Pay for a professional clean every 12 months and at the end of the tenancy?

Lonelylnd

Hello,

I live in a 3 bedroom flat with 2 others and we have a joint tenancy agreement. Our contract ends in June, one of my flatmates has been allowed to leave the contract early in April, I am leaving the flat at the end of June when the contract is up, and my other flatmate is stay in the flat for another year. This flatmate was new to the flat last year, as we have had 2 other girls live with us before and replaced them. When my previous flatmates moved out, the only demands was that they clean their bedrooms, nothing was done to the rest of the flat, as me and the other girl was still living there.

Now that I am moving out, my landlord has said that we need to clean the flat, which is completely understandable and something that I was going to do and expected to do anyway. she wants the clean done in June and says that we have to pay for it to be professionally cleaned. I felt that this was unfair, however, upon looking at my contract it does state the following:



At the end of tenancy:

"To pay for the professional cleaning of the Premises including curtains, blinds, furnishings, white goods, bathroom/kitchen fitments, cupboards, inside and outside all windows and the chemical or steam cleaning of carpets at the end of the tenancy. To provide, upon request, receipts to the Landlord or his Agent to demonstrate compliance with this clause."


and, Special Clause:

"The Tenant should ensure that the premises is kept clean at all times and, at least once every twelve months arrange, at their cost, for a professional clean of the Premises, in particular the oven, hob and kitchen extractor"


I have been researching and have read that landlords cannot force you to pay for the property to be cleaned, as long as it is clean and you leave the property how you found it, with wear and tear in mind. Is this correct? I hate wasting money and am frustrated that the girls that left before did not have to do this, also my landlord doesn't seem to understand that, as there is still going to be people living in the flat when I move out, it is going to be very difficult for it to be exactly the same as it was before I moved in.

any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!




Edit: What I also find really annoying and to be honest..unacceptable, is that, we have found a girl to replace the girl moving out early, so this new girl will be moving in in April, our landlord sent her an email saying that we will be paying for a clean in June and that the new girl needs to pay for her share of the clean (so the amount the clean costs divided by the time she has lived there), which I find absolutely crazy, as the flat would not have been cleaned prior to this new girl moving in, so why should she have to pay for it to be cleaned!?


Edit 2: This was what my landlord emailed us saying:



hall - clean all vents/extractors, tiles, lampshades, radiators, furniture, front door inside and out, windows inside and out where possible, skirting, light switches, walls where dirty marks, doors, door frames, floors, blinds
>>
>> Kitchen, totally clean all white goods - oven, hob, extractor, top kitchen cupboards, inside cupboards, fridge/freezer, splash backs, tiles, wipe down dishwasher, tumble dryer & w/m.
>>
>> Bathroom/cloakroom, totally clean including all chrome and buff up, shower screen, cupboards inside and out
>>
>> Sitting room: clean sofa/chair material if necessary, plus as above


Which I think is more demanding than what the tenancy agreement says? - also I could easily do these things myself

Comms69

Lonelylnd wrote: »

Hello,

I live in a 3 bedroom flat with 2 others and we have a joint tenancy agreement. Our contract ends in June, one of my flatmates has been allowed to leave the contract early in April, I am leaving the flat at the end of June when the contract is up, and my other flatmate is stay in the flat for another year. This flatmate was new to the flat last year, as we have had 2 other girls live with us before and replaced them. When my previous flatmates moved out, the only demands was that they clean their bedrooms, nothing was done to the rest of the flat, as me and the other girl was still living there.

Now that I am moving out, my landlord has said that we need to clean the flat, which is completely understandable and something that I was going to do and expected to do anyway. she wants the clean done in June and says that we have to pay for it to be professionally cleaned. I felt that this was unfair, however, upon looking at my contract it does state the following:



At the end of tenancy:

"To pay for the professional cleaning of the Premises including curtains, blinds, furnishings, white goods, bathroom/kitchen fitments, cupboards, inside and outside all windows and the chemical or steam cleaning of carpets at the end of the tenancy. To provide, upon request, receipts to the Landlord or his Agent to demonstrate compliance with this clause."


and, Special Clause:

"The Tenant should ensure that the premises is kept clean at all times and, at least once every twelve months arrange, at their cost, for a professional clean of the Premises, in particular the oven, hob and kitchen extractor"


I have been researching and have read that landlords cannot force you to pay for the property to be cleaned, as long as it is clean and you leave the property how you found it, with wear and tear in mind. Is this correct? I hate wasting money and am frustrated that the girls that left before did not have to do this, also my landlord doesn't seem to understand that, as there is still going to be people living in the flat when I move out, it is going to be very difficult for it to be exactly the same as it was before I moved in.

any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

Ignore it such clauses are unenforceable

[Deleted User]

You are correct. Professionally cleaned cannot be defined. There is no such thing as a profession of cleaning. There are cleaners. You and I are cleaners if we clean up after ourselves.

Ian_875

Clean it to the standard it was when you moved in, and then let the LL argue to the toss through the deposit protection scheme.

Certain things, like carpets and blinds and whatnot have a depreciation value. So if you've been in the house 5 years he can't expect the carpet to be in the same condition, it's going to have wear and tear.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, do as you're planning to and give it a good clean before you leave. He can then ask for money from the deposit if he thinks it warrants it, but that has be mutually agreed via the deposit protection scheme your deposit is in.

Lonelylnd

Thank you, do you know of anywhere that states that its not enforcable?

Comms69

Lonelylnd wrote: »

Thank you, do you know of anywhere that states that its not enforcable?

It's fundamentally not enforceable. You cannot sue unless you have a loss. There is no loss.


Why bother arguing with the LL about it

SmashedAvacado

As a matter of contract law, the loss is the damage suffered by the failure to comply with the clause. So if the landlord arranges for a clean, then they may be entitled to claim the cost of that clean.

Comms69

SmashedAvacado wrote: »

As a matter of contract law, the loss is the damage suffered by the failure to comply with the clause. So if the landlord arranges for a clean, then they may be entitled to claim the cost of that clean.

Except... it must be mitigated, which means if no clean is requires, no cleaning can take place....


Basics of contract law....

G_M

Forget the cleaning issue as it is a non-issue.
Provided of course that when the tenancy ends, you hand the property back to the landlord as clean as it was when the tenancy started.

Lonelylnd wrote: »

I live in a 3 bedroom flat with 2 others and we have a joint tenancy agreement. Our contract ends in June, one of my flatmates has been allowed to leave the contract early in April, I am leaving the flat at the end of June when the contract is up, and my other flatmate is stay in the flat for another year. This flatmate was new to the flat last year, as we have had 2 other girls live with us before and replaced them. When my previous flatmates moved out, the only demands was that they clean their bedrooms, nothing was done to the rest of the flat, as me and the other girl was still living there.

More worrying is the section above.

* Who are the original named tenants?
* when those named tenants left (if they have, or will) was the tenancy agreement assigned to new named tenants?
* or was it ended and a new tenancy created, with new named tenants?
* or was there just some legally meaningless informal 'arrangement'?
* What is going to happen in June regarding the tenancy?
* what has happened with regard to each tenants' deposit as they came and left?

SmashedAvacado

Comms69 wrote: »

Except... it must be mitigated, which means if no clean is requires, no cleaning can take place....


Basics of contract law....

This actually isnt what mitigation is. Mitigation is something a damaged party must do to reduce / minimise their loss. So here for example, it would be to get another cleaner in - which would avoid the losses that might otherwise flow from the breach - eg not being able to re-let the property.

What you are attempting to describe is a principle of dilipidations law which means that there is no claim if there is no damage to the reversion by virtue of the breach. The argument being that if the property can be re-let in its uncleaned state, then the landlord has suffered no loss.

Lonelylnd

G_M wrote: »

Forget the cleaning issue as it is a non-issue.
Provided of course that when the tenancy ends, you hand the property back to the landlord as clean as it was when the tenancy started.

More worrying is the section above.

* Who are the original named tenants? (Originally me, the other girl thats leaving and a girl that left 2 years ago, but we have signed different contracts each year that include the names of the new tenants on)
* when those named tenants left (if they have, or will) was the tenancy agreement assigned to new named tenants? (yes assigned to new named tenants and we all signed new agreements)
* or was it ended and a new tenancy created, with new named tenants?
* or was there just some legally meaningless informal 'arrangement'?
* What is going to happen in June regarding the tenancy? (so in June the girl that is staying will sign a new agreement, that includes the 2 new flatmates)
* what has happened with regard to each tenants' deposit as they came and left?

(deposits were all given back to the previous tenants that left the property I think)