End of tenancy cleaning

[BananaPie]

Our tenants have just moved out after three years. We had professional cleaners in, but the previously immaculate bathroom is grim - grouting stained orange, and toilet brown below the water line. Is this normal wear and tear?

If professional cleaners could not get a toilet bowl back to the proper colour, I would doubt your cleaner's abilities!

Are you in a hard water area?
How much of the grouting stained orange?

Surely the cleaners should be getting rid of grouting discolouration and a lime-scaled toilet?! It's not that hard!

Ew, no! My brother (dirty beggar) when he sold his house insisted it was clean (had been a new build 3 years earlier) and my poor Mum freaked the night before and asked me to help her clean it for the poor woman the next day. It was vile, took us 9 hours and that was both of us scrubbing like lunatics and even then we had to stop at 2am because we were knackered. Your tenants sound like right minks

Flash magic eraser and a toothbrush will sort your grouting

Did you do a check every three months? We rented a property a few years ago and were "inspected" every three months.

Sponge out the water from the toilet bowl and pour down a few bottles of white vinegar. Leave overnight and then scrub. Will come up gleaming if slightly pungent for a bit

Orange grouting just needs a bit of bleach

If the grouting is orange it's not been left long since last clean. No more than a month or so because it's starts going black pretty sharpish if left (I'm a cleaner)

Thanks, confirmed my suspicions that the tenants were a bit manky! Yes, a hard water area, and yes, good point that the professional cleaners should have done a better job. The agents inspected every 6 months, but didn't tell us about the accumulating dirt. Not sure what the agents could have done anyway - presumably up to the tenants if they want to live with a dirty bathroom as long as the damage isn't permanent!

I was going to say what Jen said - orange grouting isn't a big deal, and it might even be what's happened since they moved out, if it's been a few days.

Stained toilet bowl suggests the cleaners missed it. Personally, I think it's unpleasant, but some people will only use eco cleaners in the loo. They are perfectly hygenic, but they won't bleach out stains.

Did the cleaners say it was in a state when they went in? Tbh I wouldn't say they sound manky based on those two things alone. I would say your cleaners need to go back in and do their jobs properly.

I saw it before the cleaners went in. It was definitely better afterwards, but far from perfect. How could the orange appear after they'd moved out?

I wouldn't consider it wear and tear, no - cleaning the bathroom thoroughly is pretty much a basic end of tenancy requirement. Unless the rest of the property was verging on perfect then I think I'd be billing the cleaners to the former tenants.

But for professional cleaners to be unable to clean grouting and de-stain a lavatory is pretty shoddy. It's not that hard and even less so if they have professional cleaning products / chemicals. I'd be quibbling their bill, too!

Checks wouldn't have made any difference. You can't force a tenant to keep the place clean.

They must however return the property in the same state as they found it. As long as you have proof that is. Do you have dual signed inventory, inc photos, from when they moved in?

If you do, and think you have a case, raise a dispute against the deposit for a professional clean.

Sorry, I just noticed you have had cleaners in. It sounds like they haven't done a very good job! Was it a deep clean, or just a standard cleaner?

So if you saw it before the cleaners went in what condition was it in?

The people checking it should definately not have let it fall into such a state IMO. My hubby and I have a rental property and do our own quarterly checks, the last time hubby went he said it was clean but a bit chaotic and the garden was an overgrown mess. He told them to sort the garden but didn't comment on the boxes etc if it was dirty he would def have said something as getting the house in order for them to move in was a nightmare after previous owner left.
We also had an end of tenancy clean done in march and we're not at all happy with the results 😕

We live in a hard water area. I cleaned my shower before holiday and finished by rinsing the cubicle. After 2 weeks away the grouting around the bottom of the shower tray had already started to go orange. It was.easy to remove with bleach.

We had a similar situation, but they also did damage to our property as well. We charged them an hourly rate for the cleaning we did as well as the cost of repair for damage they caused.
If your contract is tight ( in our experience estate agent contracts are rubbish) and the place was in good/great condition when they moved in ( photos that the tenants sign-help) then they don't have a leg to stand on.

Spirit of salts down the toilet will clear it. I'm very clean but mine has gone a grim colour - spirits of salts always does the job. And could the orange grouting be a result of the heavy duty cleaning stuff used by the industrial cleaners?

Bit of an odd question. I can never get my grout looking good and it really irks me. What is best?
I've scrubbed, I've bleached.... I've used cif, am thinking of making up a paste made of water and laundry powder and leaving it on the grout for a few hours, hoping it bleaches it!
Damn it, I knew spray tans were a bad idea!

Mix half bleach half water in an old cup. Get an old toothbrush. Dip it in the mixture and scrub the grout...... It will look (almost) as good as new!

Spirit of salt gets my vote too!

literally just moved rentals. We have left a house (which was brand new when we moved in 7 years ago) spotless, and have now been told there are some finger prints on the extractor hood and a couple of paint spots (we had repainted EVERYWHERE) so now costing another £90 to have it cleaned up in a few areas. honestly driving me insane. The house we have moved into is..... well.... we got told that it is normal wear and tear, as the agents would expect and that re -decoration is in theory every 5 years by the landlord! Since moving in i have gone through so many bottles of bleach because the place is so disgusting. The en-suite plug hole was full of manky gunk :-( the bathrooms were disgusting, the kitchen still smells of grease which i am trying to get rid of and there is a distinct smell of cat wee :-( Emailed the agent and they have basically ignored everything and said they will be out to visit in September. The amount of money that we had to pay deposit and first month rent (£3K) is an absolute disgrace. Have also requested to repaint the place in magnolia (all bar one room is already magnolia) and now the landlord wants to visit to look at the decoration! i haven't even asked for that i said we would decorate!
To top it off the old tenants live across the road (an estate so very very close) i really hope i don't see them soon as i'm not sure i can hold back my disgust at the way they left it!