Cleaning after plastering/decorating - who should be paying?

4everDelayed

Hi all,

My very first post, so hoping it goes well!

My partner, her daughter and I have been living in our current rented home since last September through OpenRent.

We've had a really good relationship with our landlord thus far and he's dealt with any issues promptly and without issue, but now we're heading for our first dispute and I was hoping for some advice.

Over the winter we noticed some damp in the corner of the house and the landlord decided to get the walls damp proofed. Whilst it would inconvenience us and make around a third of the house unusable for the duration, we didn't oppose this and accepted £100 a week off the rent for the inconvenience of losing access to the main two rooms we live our lives in for a few weeks.

The issue that has emerged is who is going to pay for cleaning the place once the work is done. The landlord originally agreed to pay for this, but after we sought quotes, all of which have been in the £200-300 range, he's now saying he only think it needs a hoover and a mop, despite the professionals all saying it's going to be a big job getting all the dust and mess gone, and is only willing to contribute the £40 he thinks it should cost and that we should pay the rest as he's already given us money for the inconvenience.

So, where do we stand? In my view, if we returned the house to him in its current state, he would charge us heavily for the cost of cleaning, so it's his responsibility to get it up to the standard it was in when we moved in as he initiated these works, but it would be nice to have something we can throw at him from a legal sense.

Emmia

How keen are you not to move again?

Edit: Throwing things at your landlord in a legal sense is likely to get you your S.21 sooner rather than later, and they may drag their feet a bit on doing other fixes...

anselld

Really, the workmen should have left it in a reasonable clean state.  However it costs you nothing but some time and effort to do the cleaning so would be best to do it rather than get into dispute when the Landlord has already been reasonable on rent etc.  A bit of give and take.

Myci85

Just how bad have the workmen left it? Obviously the professional cleaners are going to tell you it's a big job, they're justifying their quotes being higher than you'd expect. 
When we had a new kitchen put in our rented house, the workmen hoovered up the worst of the mess, but we then did the rest, and as the room as empty for them to install, it wasn't too time consuming. 
There's a lot to be said for a landlord who you have a good relationship with and who gets work done when needed. A lot don't. So it might be worth saving the relationship if you plan to live there for a while. 

sheramber

Some landlords would have ignored the damp.

H e got it dealt with, gave you £100 a week for the inconvenience. Take the £40 and get your hoover and mop out or engage a local cleaning lady to clean it.
 Why does it need a professional company when the rooms had been lived in up until then?

Did you employ a professional company to clean your house or did you do it yourself?

GDB2222

I’m not sure what a cleaning firm charges per hour in your area, but round here it’s £50 per hour for one off jobs. So, your £200 quote equates to maybe 4 hours work. Your landlord is offering you £10 per hour, tax free. You can watch Netflix while doing the work. 

This is really an argument not worth having. That’s even if you don’t like the property, and intend to move out soon. If you want to stay, then it would be bananas to sour the relationship with your landlord over something so small.

Tabieth

I agree with the consensus. The landlord sounds like a good one and I don’t think this is worth making a fuss over. He quickly fixed the damp problem and gave a rent reduction whilst works happened. I certainly wouldn’t be throwing anything thin from a legal sense!

(And the trades should leave the place in a reasonable state afterwards. It will probably need a clean but they should be cleaning the worst of their mess up themselves.) 

RHemmings

Just make sure that you keep evidence such as emails where he refuses to do the cleaning or pay a reasonable amount for it. That way if there is a deposit dispute later on, you can provide the deposit scheme with the evidence. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Advise landlord to find the source of damp rather than paying thousands for unnecessary work and then you won't have to clean, with all the money saved he might even keep that £100 off the rent offer. 

Proposed work won't solve the problem, only hide it (which doesn't really affect you as it's not your property) but if the source of damp is cured then there won't be any tidying up from all the unnecessary plastering.

saajan_12

Why would he be paying you to find someone? If he undertakes to do work, then that includes getting the property back into a reasonably clean and livable position. There is no specific regulation saying exactly who's cleanliness standard it has to meet. If he gets the tradespeople to do it or employs a cleaner himself then there's no question of the amount and him cheaping out or you padding the estimate. 

Re the numbers, £200 does sound over egged if its just two rooms which are largely empty, even if there's construction dust. Can't imagine more than £20ph x 2-3 hours. I would recommend letting him sort it, but if you really want to control it, then I'd either take the £40 or negotiate it up to £60 and move on. 

sheramber

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Advise landlord to find the source of damp rather than paying thousands for unnecessary work and then you won't have to clean, with all the money saved he might even keep that £100 off the rent offer. 

Proposed work won't solve the problem, only hide it (which doesn't really affect you as it's not your property) but if the source of damp is cured then there won't be any tidying up from all the unnecessary plastering.

In my view, if we returned the house to him in its current state, he would charge us heavily for the cost of cleaning

Sounds like the work has been done.