To want to move into a clean house? (Long, sorry!)

[dollyindub]

DS (5 months old) and I moved into a house rental over the weekend. It belongs to a work colleague and her siblings, was left to them when their elderly mum died.

I viewed it very quickly when the previous tenants were there - it was very awkward as they had been asked to leave due to non-payment of rent, they were embarrassed and so was I, as I was interrupting their day. The house looked a bit tired, decor wise and the tenants had their own furniture/rugs in place. I gave it some thought and decided not to take it as it was too expensive anyway.

Then my colleague called me and said they'd knock a little off the rent and waive a deposit as they knew I'd be a good tenant so I decided to move in.

My dad and brother came over to help me move but when we arrived, the house was filthy. There were pans in the cupboards that had been used and not washed up, the bathroom was dirty, all surfaces were thick with grime and the carpets were dirty and stained.

We spent 2 whole days cleaning and trying to get the stains off the carpets, and I've still not fully unpacked as I'm on my own again with my baby and the house just doesn't feel clean until the carpets are sorted out and cleaned professionally. He will be crawling soon and I don't feel comfortable with them in this state!

I'm in Dublin where rentals are crazily expensive, so don't really have many options. The rent as it is, is still stretching me to my limit.
I suppose IABU to have viewed it and then rented it in it's current decorative state, but I let a property in the UK, and it's always spotless when new tenants move in.

I was just gutted that my colleague, knowing that I am on my own with a young baby, could have cleaned or got cleaners in to make sure it was in a habitable state before we moved in - and didn't. I have bought a rug for the living room but the baby's room's carpet is truly disgusting. There was furniture covering the worst when I viewed.

I texted her to ask to have the 3 of the worst carpets cleaned but have not heard back. AIBU?

YANBU. any rented property by law should be cleaned and habitable for next tenant. and WHY the f do landlords put carpets in rental places?

God only knows whats in those carpets...and carpets are usually cream coloured, worst colour to have anyway.

as its a friend you may have to swallow your pride but normally there would be an invenory etc etc. Ive lived in some horrors with DC and ended up covering the entire carpets with rugs. looked really scruffy and a rug shop but was better than walking on dodgy carpets.

Did you take pictures before you cleaned?

Then my colleague called me and said they'd knock a little off the rent and waive a deposit as they knew I'd be a good tenant so I decided to move in.

There is your answer - if you wanted painted, fresh carpets, and new furniture you would be payingthrough the nose for it.

You havent had to find a deposit and a little elbow grease never hurt anyone.

Did you have any other option?

because I've bought houses that were minging and needed a lot of work to make them habitable and no one knocked off the price

You need to phone rather than text to get this sorted out.

Outline the state of the house, explain what you've already done, and say what you expect them to do as landlords.

Could you maybe ring these people (or another cleaning company, these are just the first that came up on google) and see how much it'd be for them to sort it for you?

They were very generous by allowing you to move in without a deposit. In your position, I'd hire a Vax and do it myself.

Thanks for your opinions. I suppose I felt disappointed as I've moved so many times over the past few years, and have had to clean, but never to this extent!
They want me to sign a tenancy agreement, which is fine, but it's a 2-way street! They also have responsibilities surely?
But yes I agree that they have been generous in waiving the deposit, but I'm still paying pretty much market value!
I'll hire a carpet cleaner and get on with it then!

Oh, that's not nice.

One thing if they'd said 'the house is filthy, but we don't need a deposit', but to do this without telling you is horrible.

I don't know what you do but I think they're not good friends.

I don't think you should just accept the level of dirt just because they offered to waive the deposit. You shouldn't be expected to clean to those extents when you've just moved in. Unless your friend expects that you can leave it in a similar state when you leave?
Maybe they didn't know how dirty it was? I'd phone and ask if they can at least go halves on getting it properly cleaned.

did they know? Their thieving previous tenants may have only just gone.

Well the carpets are red, green and a rather unidentifyable shade in DS's proposed room
I'm going to meet with her over the weekend. She's a bit flakey at work, but her heart's in the right place usually so hence the disappointment.
I don't think she checked it, and her own place is rather 'lived in' so maybe it didn't seem so bad to her. She didn't hang about though after seeing our faces!

Your colleagues waived the deposit and reduced the rent for their own benefit as much as yours. You were a quick solution to their own problem of previous bad tenants - this arrangement was mutually beneficial in my opinion so no you shouldn't have to clear up a load of mess with a small baby in tow.

Definitely don't agree with the 'what did you expect comments' - you expected to have a decent level of cleanliness - that's the landlord's responsibility regardless of previous tenants. I would definitely take before and after photos in case there are any future issues.

Good luck.

Obviously, ordinarily the tenants should have cleaned and the landlords or their agents would have come round and checked the state of the place on departure and deducted cleaning costs from the deposit if the place was so filthy that it needed to be professionally cleaned. In this case, the deposit was already used up against the arrears but if the landlords had rented to anyone else they would have had to clean and possibly redecorate (part of the cost of being a landlord with defaulting tenants!) so it is very unfair on you that they either didn't bother checking the house or, more likely, checked but felt they didn't have to bother cleaning as they were renting to you.

Renting from friends can be difficult but I don't think they fact that they have reduced the rent slightly should absolve them of their responsibilities as landlords. They made a commercial decision to rent to you and the trade-off for lower rent is having a trustworthy tenant. If you don't make a stand over the cleaning now, you may well find that further down the road they are unwilling to do repairs or carry out maintenance.

Hmmm, well there's a bit of that already with an electrical fault. An electrician was supposed to call this week but hasn't yet.
I think another problem is that they are not 'professional' landlords - they inherited the house and want to sell it when the market improves.
I'm starting to think that they want the rent and none of the responsibility. I've rented for some years here, off good and bad landlords, so I know what should be expected, it was just the deposit issue that I was wondering about.
Well thanks for all your comments and I'll meet with her to try to resolve this. I didn't take any photos unfortunately, but the carpets speak for themselves...