To NOT want to clean my house in order to sell it

[NorksAreMessy]

we have been renting since November. We thought it was a long let, but in January, our landlord decided to put the house on the market, having failed to sell it last year. Three months, we had been here, and now who knows what will happen.
There are several problems with the house. The shower has never worked, the front door glass is cracked and could easily be pushed in or shatter, the central heating is rubbish, the under sink pipe is wrongly comnected..loads and loads of other problems NONE of which have been solved, despite phoning the agent LOADS of times.

We now have a letter saying that before we have a viewing, we should clean the windows, clear crumbs off the counters, empty bins, not feed the cat smelly food etc etc etc.

I am a bit pissed off about this, but I thought the MN jury could advise me. Obv. I will clean to a certain level, out of courtesy, but windows? Normal children's nonsense?

They are trying to sell our home out from under us, and want us to help, yet will do nothing to make the house gorgeous for us, or potential buyer.

AIBU?

I lol too Tyler. HA are falling over themselves to give people decent, affordable housing doncha' know?

I feel like I need to stand up for (some) LLs here. Mine is lovely. Yes he takes awhile to get things sorted but he was very understanding at the beginning of our tenancy with our many late payments . He has also turned a blind eye to us breaking the no pets clause, painting and decorating etc to our taste and held our rent for five years apart from a minor increase a couple of years ago which he phased in over a year for us so it wasn't a shock for us. I know our deposit isn't in a deposit scheme thing but wouldn't dream of trying to use that against him when we move.

I live in London and yes, my deposit is more than a mortgage but I don't have a deposit and my LL needs to make money. I also don't have to worry about maintaining the property. All in all we're happy renting. But I would be devastated at being served notice - I feel that this is my home even though it is not my property.

Not deposit, rent obviously.

If you moved in over 5 years ago your deposit didn't have to be placed in a scheme springbokscantjump

v late to this thread, but what a cheek. i'd do my normal wipe down counters /close loo/cleaning but nothing else.

i've been in the same situation and the agents kept telling me not to bother as "they know it's tenanted". which is apparently estate agent code for "a fucking cess pit". lots of the viewers said "oh it's much cleaner than i expected". erm, WTF were they expecting, I'd like to know?

OP, I'd be inclined to say "terribly sorry, too busy looking for a new home to do extra cleaning. If you'd like to send a professional cleaner in before viewings then we'd probably be able to accommodate that".

Our last landlords were nice people but incompetent landlords. They never serviced the boiler, did no maintenance and didn't do an inspection in the 4 years we lived there. They were fortunate that we were good tenants who looked after the place. I was however grateful that they left us alone, didn't put the rent up and would pay when I got plumbers/dynorod etc in. Some friends of ours moved into a place a few years ago with a 6 month initial term and were immediately served notice, landlord only wanted tenants for 6 months but was too spineless to be upfront about it.

I'm not a mean or nasty person nor am I a bad tenant which is why my neighbours bought the house and are renting it to us.

I never said they are ripping me off. I said that I am paying the going rate which more than covers the cost of his mortgage. I said that it is unfair - the current SYSTEM is unfair not my landlord. He wouldn't buy to let if he wasn't going to make money- I do understand this.

With regards to the previous landlord, I did not take him to court for the 3x my deposit even though I was advised to by the homeless charity shelter. This is because I do not think that it is fair or morally 'right'. Shelter also advised me to refuse to let anyone come round for viewings as I had a legal right to quiet enjoyment which overrules any clause about access or viewings in the tenancy agreement.

I know that my landlord didn't protect my deposit because he didn't know that he had to and not because he was trying to rip me off. However I was advised by Shelter to not inform him of this requirement and to use this as security.

At the end of the day my landlord sat across the table knowing that I was moving miles away and moving schools if only I knew that I would be in the home for a good few years. He looked me in the eyes and promised this- but my lettings agent said that its standard to renew every year so we had a 12 month tenancy. When I moved in all of my neighbours knew that he was planning to sell pretty quickly once the market picked up.

I moved into my "unfurnished" home to a house full of horrible furniture, kitchen cupboards full of stale food, and all his mum's cutlery and crockery.

I don't know why I am defending myself really I know that I did what I should and acted on the advice of Shelter and lots of other normal people.

Sorry for hijack but some of you don't know what it is like to be at the mercy of your landlord.

OP you say "you thought it was a long let", but was anything actually put in writing? You need to reread the tenancy agreement and check what was actually agreed. And does the tenancy agreement say you have to allow viewings? Shouldn't you have the right to privacy etc while you are paying full rent?
Another thing - do you really want to stay in such a badly maintained house? Perhaps you can find somewhere much nicer, with a better landlord.
As for the cleaning - do all the "normal" cleaning you would normally do (or not!) but nothing beyond that. Certainly not windows etc. And no harm in taping over the broken glass with lots of REALLY thick black gaffer tape. For safety reasons of course!

I've got a pal who has moved into three properties in a row with the assurance of a long let. In each, about three months in, she's been given notice and it's been obvious that this was the intention all along. Moving is so expensive and disruptive.

I'm an (accidental) landlord and a tenant and can see both sides. But many landlords just don't follow the law. I'm sure in this situation the OP is allowed to stay till the end of her tenancy if it is 6 or 12 months and should be served notice. If it is a rolling tenancy then they should get 40 days notice minimum. OP- I would find out your rights and use this in your negotiations.

We had a landlord who agreed a new tenancy with us, then unexpectedly gave us notice on New Years Eve (at 6pm! by email!). He then proceeded to do all the repairs I had been requesting for months in the last three weeks of the tenancy and started ringing us three times a day. We wanted to keep things on good terms but in retrospect he is a nutter who did not follow any of the law. (No formal notice, told me I should have watered the garden for 15 mins a day every evening between 6 and 7pm, generally made our lives hell). I wish I'd stood up for myself and taken him to tribunal but we had a small baby and ended up homeless for 6 weeks.

Oooh, Kiwi I feel guilty grumbling now. Doing a bit of tidying is nothing compared to that bollox.

DH ridiculously happy at the thoight of a new house and/or bargaining chip and is doing 'Cumbrian dancing' in the bedroom (!)
DS excited about the prospect of a house in the middle of nowhere so he can have a drum kit.
This has really brought things to sharp focus. I am a bit scared that DH has gone off and got excited. I still like the house we live in now

OP- have you checked out this info:

england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/eviction/eviction_of_private_tenants/eviction_procedures/assured_shorthold_tenants

If you are on a fixed term lease they cannot kick you out just cos they want to sell.

sugarpastefrog i have copied your entire post to read when I am a bit less tipsy. Thank you

Bloody marys!
Bloody landlord!

Bloody hell, they were a bit strong

Thanks Norks. I'm almost over it now. In Feb we moved into our own home. I cannot explain how happy it has made me after 4 moves in two years.

I hope you find somewhere better. Just don't let him push you around.

If anybody is still watching, I would like to update...
...we decided that we were pissed off with lack of response from LL, culminating in having to tidy his house to sell it for him.

We have given notice and have put deposit on gorgeous house... Better luck this time (fingers crossed) (legs crossed)

Sounds like a much better idea, I hope this time it works out better!

Thanks pelvic.
It is funny how relief washes over you when you make a decision of any sort.
I am quite excited, DESPITE the HUGE removal cost, deposit, box packing etc that I will be doing in the next few weeks.

Luckily I know I have MN to support me.

I do womder what will happen now with the house. Do you think the LL will make all the repairs he should do to sell the house?