Landlord claim for mattress protector - how best to argue?

tornado99

I wonder what motivates agencies to behave like this? It's hard to believe the effort they put in to the claims is really worth it from a business perspective.

I once had an agency fight hard for a "light cleaning charge" of £12, even though I'd left the room immaculate. I can't imagine they could get a cleaner to even show up for such a paltry amount.

canaldumidi

As a landlord I simply expect that there will be certain expenses when tenant change-over occurs. It's one reason for tryiing to keep tenants happy and in situ for as long as possible (assuming the rent is paid, the place not obviously trashed, and the neighbours are not complaining).

Paint touch ups, cleaning by myself or bought in, picture holes in walls filled in, whatever - it's part of normal maintenance. Deposit deductions are for obvious damage not minor scuffs or just.... life in your home (by which I mean the tenant's home).

Mattress protector? Just buy a new one and replace it at same time as changing the locks which also gets done for every new tenant. Who knows who the last tenant gave keys to?

Norman_Castle

Was it new at the start of your tenancy and how much are they claiming for it?

newsgroupmonkey_

canaldumidi said:

As a landlord I simply expect that there will be certain expenses when tenant change-over occurs. It's one reason for tryiing to keep tenants happy and in situ for as long as possible (assuming the rent is paid, the place not obviously trashed, and the neighbours are not complaining).

Paint touch ups, cleaning by myself or bought in, picture holes in walls filled in, whatever - it's part of normal maintenance. Deposit deductions are for obvious damage not minor scuffs or just.... life in your home (by which I mean the tenant's home).

Mattress protector? Just buy a new one and replace it at same time as changing the locks which also gets done for every new tenant. Who knows who the last tenant gave keys to?

This is where I'm at.

I've sat at both ends. As a tenant, getting a deposit returned is super stressful when there's an agency involved.

I'm not talking about leaving a place as an absolute pigsty, but 2 or 3 times we moved out at least a couple of weeks before the actual tenancy end date. In the case of the last one, over a month as we were buying and wanted some wiggle room as the new place needed tarting up.

I've genuinely seen people on this forum being charged hours and hours of cleaning time, because some dust settled.

From a LL point of view, dust is fine. Dirt is not.