Landlord is not happy with the standard of the professional cleaning company we hired, wants us to clean again or he'll hire a cleaning company and claim through TDS. Been renting for 7 years, no check in photos provided

We hired a professional cleaner to clean the property as an End of Tenancy Clean including carpets (unfurnished). We were happy with the state the cleaners had left the property in, after all we have a different view to a Landlord. We then let the Landlord know the next day, both hard copy and email including a receipt. The landlord completed their inspection 3 days later (well a colleague of his did) and then sent the email a further 3 days after that, so totalling 7 days post clean. He states the cleaning we did was not up to his standard nor does it match the inventory, with lots of photos of things unclean. There’s all the focus on unclean rather than actually ticking off the inventory. He proposes two options; we clean it ourselves or he hires a cleaning company and recoups the costs via the TDS.

We’ve acknowledged receipt of the email and that’s it currently, we’ve not responded to any queries or demands. We are not happy with either option as we do not feel we need to do either, we have gone above and beyond by hiring a professional cleaning company as landlords cannot actually include that in their contract anymore. We have requested a copy in the Check In Inventory (the one signed and commented on by ourselves), we have a copy of the unsigned one.

We’ve been renting at this particular property for coming up to 7 years. The first two years was through an Agency as an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (for two years), they have no photos to go with the Check In Inventory as they’ve changed their system. Our Landlord took over from them privately (4 years), just copied their contract, so it became a Periodic Tenancy, no photos of the place when he took over. We’ve not had any inspection from him in over three years.

We have bought a house and as soon as we knew it was all proceeding to exchange, we gave our one month notice, with dates of when we would be moving most of our smaller items (more presentable) and our larger furniture, then the final handing the keys back (day after the professional clean). Keys posted back through letterbox. We kept him informed of progress, giving him the opportunity to carry out inspections. We let him know the name of the company so he could check them online. He did not visit prior to the clean, his colleague (not a landlord) went to the property after we had moved out and posted the keys back through so we were not present, he then took his time to send a reply. The cleaning company had he looked actually says on their site that if the Landlord is not happy, providing he has done an inspection and let them know within 72 hours of the clean, they will come back to address particular areas of concern. We are in contact with the cleaning company to obtain a full breakdown of cleaning including what may not have been cleaned and why. For example we know the wall paint is waterbased so any attempt at cleaning takes the paint off.

Furthermore he states that he is having building work done to the whole property, but then says the cleanliness is not up to his standard for renting out. That conflicts each other as building work will require a clean after. He’ll need to do work on the place before it’s rented out as it needs updating.

Questions we have:
Our Landlord we think should have carried out a new Check In Inventory with photos when he took over surely?
Should our Landlord have carried our regular inspections?
Can he make us clean the property again? Or hire another company and charge us through TDS?
What can we do?

We’re thinking that if there’s no check In photographs anywhere and that we used a professional company that will go in our favour. Also that we’ve been there for 7 years, nothing was new when we moved in; kitchen, carpets, bathroom, wall paint, ceiling paint.

If he originally used a agency there may be pictures and just because he’s having building work done doesn’t mean the cleaning is not up to scratch.

Just dispute any unreasonable deductions he proposes with the deposit scheme and submit your evidence. That’s what they’re there for. It sounds to me like he has very little chance of a successful claim.

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An update:

Landlord has no photos from the start of the tenancy
Landlord has an incomplete inventory; only has the start of tenancy (with agent) one, so is basing everything on that
Landlord has no written information for inspections; nor has he done any in years.

We’ll contact the cleaning company we hired to see if they can come back to look at / explain to the Landlord why certain areas are not / cannot be done for example steam cleaning walls and ceilings when the paint is waterbased. Hopefully they’ll do a reduced rate and the Landlord can be present. We’ll just have to pay the cost.

I wouldnt bother if I were you. The landlord is being unreasonable after a tenancy of 7 years. He doesn’t have a hope in my view.

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Or do as david122 suggests. The burden of proof is on the landlord so if he doesn’t have sufficient evidence and you have receipt from professional cleaning company personally I don’t think he has any chance.
Seems a bit disingenuous of landlord if he’s had seven years rent from you.

Ask for your entire deposit back via email or text or some way that you can prove you’ve asked for it. Once you ask that they have 10 days to give it to you or you can open a dispute yourself with TDS.

If the LL gets there first and opens a dispute to TDS, make sure you respond to the case with what you’ve written here – and providing the receipt for the cleaning. Don’t not respond! You must respond or you won’t get it back.

Also make sure if the LL does go to TDS first that you ask for the remainder that he’s not disputing, you should get that pretty quick and all that will take longer is the disputed portion.

If there’s no complete inventory then you will get everything given back, especially since you were there for 7 years. Forget contacting the cleaners again, it’s just a waste of time.

It does take about 2-3 months from start to finish with TDS but worth the wait to get your deposit back. Ask for your full deposit back NOW don’t wait another day.

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