UK Landlord Forum / Life

The tenant is due to leave in a week, as stated in the contract a professional clean including carpets needs to be completed. The tenant is asking the landlord to pay for this then take the money from their deposit. Thoughts please?

It's not the way it's done.  Tenants move out, it's not clean, landlord gets cleaners in and deduct from deposit.

I would not agreed to that. If it states the tenant is responsible then it should be arranged by them. If not, the landlord should arrange it once the tenant has moved and then deduct the money from the deposit to pay for the cleaning. Ensuring they have before and after photos to show how it was left by tenant and the extent of the clean plus an invoice/receipt from the clean will be wise to keep in case the tenant disputes the deduction.

I don't think you can enforce a professional clean. If the Tenant's job was a Cleaner, then them doing it could be considered professional, obviously. Professional is often read as it being done by a professional... as in someone who has that job and takes payment for it... but should anyone truly complain if the cleaning is done in an professional manner? I am not sure. I think this whole area is fraught with subjectivity... and is open for misdeeds... for example, I know (for sure) that a Landlord who inspects a property at the end of a tenancy and finds out the Tenant has left it immaculate / spotless, won't go engaging that professional (paid) company or person to clean it again... they just won't. They'll pocket that mandatory fee if it was to come from them. In this case, though, it appears like the Landlord is saying the Tenant must pay so that angle isn't there. As others have said - if that's not in dispute (it appears here the Tenant is not saying it should not be cleaned at all - but is just querying the source of the funds for that) then you stand fast and don't allow the Deposit to be dipped into - it might be needed for other rectification.

I moved away from this kind of clause in my AST... I am trying (as best I can) to have clauses in there that are black-and-white and don't rely on subjective appraisals of what is clean and what is not. I find I still have to use the words "acceptable" and "reasonable" a lot. And, after all that... I've genuinely found that I clean better than most professionals - despite me not having a fancy machine for the carpets (which I sometimes do engage, and especially so if there has been pets resident).