Hi,
I am looking for advice. My landlord has charge me £225 for the sofa which as shown in the inventory report a small stain on the sofa. I was wondering is that fair or I should raise a dispute.
Below is part of the email I received.
If you have any dispute about the charges below, you must communicate your comments to our office in writing within 72 hours.
£225 - furniture damage (sofa)
£200 - cleaning charge (kitchen, bathrooms, living area)
If those are the only issues I think it is expensive.
£200 for the sofa is ridiculous if that is all.
I got my mother’s arm chair washed the other weak. It was £50.
If he is getting a professional cleaner, though, they will charge a fixed price which explains the expense vs the amount of work
Can you go back and do it yourself?
This is very picky from the landlord, and very expensive as A_A says. I would dispute it and offer £50 for the sofa stain and scratch. If they decline then I would ask for arbitration from the deposit scheme.
The pictures are too small for me, but “£225 - furniture damage (sofa)” seems ridiculous for a small stain. It might be covered by wear and tear, meaning the landlord couldn’t charge you anything for it. Do you think the cleaning charge is reasonable? It already looks very clean on the pictures (but can’t see it clearly). I would ask the landlord how they calculated these numbers. However, even if they have an invoice of a professional cleaner, that doesn’t mean that you have to pay for it if it was already reasonably clean. Offer what you think is reasonable (which might very well be £0 if you’ve cleaned and stains are wear&tear). If they don’t accept, use the arbitration of the deposit protection scheme and make sure you have pictures as evidence.
No, stains are not regularly found to be wear and tear, neither in court nor the arbitration schemes, especially if there were no stains on it before.
£250 may very well sound high but it depends whether the stain can be cleaned easily by a professional or if the fabric needs replacing. If neither of those work it needs to be replaced. Generally, a receipt for the works is enough for the arbitration service.
Without knowing if there were any circumstances (ie perhaps forced you to leave quickly?), It’s hard to have much sympathy when you’ve not even cleaned the white goods properly! If you didn’t want to clean yourself, you should’ve arranged a professional cleaner.
Agents will look for any possible reason to deduct from your deposit, and you’re the one that has to challenge it. And most people will just accept the deductions, so they’ll try it on as much as they can. Either dispute it (and provide evidence that the stain can be cleaned or the cushion/cover can be replaced for less!), or accept it as a “lesson learned” - and be mindful of the condition you leave the furnishings in with your next rental…
