Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is looking to charge and take some of the original deposit money because they say it is not clean enough.
Friends say take photographs and go to the small claims court to retrieve money. But it might be difficult to show cleanliness with photographs unless you are a professional?
Any suggestions as to the best course of action. He still has a few days access to the flat.
Arrange a meeting at the flat with the landlord. Say that you want to go through the whole property with him listing areas or items that need cleaning. Clean them. Next time photograph and/or video every damned thing before you move in. My daughter had the landlord claiming that she'd 'irreparably damaged' the big patio doors. But she'd photographed the doors and everything else before she'd moved in and got the pictures signed and dated by a solicitor (another solicitor; she's one). The landlord suddenly shut up and paid the deposit back. Landlords regard deposits as theirs by right, and will always try it on.
Bill
First thing I do as a landlord when tenants move out is clean and tidy anyway, it's part of the job. Unless there's feaces littering the floor, tiles ripped off the walls, and holes burnt in the carpets, he's taking the ipss.
JGH
our nextdoor neighbours had contract cleaners in before they finally moved out. the new owners wanted some money back becaue the house wasn't clean. That tells you the sort of new neighbours we have - bonfire last night so we couldn't sit out in the garden is another example.
People often knock the landlords but tenants sometimes try to pull a fast one and cleaning companies don't always do things well. The last time I had a change of tenants the place wasn't clean enough. Tenants showed me their receipt as proof that it had been done so I asked them to get the cleaner back to do a proper job. Cleaner moaned but came back and improved things into the "barely adequate" category.
There are some honest and some dishonest ones. Rather like aerial fitters.
Or retired sound men.
Bill
Best course to start with as there needs to be a definition of "clean". Light switches that haven't had a wipe over for a year or so and are a bit grubby some might consider "clean", to others they would be "unclean".
In this context the person leaving the property might not even notice grubby switches as they will have become grubby very slowly and they won't notice how grubby they really are. Similar on doors edges where fingers may pull them to a bit shut rather than use the handles. Handles are like light switches...
In article , Dave Smith scribeth thus
This sadly is all to common a tactic to keep some or all of the rental deposit which should have been placed, if taken, in a government backed scheme like the Deposit Protection Service where you can easily dispute tactics like these.
If he has got it and hasn't placed it in that perhaps a call to the CTB citizens advice, would be in order AFAIK its now an offence to do otherwise.
And taking as many pix as you like and you keeping copies and giving them to the agency is also a very good idea....
In message , at 16:44:06 on Mon, 1 Jul 2013, Dave Smith remarked:
Raise a claim with the Deposit Scheme, who will require the LL to produce photographic evidence of the difference in condition.
Not all retired men are sound, as you know.
It's a civil offense offering compensation to the "victim".
You have to pursue it yourself, no authority will do it for you.
and because the remedy is compensation it can't be actioned in the small claims court
though they will not be accepted unless they have in vision date stamps - like that actually proves anything :-(
The last tenancy handover I managed had photos printed, signed and dated by the tenant and the agent as part of the inventory.
Owain
Some years ago when my son moved out of his first rented appartment after uni my wife and I drove 260 miles ( return) and spent the rest of the day cleaning including the cooker
The landlord's agent refused to refund the deposit because "The cooker wasn't clean" . When we protested that his mother had come and cleaned the cooker personally they said prior to him taking the tenancy the cooker had been professionally cleaned and they expected the property handing back in the same (pristine) condition it was before the tenancy started.
ISTM this is unreasonable. Given say a twelve months tenancy, getting
12 months rent is self evidently compensation enough if the property meets ordinary the ordinary standard of British cleanliness when handed back if only for the reason that some wear and tear must be accepted, an ordinary domestic electric cooker cannot be made to last in perpetuity.DerekG Gordon Mac Shite-Features is a "grate" economist.
I.E. He stinks.
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