UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi guys, hoping somewhere out there could have some helpful info on the situation I find myself in. I have recently moved out of a property, which I vacated early due to a health situation in the family (paid full rent despite not being in the flat for a month). The flat was cleaned to the standard I found it in originally, but clearly at the end of the month (at which time the landlord took the photos), a significant amount of dust had built up.
At this point the landlord informed me they had paid a professional cleaner to deep clean which, in theory, I had no issue with. Except the invoice listed deep cleaning of the mattresses, curtains and supplying cleaning products. £400 for services that weren't necessary and/or were extras. I would gladly pay for a general deep clean, but the additional services were never mentioned in the tenancy agreement.
The landlord insists on full payment of the fee and is withholding the deposit until that is done.
Does anyone have any tips on how to proceed?
Many thanks.

How big was the property?

One of my tenants paid for a professional clean last year - he didn't need to as its only a tiny studio and would have taken him an hour to clean.

Instead, he paid for the clean and was charged £300 (which did not included mattresses and curtains) - in fact, the cleaners did a pretty poor job of it.

In your situation, you'd have had photos at the start of the Tenancy and also at the end - how did they differ? Im betting they didn't much.

Your ex-landlord is taking the $%^&

Assuming he did register your Deposit via the Deposit Protection Scheme you should reject his claim and refuse to pay anything.

It's then up to him to provide the proof on the condition of each element of his "claim"

Thanks for your response! The property is essentially a one bed flat with a living room. At the time of moving in the condition was decent, but so many issues arose that the landlord was forced to undertake multiple renovations (including repainting, which was then not adequately cleaned).

I shall certainly follow your advice, and will reject his claim. I was just primarily worried about any lengthy legal disputes, as I do not have time to spare.

Any dispute will add time, and if you don't have weeks or months "spare" and need the rest of the deposit, you might be forced to agree to the deduction to get the rest of your money back.
That's obviously not fair, but deposit disputes can take time.

Quote from: jpkeates on October 06, 2024, 03:25:28 PMyou might be forced to agree to the deduction to get the rest of your money back.

£400 would represent a pretty large chunk of the deposit on a one bed flat in these parts so it might be worth the wait.

First you look at the Terms of the Tenancy Agreement, any terms that cost you more money need to be made prominent at the outset.

Then you look whether the Terms comply with the law.

The deposit should have been protected in an authorised deposit protection scheme and you needed to be given the Prescribed Information relating to that deposit within 30 days of paying the deposit.

It is easy to dispute a claim via the free ADR service, but check whether the decision is binding upon you or whether you want the issue to be handled by the County Court.

So if the Landlord did not carry out a joint inspection before and after then that is grounds to reject the allegations.

After the first inspection an inventory should have been provided showing defects and you should have been given an opportunity to sign that.  No inventory is likely to mean no claim.

If they wanted to carry out a "deep clean" then they needed to advise you of the cost and give you an opportunity to have your own contractors quote and/or do the work or do the work yourself.

The standard for a claim is simple, the property should be returned in the same or better state than it was in when it was let to you. So many Landlords seem to think the deposit is a decoration fund.

The standard for any damages is not only based on the condition when you let it but the age of the product.  So any fixture or fitting that needed to be replaced would be written off over a maximum of 6 years.  They would be required to provide receipts for everything and you can ask the adjudicator to compel them to provide such receipts.

This is a time to check the T's have been crossed and the I's dotted in regard to the deposit protection,  any valid defect can get you a claim of at least 1x the deposit.  The most common mistake I come across is a Tenancy agreement that includes a partial PI and especially one for the wrong company.  For example the Tenancy says it is protected at the TDS but it has actually been protected with the DPS.

The PI is defined here

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2007/797/article/2/made

Quote from: Ray Clark on October 06, 2024, 02:13:56 PMHi guys, hoping somewhere out there could have some helpful info on the situation I find myself in. I have recently moved out of a property, which I vacated early due to a health situation in the family (paid full rent despite not being in the flat for a month). The flat was cleaned to the standard I found it in originally, but clearly at the end of the month (at which time the landlord took the photos), a significant amount of dust had built up.
At this point the landlord informed me they had paid a professional cleaner to deep clean which, in theory, I had no issue with. Except the invoice listed deep cleaning of the mattresses, curtains and supplying cleaning products. £400 for services that weren't necessary and/or were extras. I would gladly pay for a general deep clean, but the additional services were never mentioned in the tenancy agreement.
The landlord insists on full payment of the fee and is withholding the deposit until that is done.
Does anyone have any tips on how to proceed?
Many thanks.