someone to clean the wall'.£2023 in 2023 challenge - £17.79 January0
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