I rented a studio in student accomodation for a year up until last month. They want to deduct £45 from my deposit for professional cleaning and when I asked why they replied with this email. Should I dispute this?
£45 seems very cheap to me
It’s a full days work for me. I’d rather not throw away money if I can help it, you know? I know there was something introduced a few years ago that said something like landlords can’t charge for unwarranted professional cleaning and it feels like this is unwarranted
I suppose what is deemed clean is in the eye of the beholder . Everyone will have a different idea of what is clean
Hi
They can’t have automatic fees but can charge for the cost of bringing the clean up to a professional standard (which could have been done by you without paying). Of course clean means different things to different people and the fact they said it was clean may mean that the deposit protection would side with you. The burden of proof is on the landlord to evidence the clean you did was not of a professional standard so for £45 they may feel it isn’t worth the hassle.
Landlords cannot insist that a paid for service is used for a ‘professional’ clean. I’ve dropped similar wording from my tenancy agreement some years ago. Deposit protection schemes will side with the tenant on this. Accommodation needs to be left in a clean condition - that means all surfaces, furniture, fixtures and fittings - and the onus is on the landlord to show why the standard of cleaning is not acceptable.