Special Conditions on Assured Shorthold Tenacy - Doubts on the legality of terms

deadestfish

Hi there,

I think there may be some experts on this forum who may be able to advise me. I'm shortly going to be me moving into a property but on issue of an assured shorthold tenancy contract the landlord has added special conditions which look really dubious.

First condition:

A cleaning fee of £300 applies at the end of the tenancy. Tenants must use {landlords preferred firm} to be booked three weeks in advance: {someone's contact details}

I have quotes for a similar end of tenancy cleaning, which is £179 (one bed property with carpets) so the mandatory fee seems excessively high. The firm we are being told to use do not look as established as a firm that I would usually use.
My problem with this is that it is a mandatory charge (payable to who?), rather than a professional cleaning which I provide evidence of with a receipt (there are agencies that I trust who would do this cheaper and offer to return to correct any issues, if the landlord is dissatisfied with the cleaning).
I'd be happy to agree to arrange for professional cleaning and provide a receipt. I'd even be happy to agree to get a quote at the time from the landlord's preferred firm, can I really be tied into a specific cost and firm in this way? - this seems doubtful

The second special condition:

An admin fee of £150 will be charged if the landlord has to do any admin on behalf of the tenant. This will be deducted from the tenant's deposit.

'any admin' is such a weak term that this could mean anything up to and including receipt of end of tenancy notice served to the landlord at the end of tenancy... so with two of us on the tenancy agreement, I understand this to mean a mandatory admin fee when we move out of £300. I'm not used to such special conditions and I'm very doubtful that this can be considered reasonable.

I'd like to ask for the wording to be changed before I sign and a substantive change of the condition to a requirement to pay for a professional cleaning service not necessarily the preferred firm.
I am scared of losing the property and ending up without a place to live. It's not that much money but it doesn't seem right to have to pay... I can sign but not agree that this is reasonable when the time comes to release the deposit, if the conditions really are not reasonable in a dispute they are unlikely to be upheld but I don't want to start out on the relationship with the landlord planning for a future dispute.

Any advice, please... are these really enforcable conditions? - I feel a little forced to sign to only be informed of this at this late stage of the rental arrangements.

G_M

Ideally you would ask for these outrageous clauses to be removed.

However the reality often is that market forces mean the tenant has no leverage. You ask to remove the clauses and the agent (I bet it's a letting agent not a landlord?) replies "Take it of leave it".

In both cases, you could dispute the clauses when the time comes as unfair terms. It is likely (though not guaranteed) that the deposit scheme arbitrators, or judge if it went to court, would consider them unfair terms.

If you could show you left the property as clean at the end as at the start, but without using their designated £300 cleaning firm (eg you got your mum in for the day!), I doubt you'd lose a dispute.

Similarly with the admin fee. as you say, it is so poorly worded, and wide open, as to be meaningless and unenforcible. Though judges can be unpredictable at times........

Yes, it's not ideal to start out a new tenancy anticipating that at the end there'll be a dispute, but I fear your options are either just that, or walk away and find another property.

If you sign, cover yourself: read the inventory carefully and change it to reflect ANY damage in the property, and ANY dirt (eg inside the oven....?) before signing. Keep a copy. If signing in the office, don't be fobbed off with "we'll send you a copy later", and NEVER sign before inspecting the property.

Take loads of photos on day one. (and read the meters).

theartfullodger

Exactly what G_M said...

deadestfish

It is a rental agency but in this case, I think the agency are operating as a go-between between us and the landlord. These conditions are expressly the landlords (and our tenancy agreement will be with her, not the letting agency).

theartfullodger

Same reply:

See OFT356 on "unfair terms in tenancy agreements" (or similar title): Issue is, do you really want the place or not.

Shame Engerland ain't like Scotland where such charges are unlawful & have been for years... Comeon Engerland, catch up!!

jjlandlord

Having a cleaning fee of £300 is not unfair in itself, IMHO. However The rest of the clause is highly dubious.

The second clause is most likely unfair and unenforceable. As you said the wording makes it so vague and far-reaching that I can't see it being upheld.

The landlord/agent has added these clauses under a 'special conditions' headline to try to avoid some unfair terms regulations. However, IMHO he would need to show that there were individually negotiated, which is clearly not the case.

pmlindyloo

theartfullodger wrote: »

Same reply:

See OFT356 on "unfair terms in tenancy agreements" (or similar title): Issue is, do you really want the place or not.

Shame Engerland ain't like Scotland where such charges are unlawful & have been for years... Comeon Engerland, catch up!!

Here's the link

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284440/oft356.pdf

Both unfair terms IMHO but whether you want to make a fuss right now is up to you. Good advice from G_M as usual.

thesaint

I think the cleaning clause is perfectly "fair" and enforceable myself.

theartfullodger

thesaint wrote: »

I think the cleaning clause is perfectly "fair" and enforceable myself.

A tenable view in that it is held:

And if the property does not require further cleaning at the end the occupation - to restore the interior to as it was prior to the tenancy, less fair wear 'n tear?? It can & does happen, albeit rarely.

Best wishes to all, including those who disagree with me.

bouicca21

£300 whether the property needs to be cleaned or not? I can't see any way that can be justified.

I love the constant references on threads about rentals to 'professional clean' - !!!!!! does it mean? Just that someone charges to do it?

davidmcn

IMO, it would be reasonable to specify a standard to which the property ought to be cleaned (and hopefully that's no better than the state it was in at the start of the lease...).

What's the relevance of whether the person doing the cleaning was paid or not?