Help! New home is filthy beyond belief

ChewyyBacca

Hi
I just took keys to our new rented house.

Upon entering house looked dirty, but I thought its normal with all the movers coming in etc for the previous tenants. Also had booked cleaner, thinking it will be very easy to maintain an extremely clean house from the get go.
I started looking around and  I was shocked. There is build ups of mould, damp, limescale, grime, dust and dirt everywhere.

The oven including the grill and the tray inside is black with burnt stains and grime. There’s no filter in the extractor hood, with cobwebs inside and grim all over.

The washing machine rubber seal is black from mould.

The rubber seal in the fridge is full of black mould. Huge limescale build-up on the fridge water tray.

The back wall of the cabinet under the kitchen sink is black with mould and was conveniently covered with almost empty household cleaning supplies. Also, one side had a huge gaping hole.

There is mould in the bathroom including the shower cabin: on glass panels, inside and outside. Limescale build-up on taps, shower head etc

tiles in the bathroom are broken.

 found damp and mould in multiple rooms and places, in the kitchen, in the living room, in the bathroom, in the master bedroom. During viewing didn't see any of the things, with furniture covering it all.

The mattress in the master bedroom has stains all over it and smells very bad and seems to have fungus on it.

All the windows, doors are dirty, the curtain rods and curtains with layers of dirt on them, cobwebs everywhere you look including ceiling, walls, fixtures in all rooms.

The kitchen shelves and cabinets are filled up with random junk, opened food, utensils, plastic containers, pet food/litter and whatever else you can think of.

And I am livid - The 4 outside bins are filled to the brim with junk, no bin bags, just dumped directly in; food, clothes and whatnot, mixed together across all the bins. This is not our waste and the council will charge us for incorrect use and will decline to pick it up just because someone else irresponsibly left their waste in what is now our bins. Also I am so angry that I have to haul some filthy peoples sh**e!

I contacted previous tenant to pick up their food and bins waste, the dirtbag blocked me and isn't picking my call. 

Spent 8 hours in the house, cleaning. Btw I wasn't cleaning alone. Professional cleaner (paid) commented that this house cannot be cleaned in a day, its years of neglect.

I need advice.  What is the best course of action? I have already emailed LL. But I don't want him to just shrug, thinking its between tenants! Also 8 hours of payment made, and house is not even half away cleanliness standard of what I wanted. I was expecting 3 hours of cleaner work and I am out of pocket of that money.

 God knows if council will take the mixed bins and not charge me for that.

getmore4less

What was it like when you viewed it?

Murphybear

Make 100% sure that the inventory reflects the state of the place.  Check absolutely everything and take lots of photos. 

teachfast

I would video with a commentary if I were you.

MovingForwards

Welcome to the wonderful world of renting.

Hope you photographed and video'd everything before cleaning, as that's the standard you have to return the property to the LL when you move out.

Norman_Castle

The previous tenant is nothing to do with you, this is between you and the landlord.

AdrianC

Clean it. Then you don't have to when you move out.

GDB2222

Complain to the landlord. 

theartfullodger

Just make sure it's returned when you leave likewise filthy.  And take loads of (high definition)photos, ideally date-stamped, ideally with a witness 

And when you leave, photos (low definition) likewise.

HampshireH

How did you have the previous tenants number?

The landlord needs to resolve this with assistance of letting agent if you had one and they use them for maintenance etc.

Make sure you video/photographed everything before you started cleaning.

Personally I would have called them round or not taken the keys till it was ready, if I had been told it would be empty and cleaned.

Is it furnished? You say it has a dirty mattress. If so make sure that before you throw this away you have permission to dispose and not replace.

SMR710

Sorry for your predicament. However, you note that you didn't see any if this when you viewed. I can understand not seeing the damp that's behind furniture or in cupboards, but surely you saw the state of the bathroom & shower? And the cobwebs / dust, you must have seen these? If tye House was left in such an appalling state,  I can't imagine it was clean when you viewed it.