To tell the letting agents to fuck off

[AquaLatte]

Received a strongly worded letter post inspection this morning.

Living room and kitchen need cleaning
Armchair in the garden
Rubbish bags outside back door

Armchair had been outside for less than 24hrs as I had just replaced it and it was waiting for to be collected by the large refuse people

There were two bin bags outside the door as it was the day before bin day and they aren't allowed on the road before 7am (do they want me to keep them in the house?)

Living room and kitchen were perfectly clean. There were 3 breakfast bowls in the sink and a box of cereal on the side.

Living room was clean, hoovered and polished. No clutter apart from an open laptop and two textbooks on the coffee table. Fireplace had ash from the previous nights fire. Possibly the curtains weren't open?!

I'm a single mother to 4 kids, work full time and I'm doing a law degree. Seriously busy. We left that morning at 7.30am hence dishes being in the sink and not washed up.

Surely the inspection is to look at the fabric of the house and make sure we aren't using it to grow copious amounts of weed . Not a fucking inspection of my cleaning skills?

OMG, they'd have a field day with mine then! It is not up to them to judge you it is up to them to check the house is being looked after properly - for example you havent been drawing on the walls or bashing holes in the doors! I would email them and tell them what you have written above.
What agency is it?

God I wouldn't let them in mine. They can check your cleaning skills in as far as will cause long term damage (mould and loads of stains) not the exact timing of your washing up!

What fuckwits. People will be along to tell you that YABU shortly, however.

It's only the arm chair in the garden I'd have a problem with as a landlord but if you explain as you now have done it only just went out and is being collected rather than out there for the next 12 months as sadly loads of people will do then it should all be fine.Bins at the backdoor outside which aren't over flowing with rats in and been there weeks as surely fine too as about to be collected! Don't they do wheelie bins where you are?

God, we rent out my old house to tenants and never inspect at all. We go in to repair stuff as needed... the tenants are great about letting us know if something has gone awry. I suppose we could 'inspect' then but basically it never crosses my mind. They are not growing weed, and not kicking holes in the walls.

Third lot of tenants now and we have never 'inspected'.

When we were tenants thankfully the landlords lived in Singapore so I never had an 'inspection' in the 4-5 years. I wonder if the letting agent was meant to/ charging the LL for that?

Crikey I would be mortified if our letting agents were hassling our tenant like this! YANBU at all OP

This is why some people feel that they are second rate citizens "just because they rent". Yes, the chair might have been worth a mention to check what was happening but the rest is just ridiculous. YANBU.

My agents inspected our investment property and found that the guys were keeping bikes in the flat. They were reminded that the lease specifically forbids this and were asked to get the carpets cleaned, which they did and everyone was happy. As has been pointed out, an inspection is only intended to check that the terms of the lease are being observed.

At one house I rented we had the same lady inspect it every 6 months and she was great. She'd cast her eye in the kitchen and bathroom, check if we were having any issues and off she'd go. When she left a young guy came and he went into every room. Fair enough until I caught him rifling through my wardrobe in the bedroom. "What the hell are you doing?!" He scuttled out of the house very red faced. His report was horrific! Peeling paintwork (which was in the inventory when we moved in 5 years previously), damage to the stair hand rail (as a result of the landlord 'repair' when it fell off the wall), mis-matched carpets (which were what was in the house!) and other nonsense. I phoned them up, advised them to re-examine the inventory, asked why no mention of the contents of my wardrobe was made as the Inspector had spent some time looking and invited them for a follow-up inspection within 48 hours. The manager came, apologised and then forced us to put up with monthly inspections or we'd have our tenancy terminated. We left. I don't miss my days of private renting at all!

YANBU! What a bunch of fucking tossers. We used to rent privately - did it for 2.5 years - and we now have our own place. I hated the 3-monthly inspections; I found them intrusive and annoying.

I felt particularly disturbed and bothered at them taking 20-30 photos each time, (for their records) in MY HOME. With our personal belongings around/pics of our children/my medicines/personal stuff lying about. And particularly as some of the pics were in the bedrooms. They said it was normal, and we had never rented privately before, so knew no different. If I could see my time over again, I would have refused to let them take photos.

We never got attacked or told off for anything, but we did have the cheeky bitch of a landlady trying to retain our £700 deposit for 'cleaning,' 'rubbish removal.' and 'gardening,' at the end of the 2.5 years. I went ballistic! We had spent a WEEK making the place spotless, and the garden neat, (shortly before we left,) and nothing was left there unless it was there when we moved in! What's more, it was a shit-tip when we moved in, and it took us 2 weeks to make it neat and clean.

In addition, we had spent some £500 on the place ourselves, on new loo seats, new shelves, nets and curtains, decorating, and several carpets that we left, and the place was in much better condition than when we moved in!

We challenged the LL, (through the DPS,) and asked for proof that she has spent £700 on 'rubbish removal,' 'gardening,' and 'cleaning.' The silly cow couldn't provide it of course, and the DPS ruled in our favour, and we got the £700 back!

I think they do it because they charge.the LLB a small fortune to carry them out so put stupid shit in like "needs cleaning" to justify the expense. Rip off merchants through and through.