Moved out of rental early, unfortunately the landlord was not happy with the condition of the property when we moved out. To be absolutely truthful, I did slip up in some areas and my cleaning was not as tip top as it might have been BUT, it was at least as clean as we found it and I had cleaned some absolute filth that had not been detailed on the inventory. Anyhow, she wants it left pristine, so I’m organising an end of tenancy clean, not much else I can do. She clearly has double standards 
The most annoying thing is that cat has damaged carpet on bottom stair. Her demand if the carpet cannot be matched, that we replace carpet on stairs and landing AND both bedrooms. This surely is not reasonable. She says they need to match. They don’t. The property has cheap and frankly crappy carpets.
Any advice?
have you gone to a carpet shop and tried to match ? stair carpets can be easily repaired ,just one tread and a riser You will not see the join… AND the bedrooms will not be enforceable
Will try. I will absolutely refuse the recarpet bedrooms. There are threshold bars, they are completely separate rooms. I do think she’s just trying to spin things out now for as long as, just to be awkward. The cleaner I have asked to go and clean called her today about gaining access. Landlord says on holiday till 9th and cleaner can call her then to arrange. Didn’t even want to get something in the diary for when she’s back. And instructed the cleaner to call her. Feeling bad for the cleaner now.
In law a landlord cannot have betterment
If you took your case with adjudication she would not be able to claim for anything more than the one step and it may be argued it was fair wear and tear or she would have to include the depreciation over time
I agree with Colin. repair of carpets is a really cheap solution. You can not even tell where they repair it
It totally disgusts me that some Landlords ask for extortionate rent for tiny flats and that some of those I have viewed are in undesirable areas and unkept, I believe all landlords have tried to cash in on and taken advantage of the covid situation Just total greed ! Tell her to get lost.
As said, if its wear and tear, then you have no obligation. If youve damaged it beyond repair then the landlord can charge the original cost less depreciation for its age, but not the stairs landing and bedrooms. Only what would be reasonable, eg just stairs.
Thanks all for advice. So how do I go about things, just try to get her to agree to reasonable way forward and stand my ground? Obviously she is in position of power due to deposit
She is not in a position of power
Tell her you disagree and want to dispute the matter with the body with whom your deposit is registered with
Who is your deposit registered with?
By definition the deposit is your money and the onus is on her to prove what she is alleging
The point of the deposit schemes is to take away the landlords ability to unilaterally deduct from the deposit. If she won’t be reasonable, just decline all the requests for the deduction via the scheme portal and ask for the ADR.
That’s really helpful. I have checked this out and will dispute if necessary. I am happy with fair and reasonable but won’t have her take the piss.
https://www.therentersguide.co.uk
Tessa S has started this website for tenants
It’s free for tenants
It sounds like you didn’t take great care of the property, regardless of what it was like when you moved in. I think it is reasonable to ask that the carpets match, if they already did beforehand, and to take the cost of that from your deposit.
The property should be left in such condition that it can immediately be let again.
We took care of the property and on balance left it cleaner than we found it. It is absolutely in a good state that it could be let immediately.
You said your cat ruined a carpet and that you left the flat cleaned to a good domestic standard. That isn’t good enough unfortunately.
Having said that, it does sound like your landlord and yourself both made some basic mistakes at the start of the tenancy. Always get an independent inventory, with photos and describe the condition of everything.
Had the place been handed over to us having had a professional clean, and the expectation set that we needed a professional clean to hand it back, then fair enough. I’m not disputing the damage to the carpet needs to be rectified, but I’m not recarpeting half a house which has carpets that are probably 15 years old. This was my first time renting and hopefully I’ll never have to go back to it.
Is there an inventory showing the state of the property? You should have been asked to sign agreement as to the level of cleanliness. Also your own photos of the dirt you had to clean up will count as evidence.
There is, but the pictures are not equivalent. I didn’t even think to take pics of what I had cleaned. Wished I hadn’t bothered cleaning it tbh
I don’t think it’s fair at all to expect that the bedroom carpets match. The landing, yes.
An amount should be deducted for the age of the carpet at the end of the tenancy, and set against the expected lifetime of a carpet (so, if you’ve been there 4 years, it was 2 years old when you moved in, and the lifetime is assumed to be 10 years (a high estimate) you would at most have to pay 40% of the supply and refitting costs for the carpet.
I put new carpets in three rooms before my last tenancy, which was only 10 months long. They looked after the place beautifully but ripped a bit of the carpet maybe 3 inches long, probably because of sliding a bed over a bump under the carpet. I repaired it and charged them £50 as it will probably now not last as long as it would have done, which seems more than fair.
That sounds very fair. I’m not trying to get away with anything, just to be treated fairly. I genuinely believe the carpets are as old as the house, so it feels as though we are being exploited to replace the carpets.
Why do you think ALL landlords have tried to cash in on the covid situation?