Extortionate moving out fee

hhattiecc

My flatmate and I have rented an apartment (2 bedroom) in London for 2 years. The contract is now coming to an end, and we have been told we have to pay £165 for the property to be checked on our departure. The contract does say we'll have to pay a fee for this service, but it doesn't state an amount and instead states that we'll have to pay a 'reasonable fee'.

Can I dispute this amount, as I don't find it reasonable at all? When we moved in, the bathroom sink wasn't fixed to the wall and was instead sitting in the hallway, a mattress was missing, and the place had THICK dust over every surface. Everything was filthy - the bathtub had so much scum on it that we had to give it three cleans before use. Clearly, an inventory check wasn't done for when we moved in, and so I don't think £165 for what would be a 30 minute check maximum (it's a small flat) is okay. However, I'm unsure if I have any legal rights in disputing what the cost should be (and the letting agency still have our deposit) and how to go about disputing it.

Does anyone have any experience/advice?

The letting agency is Foxtons, if that is useful information.

saajan_12

Usually if you agreed to pay a specific fee in the original contract then you owe this regardless of whether it reflects a loss for the LL. However in your case, the fee is not specific and vague, so:
* at best, vague contract goes in favour of the party that didn't draft it (you) so £0 due
* at worst, 'reasonable fee' for checkout should be comparable to the market standard, so have a google and provide proof of what this is (I'd suggest £40).

Explain one of the above to the LL/agent and if they refuse to budge then go to the deposit scheme and dispute the deduction.

hhattiecc wrote: »

My flatmate and I have rented an apartment (2 bedroom) in London for 2 years. The contract is now coming to an end, and we have been told we have to pay £165 for the property to be checked on our departure. The contract does say we'll have to pay a fee for this service, but it doesn't state an amount and instead states that we'll have to pay a 'reasonable fee'.

Can I dispute this amount, as I don't find it reasonable at all? When we moved in, the bathroom sink wasn't fixed to the wall and was instead sitting in the hallway, a mattress was missing, and the place had THICK dust over every surface. Everything was filthy - the bathtub had so much scum on it that we had to give it three cleans before use. Clearly, an inventory check wasn't done for when we moved in, and so I don't think £165 for what would be a 30 minute check maximum (it's a small flat) is okay. However, I'm unsure if I have any legal rights in disputing what the cost should be (and the letting agency still have our deposit) and how to go about disputing it.

Does anyone have any experience/advice?

The letting agency is Foxtons, if that is useful information.

gingercordial

hhattiecc wrote: »

My flatmate and I have rented an apartment (2 bedroom) in London for 2 years. The contract is now coming to an end, and we have been told we have to pay £165 for the property to be checked on our departure. The contract does say we'll have to pay a fee for this service, but it doesn't state an amount and instead states that we'll have to pay a 'reasonable fee'.

Can I dispute this amount, as I don't find it reasonable at all? When we moved in, the bathroom sink wasn't fixed to the wall and was instead sitting in the hallway, a mattress was missing, and the place had THICK dust over every surface. Everything was filthy - the bathtub had so much scum on it that we had to give it three cleans before use. Clearly, an inventory check wasn't done for when we moved in, and so I don't think £165 for what would be a 30 minute check maximum (it's a small flat) is okay. However, I'm unsure if I have any legal rights in disputing what the cost should be (and the letting agency still have our deposit) and how to go about disputing it.

Does anyone have any experience/advice?

The letting agency is Foxtons, if that is useful information.

The inventory check establishes what the condition was - someone comes round to take photos and make notes. They are not there to fix/clean anything that might need doing, just to make a record of it, so I am not sure why you say it clearly wasn't done because things were dirty/broken.

The fee sounds high but not unreasonable. I have just checked my tenancy agreement and in our case we paid for the one on check in (the landlord will pay on check out) and it was £130.80. What they've quoted you is higher but not extraordinarily so.

In our case it wasn't the lettings agent who did the report, it was an external company called VeriSmart. The man was there for almost an hour at our small-ish flat, looking at every little detail and recording notes into his phone and taking dozens of pictures as well as the meter readings. Afterwards he produced a report which (just having dug it out) is 59 pages long so clearly took some time for someone to produce. So say an hour of his time in the flat, plus travel time to/from the place, plus at least 2-3 hours for someone (maybe not him but someone in the office) to download the photos, pick the right ones, label them, write up all his notes and produce the report, ask for our feedback and make changes... I actually don't think the £131 this cost is too bad all things considered. If there ends up being a dispute and we need to rely on it I will consider it a bargain.

martindow

As you are dealing with the F-word agents I'm surprised that they are not charging a lot more!


I'd go along with saajan's suggestion and dispute it with the protection scheme.