Hi all, kindly advise.
A friend has ended his tenancy and cleaned up property to his best and I was there to help so I’m witness the house was left reasonably clean (also took pictures after this) but landlord is claiming money for a full house clean. Not sure this is right.
There are some repairs to make, basically everything that isn’t in the exact state as it was is being charged to tenant (which he has agreed to pay) but where is the allowance of fair wear and tear? What’s acceptable? For example, curtain holders are falling out of the wall, which One would assume is a question of the integrity of the wall into which the curtain holders are nailed?
It sounds like he is being overcharged. If you have pictures that show you’ve cleaned and it looks like it looked in the beginning, he shouldn’t pay for additional cleaning at all. If things are broken because he has destroyed them then he has to pay for it, but it has to be reasonable. Eg: If he has damaged a 5-year old wardrobe, he doesn’t have to pay for a brand new luxury one. Curtain holders falling out of the wall don’t sound like something a tenant has caused. Sounds like bad installation plus wear and tear, no charge.
The deposit should be protected in a deposit protection scheme. If the landlord is unreasonable, your friend can dispute it with the scheme.
If a LL uses a professional agency for the inventory it can be very picky both before and after. This can protect the tenant as much as the LL. The move out can get a little ridiculous sometimes with £10 here and £20 there. I would suggest you phone the agent or landlord and discuss/negotiate.
Can I just say that often things might look clean at a glance, so n photos but up close not at all. I had a tenabt leave lately and it was absolutely filthy on top of wardrobes, kitchen wall units, curtains were disgusting from 3 years of dust & cobwebs, windows absolutely filthy but from a distance. In photos you could not see these things. Tenants did a video swooping through the flat which yiu can’t possibly see how filthy it was. I however have taken still shots show the squaller. I do get that you feel you witnessed a clean flat but how well did you inspect it? On this occasion even the deep clean cleaner couldn’t even get flat clean in the 4 hours with two people!!! But it looked “reasonable” in a video at a distance done by tenant. It’s all down to how clean it was when it was let & if landlord can prove it I think.
If the TA says the property had a full professional clean at the start of the tenancy then the tenant has to get it done by an agency and produce a cleaning certificate. That is what I would expect as a landlord. If it just says it was clean, then legally you cannot be forced to do a professional clean and your clean up is sufficient so check your TA. It is a legal document so non negotiable in that case.