Charging tenant to clean conservatory roof? So stressed out by this

motherofstudents

My gardeners charge £25 for cutting the grass - two lawns 15m x 10m and 20m x 40m so yours shouldn't be too much. Get your evidence sent off and let the DPS sort it out.

stator

Liz1729 wrote: »

I don't want to be OTT about it - I do think some deduction is arguable for repainting and lawn moving. I don't want to be presented as an unreasonable money grabbing tenant to the DPS; it is the estate agents who are being unreasonable and money grabbing here.

Just demand the whole thing back, the DPS will decide what's reasonable and what's not. The landlord has been ripping you off for years anyway, don't make it easy for them by trying to be reasonable and negotiate. If you give them and inch they will take a mile.

FBaby

This is making my blood boil as (a) the house came with it, (b) the contract does not state that we have to do it, (c) as far as I can tell on the internet, tenants are responsible for the interior of the house and landlords the exterior

Tenants are responsible for what is in the agreement. You don't dispute the cutting of the lawn, that's outside?

Are you sure it says nothing about maintenance of the conservatory of the roof, many in an indirect way (because I can't see why they would claim for this unless they believe that it is there somewhere). If it wasn't totally clean before, then you couldn't be expected to have it fully cleaned. It would all come down to pictures to assess before/after.

student100

The inventory says "glass dirty", you returned the house "glass dirty". Unless the landlord can prove that the glass is substantially more dirty now than it was when your tenancy started then he can't charge you for cleaning. So don't go giving him the before and after photos - it's up to him to prove what is meant by "glass dirty" in both cases.

student100

And how long was the grass? Like "just about needs a mow" or "half way up your shin"? Did you cut the grass regularly at all during the tenancy?

McTaggus

Our check-in inventory stated exterior glass had seasonal dirt, with no quantification of what that meant. Check-out report stated the same. Don't stress too much, and even if they ask for cleaning costs just get a quote from a local window cleaner and use that as the basis to dispute any higher claims from the LL.

Very much hope you get it all resolved soon - we're having issues with our LL too having departed the property so I know how stressful it can be. Just relax, take onboard the advice from the lovely folks here, and don't let it stress you out more than is necessary.

Wishing you well!

sham63

Our agent tried to keep some of the deposit for an overgrown garden.


We disputed this through the DPS.


We had photos showing the garden at moving in and moving out.


The agent didn't have any photos from the moving in date.


We won.

jbainbridge

Claim your deposit back.

Dispute any deductions with FACTS from your own photos and the original inventory.

Try not to get stressed and don't mention emotions when disputing each point.

Remember - they can't claim 'betterment' i.e. getting you to pay for for wear and tear. e.g. you may argue the walls were in a very poor state and paying for them to be repainted would be unreasonable.