Wear and tear or?

Landlord Discussion
1

Just had a tenant move out. My understanding is they should leave a place as they found it. Immaculate when she got it, nows a dirty tip, belongings everywhere (which I can deal with no problem) looked like it hadnt been hoovered or cleaned in over a year. I expect a minimum of at least having hoovered before leaving, after which the cleaner takes @2 hours but this time took 2 people 3 hours = 6 hours. Ive never had anyone leave lots of stains on a quite new carpet. A professional washer has not got rid of them. She did advise me of of one accident which i sent a professional steam remover during the tenancy which she had paid for @£50. But now do i put the stains down to wear and tear or bill her, as well as the excess to normal cleaning I would’ve expected? The new tenant is complaining about the stains in the carpet.

Advice pls? She is due to receive her deposit back today.

2

The ‘leave it as they found it’ idea may be custom and practice, but it has no inherent legal basis. The requirements must be set in the tenancy agreement, so you should check what yours says.

3

If you did an inventory with photos and the tenancy agreement is clear on how they should leave it, then you should be able to claim
Otherwise I suspect there’s no chance
You can always withhold the part of the deposit under dispute and pay the rest, but I wouldn’t consider serious stains to be fair wear and tear

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