Landlord charging for a deep clean

if they haven’t shown any pictures of a stain you’ve created they won’t be able to charge for this. It’s up to them to prove it wasn’t there before as well it’s not for you to defend.

honestly please stop stressing yourself just reply saying you don’t agree with charges an you’d like to go through arbitration scheme. I’d put £50 on you getting all your money back.

It sounds like there are many issues here, not just the cleaning, its grown to a trashed garden and worn out DIY - you have to wonder if the landlord has a point here.

The LL needs to provide evidence of his loss or financial cost. DPS generally come down on the side of the tenant if the LL is being unreasonable.

However, a valuable lesson to take from this, is to take photos of everything yourself, every single carpet stain, or chipped pain etc, or to thouroughly check an inventory and if anything is missed off, do not sign it until they have added the missing photos.

Regarding the actual cleaning, you should have probably checked it yourself before handing the keys back, just to be sure it was ok. You can't argue yourself , that it was fine, if you don't know that it was.

I think it depends what state it was in when you moved in. If it was spotless and ready to go, I’d pay for a deep clean. If not, absolutely not.
The rental we were in for 6 months asked for a professional deep clean. I said not a chance as it was filthy and I spent ages literally scrubbing banisters, walls, skirting boards, kitchen sides and cupboards etc when we moved in. I had kept photos to show them the state when we moved in. We left it a hell of a lot cleaner than when we moved in but not a chance I was paying for a professional clean!

Have you asked the landlord for a copy of the evidence and cost of the deep clean prior to you moving in? He shouldnt be charging you more then that (give or take a bit for inflation) if the property was otherwise left in good order.

And your replies are sketchy, vague and abstract.

Not surprising given you didn’t see the property post clean.

What was the improvement?

If it removes without leaving any damage / holes etc. then that should not be a problem.

If however it leaves screw holes et. then you could be charged for a handyman to make good.

Im always amazed that whenever we leave a rental property we are made to pay for a professional clean but when we move into a rental property they are always filthy.
Without fail.

And landlords wonder why they are hated.

Right. And when I have left, I have made sure there were no cobwebs behind radiators, piles of dirt under mats, scrunched up packets under mattresses, gunk in the sink, and other things I have met with when moving in.

Another example - we made a subtle improvement to the property and this has now worn down but it still works as
intended. It’s not a permanent improvement and can be removed without any damage in a few seconds

what is this subtle improvement and if worn down and only seconds to remove… why didn’t you?

If you dispute it, the landlord will have to provide evidence of the state it was in when you took the lease. If they can't evidence that, they won't win.

Garden is more tricky, Shelters advice is that "when you move out it should be in a similar state to when you moved in"

You'll just have to wait and see what the DPS say. How long were you in the property? If only a year, professional carpet cleaning probably won't be expected, but several years and it might be.

The schemes are very fair in my experience, so they will award fair costs if they find in the landlord's favour, not necessarily what he has asked for.

Even 'professional standard' doesn't hold water if it wasn't that standard when you moved in. You only have to leave it as you found it. Which is why you need to have your own record of entry and exit conditions. And don't sign an inventory which states that it's 'very clean' etc if it's not!

Presumably before you moved in there had been rain and high winds? But the garden had been cared for so that when you moved in it wasn’t damaged **

There is stuff in there about gardens too.

I agree on carpets, but if the OPs agreement required a "professional standard" and the landlord has a recipe showing that was done prior to their moving in, then if the OP has done less than that, they could well have to pay.

You are of course correct that many landlords took, and pocketed the cleaning money, hence that is now not permitted.

Many EoT cleans don't include carpet cleaning as standard. It's an extra. And you're still only expected to leave it as you found it.

If the carpets are deemed to be at the end of their lifespan, I would very much dispute any cleaning charge for them, regardless as to whether they'd been done before due to the wear and tear clause.

I don't need to use any fingers to count how many of the rentals I've lived in were professionally cleaned before I moved in.

The place should have left as a deep clean.
When I moved out of my last rental years ago, there was a list, oven, washing machine, dishwasher, including detergent drawers, skirting boards etc.
It doesn't sound like you left it as you found it.