Landlord trying to charge us for a professional clean

martindow

orkie55 wrote: »

Contracts these days are 100 pages +. I had a quick scan but its all written in jibberish. Lesson learned either way... I was used to student housing where everything is simplified. As this was placement in a little town, there was no student housing.

So having no end term is actually against us. What a bloody joke. I hate how everything and everyone in this world is out to screw you.

But you're still a student aren't you? The university will probably have an office dealing with letting issues who can help look through contracts.

Everything and everyone is not out to screw you and being melodramatic is not going to help you. You need to take some responsibility to be sure you know what you are signing and get other people to help you if needed.

nkkingston

It sounds like no one knew what they were doing here, landlord or students. Have you talked to the agency? I normally have no patience with agencies, but frankly here they might be the only people with any idea of how letting works. I've never felt sorry for a letting agent before. it's a strange feeling!

Sounds like the contract was both written and signed by people who didn't understand it. God knows what else you've agreed to. A 100 page contract is ridiculous. I've never seen one for a student house over ten pages, and frankly those were massively overwritten, but still perfectly understandable. Legal english shouldn't be jibberish, in fact it should be very, very clear and specific, because if you have clauses that are hard to interpret all you're doing is making lots of money for future lawyers. If you can't tell whether or not there was a break clause, either the landlord has evicted you illegally or you've taken it upon yourselves to pay rent for two properties at once.

I strongly suspect your landlord was either an 'accidental' landlord or someone who'd thought it would be easy money and never bothered find out their legal responsibilities, and wanted to get shot of the place before they made themselves even worse off. It's apparent from what you've said the landlord was clearly trying to get the property off his hands before you even moved in. Student contracts are dodgy in terms of signing contracts long before the tenancy starts - I don't know where you would have stood if he'd successfully sold it earlier, to be honest, but I'm sure someone here does (not that it's relevant now). Having sold it with you as sitting tenants, his buyers should either have been made aware they were purchasing a rental property with tenants already in situ (popular with landlords because it saves them finding any) or that completion couldn't take place until the property was vacant at the end of your contract. Either way, landlord didn't know what he was doing and screwed up. And then you compounded the error by not checking your rights and thinking a single phone call was enough to count as formal notice.

Of course, that you screwed up so badly makes me question whether the landlord provided you with the leaflet about your rights that's now a requirement. Is your deposit in a protection scheme?

As an aside, furnished does not usually include small appliances and tools, unless stated by the contract. It's expected you'll provide these in the same way you're expected to provide your own clothes to wear. No one is going to take you seriously if you raise the fact there was no vacuum cleaner. Pretty certain at this point you may have to take the hit for the cleaning bill, unless you actually read your contract and find another point to bargain with.

teddysmum

In other threads mentioning professional leaning being required, it was sometimes a case of a very picky landlord, who was more interested in 'professional' (as in paid for) cleaning than that the tenant had done an equally good job themselves (some 'professionals' only use regular household cleaning items).


However, here, I suspect that the landlord wants the job done professionally as the tenants have failed to clean properly and he/she doesn't intend to do the cleaning himself/herself.


You should not expect cleaning items to be included in furnished accommodation and a couple of hours' cleaning will not make up for the mess created by multiple occupants not cleaning for several months. For example , neglected grease becomes mixed with dirt, dust and cobwebs, making it much harder to remove.


Why did you just move out on word of mouth , with no official written notification ?

csgohan4

OP you need to look at the sticky:

Tenants guide to renting

Norman_Castle

orkie55 wrote: »

We cleaned it to the best as we could, given that we had not been given no (a) vacuum cleaner or other cleaning stuff in a "furnished" house.

Grow up. You lived there for 10 months without vacuuming, its unsurprising the landlord is questioning the cleanliness.

Beg, borrow or Freecycle. £29 from Tesco divided by how many?

https://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-vcbl15-cylinder-bagless-vacuum-cleaner/695-8600.prd?skuId=695-8600

csgohan4

op will want their toothpaste and soap provided for them next

orkie55

Ok to clarify a few points:

- This was not a student house letting. Sure, University can help us find accommodation during placement, but this city has no student housing. We rented a house as if we weren't students.

- I agree that I (and the other tenants) should have read the contract more carefully. It was wrong for me to assume that just because it says 12 month contract, that there wouldn't be any other clauses in there (such as a 6 month break clause with a notification period).

- Just because we didn't have a vacuum cleaner until the end, does not mean we didn't clean at all lol. We cleaned the house regularly the old fashioned way and tbf, 3 people that only use a house to cook and sleep in does not create the usual student atmosphere.

- - I offered the landlord to go through the house and clean any area he though was sub par - but his request was for professional mint cleaning. The oven was greazy when we came in, we scrubbed the !!!! out of it with as much cleaning stuff we had bought every month. It is at the same if not cleaner than it was before.

- I was at the start of a holiday abroad when my flat mate got the call that apparently we have to move out. After coming back from holiday, I was too busy trying to find a house for us to live in. It did not cross my mind that we had not been given anything in writing. Sorry but people are assuming I have a ton of renting experience. Since the landlord never dealt with me (because he knows my flatmate can't say no to anything), I was always behind on news but was always sorting problems out. I missed this one out.

- I understand that furnished doesn't mean it will provide a vacuum cleaner. This part was more of an emotional sentence as the landlord !!!!ed me off when he showed no remorse when I said that it has cost us over £1200 extra due to him not telling us he was planning to sell the house. He claimed that the letting agent was at fault and that he never wanted to rent in the first place. This is total !!!!!!!! as we had a holding deposit and a pending contract over a month before previous tenants moved out. There were tens of houses available that met our needs, unfortunately we got this one. He could have voided the contract at any time prior to tenancy starting, but instead took our money and screwed us later.

- Sorry but I think I have a right to be a bit melodramatic when I have spend the last month and a half dealing with problems with bills, houses, letting agents, and have essentially worked a whole month just to pay off the extra fees. My only fault was that I missed the break clause.

- Yeah lessons learned, read the contract, take dated pictures even if there is an inventory, get written evidence of any and all communications and hope for the best.

With all that in mind, anyone want to give some advice on what will be the most sensible move next given that we have no written evidence of notice? AFAIK the new owners are moving in a week and a half. So if he demands rent, then he will annoy his new owners ( as obv we can just move back in).

My next move is to speak to the letting agents, but given what I have read in here and the links provided by people, and what the letting agents told me over the phone, it seems they are going to go the wrong way about sorting this one out.

FBaby

Take this as a learning experience. The consequences of your situation are not the result of your LL being nasty, unfair or unreasonable. He is acting like someone running a business, which what renting is.

If one of you three had taken the time to read the contract, you would have noted the break clause. Did it also stipulate that you as the tenant could give 6 months notice? If you had an issue with this clause, ie. that it meant you could be given notice after 6 months and therefore find yourself have to pay fees again, you should have raised it then, and if you had concerns over the consequences, chosen not to go with this rental property.

As with any business transaction, they are rules you have to follow. One is that once the tenancy is over, you must return the keys and you cannot go back to the property, so you need to make sure that cleaning is fully done before you do so. You also take pictures to protect yourself.

In most probability, you won't be asked for more rent, but do go to the agency and return the keys asap. Then request your deposit back. When they say they want to withhold money for the cleaning, dispute it and go to the ADR if you think their request and the value claim is unreasonable.

It will then be up to the adjudicator to decide if your LL has a case or not.

dimbo61

The LL was and is an !!!!
I am willing to bet he/she did not have a professional inventory done by an independent inventory company.
Did you see lots of photos in the inventory you signed ?
Dirt is hard to show ( damage to walls/kitchen units/worktops is much easier)
So the Landlord needs before and after photos !
He is trying it on having now sold the property.
Dispute the deposit deductions with the deposit people.
PS I am a student landlord.
We do video inventory so no arguments about condition before students move in.
We do 12 months contracts due to Council Tax reasons and students wanting to stay over the summer.
We only rent via University approved housing office
Manchester Student Homes ( please check out there website )
They have set standards which all accredited landlords must meet.
Did you get a copy of the EPC, Gas safety certificate, deposit certificate, right to rent checks done ? Electrical safety certificate for property ?
PAT testing of electrical appliances,