We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: Hello Forumites! In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non-MoneySaving matters are not permitted per the Forum rules. While we understand that mentioning house prices may sometimes be relevant to a user's specific MoneySaving situation, we ask that you please avoid veering into broad, general debates about the market, the economy and politics, as these can unfortunately lead to abusive or hateful behaviour. Threads that are found to have derailed into wider discussions may be removed. Users who repeatedly disregard this may have their Forum account banned. Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide
Deposit arbitration
conorp
Posts: 8 Forumite
Hi,
In what is probably becoming a very common scenario, on moving out of a property I am being charged for carpet cleaning. As I feel the fees are unreasonable I have moved to arbitration through the deposit protection scheme and am wondering how best to make my case.
The carpets are old and worn, as is clear from the inventory descriptions on moving in.
The charges are for the addition of "bits on surface" and a number of small stains to the carpet - for which I'm being charged for a full hot water extraction.
One of these stains occurred underneath a piece of furniture that was present during the check-in inventory, and most likely for this reason it wasn't reported on check-in.
Most of the other stains can either be matched to photos or descriptions included in the check-in inventory (although the photos are poor, which makes the comparison difficult).
As such, there are 2 or 3 out of 15 stains that were not mentioned in the check-in inventory.
So my questions are:
- Where a stain occurred underneath a piece of furniture present at check-in, do I have a case that being charged for this is unfair?
- More generally, how can I best make my case to the deposit protection scheme? Are there any useful websites on what to include
- And how much/what proportion of the fee should I be prepared to pay
In what is probably becoming a very common scenario, on moving out of a property I am being charged for carpet cleaning. As I feel the fees are unreasonable I have moved to arbitration through the deposit protection scheme and am wondering how best to make my case.
The carpets are old and worn, as is clear from the inventory descriptions on moving in.
The charges are for the addition of "bits on surface" and a number of small stains to the carpet - for which I'm being charged for a full hot water extraction.
One of these stains occurred underneath a piece of furniture that was present during the check-in inventory, and most likely for this reason it wasn't reported on check-in.
Most of the other stains can either be matched to photos or descriptions included in the check-in inventory (although the photos are poor, which makes the comparison difficult).
As such, there are 2 or 3 out of 15 stains that were not mentioned in the check-in inventory.
So my questions are:
- Where a stain occurred underneath a piece of furniture present at check-in, do I have a case that being charged for this is unfair?
- More generally, how can I best make my case to the deposit protection scheme? Are there any useful websites on what to include
- And how much/what proportion of the fee should I be prepared to pay
0
Comments
-
If a stain was present when you moved in then it is unfair to expect you to pay for it to be removed, but can you prove it was there? Can the landlord prove it was not there? What does an arbitrator do when neither party has conclusive proof?
I would suggest that if the small stains (that you accept are your responsibility) could have been cleaned without doing the entire carpet, that you should pay half the cost of the steam cleaning. This seems equitable.
However if the landlord has found a very expensive cleaning company you should also argue that they have not exercised enough due diligence in selecting the contractor to do the work. We paid £55 last time we had the carpets in our home cleaned professionally. This was about five years ago, so I would say that anything over £100, and certainly anything over £150 is excessive.The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 354.4K Banking & Borrowing
- 254.4K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 455.4K Spending & Discounts
- 247.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 604.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 178.4K Life & Family
- 261.6K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards