Okay so we were led to believe we were moving into a long term tenancy, with an initial 6 months to make sure we were both happy with the house and tenancy. However in month 11 we were told the landlord wished to sell the property to fund an extension on their new house.
And right before Christmas. So we have strived to find alternate accomodation while maintaining our girls can remain in the local schools whilst hosting the agent and prospective buyers every couple of days.
We managed to find somewhere and sent the estate agents our 1 month notice to quit with letters to follow that will prove all final bills will be settled and meter readings will be done as per our contract.
However a clause we had forgotten about was the carpet cleaning, obviously we signed contracts to say we would happily pay to have the carpets professionally cleaned using a specific company and stated a company name and mobile number.
Whilst i think its pretty bad of them to not only kick us out at Christmas with children knowing we had moved a fair distance to a new area believing it would be long term, i do understand we signed so are obligated to fulfill this
However when i try and find this company it appears they don’t exist, the mobile number returns no details, company name cant be found on google or facebook.
But when i checked the name of the person to do the work, i found him on facebook, again no company details but he is friends with the owner of the estate agent, so my question is, how do we know this is a professional clean? & not just her mate dave who will charge extortionate prices and arrive with a rug doctor…
Specifically says a company name, contact, and mobile number in the contract though, so legally we have to use this guy? (forgot to mention we have a dog and thats why the pet clause was added)
There is a mobile number in the contract, so not sure i can use that. Dont even let the dog upstairs and all the rooms are huge so this is going to be expensive. Had we of known it would be such a short term let we would never have agreed to it, but they have us by the b@lls. Guess Christmas is cancelled this year…
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 makes that clause in the contract invalid. As above, just clean it yourself to the same standard as when you moved in and if the agent complains, quote the Act at him.
get some quotes ,pictures etc I just had 2 rooms 15 x12 each and a big flight of stairs done for £80. This may be a case of the landlord having had enough of all the rules and regs, to use his money elsewhere
I agree with David, that clause cannot be enforced. Funny thing is, if he has put that clause in, the likelihood is that he can’t enforce anything at all in respect of cleaning.
Thank you, i got some quotes locally, average price seems to be about £180 to do the whole house, which is pretty good.
So if i go ahead with one of these, can the estate agents say, you didnt use our guy, so we’ve done it again and taken it out of your deposit?
Or am i covered with the deposit scheme if i can show evidence it was done by a reputable company, the £180 quote had loads of things included, scotch guard (whatever that is) spot stain removal (although i dont think we have any stains) antibacterial deodorising stuff and dry within 30 mins, so sounds fairly good.
Just don’t want to pay twice for the work and i still cant find the company they suggest, even looked on companies house, nothing registered. Just a name and mobile.
Personally, I would ask this individual you have in your contract to provide written quotes and provide VAT registration or other proof it is a company. If she doesn’t provide the info and a competitive quote then I’d clean the carpet myself and deny all deductions from the LL in the arbitration scheme.
Everything worked out well, we got quotes froma bunch of companies and picked a mid range one, he did a fantastic job and the letting agent didnt flag it wasnt their own guy on the final inspection… Thank you all for your advice xz
