Around 18 months ago I moved out of a flat and, in line with the tenancy agreement, spent 2 days making sure the place was completely spotless. The landlady came to get the keys and commented on how nice it had been left (after checking the oven, windows, under the bed etc), so imagine my surprise when an email arrives a week later informing me that my deposit had been reduced to reflect the cost of a ‘deep clean’!
Long story short, as I’d been stupid enough to not take photos before I left then I didn’t really have a leg to stand on. They’d charged me £95 in cleaning costs and when I asked for a record of the cost they sent over an invoice that had clearly just been created. I was furious but decided to chalk it up to experience.
Until today.
Last week I came across their emails regarding the deposit and I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong with the invoice, I knew they’d lied but I couldn’t figure out a way to prove it at the time so I decided to have another look. I should also mention that after I moved out I googled their company and found a number of articles in the local papers about the ‘crooked landlords’ as well as people discussing them in local forums- shame I didn’t do this before.
After much consideration I decided to email them with a false account pretending to ask for a suggestion for local cleaners, they came back to me to say that their cleaner was “an employees wife who does it as a favour and wouldn’t be interested in doing it professionally”.
Now, from this I deduced that the cleaner isn’t on the payroll, and therefore is likely to have been paid cash, which she is unlikely to have declared. This puts the landlords in an awkward position as if they did pay her and it wasn’t declared, but if they deny it then I can go to the DPS with it- not to get my money back but to stop them doing it to future tenants.
It might seem like a lot of effort for £95 but this is not the first time I’ve been screwed by a landlord, and it certainly isn’t their first offense! So do I do it?