Charged for professional cleaning

[Popz]

Hello,

My husband and I moved out of our flat, it was empty for about a month, and in the advice of the landlords we hired professional cleaners to come in the Thursday/Friday before check out on the Monday. We checked the cleaning on Friday when they were done and called them back in to do some further work we felt they had not done to a high enough standard, so in total they spent a good three days cleaning. We then sent the receipt to our landlord, it all totaled £132.

We were told by the letting agency we had to move check out to Sunday at 11am as they had new tenant moving in on Monday at 9am.

About a week later we recieved the check out report and planned deductions. We have been told that we need to pay a charge of £180 for additional cleaning. I contacted the landlord with the receipt and asked why we were being charged again, especially considering new tenants were now in situ.

After not recieving a response for 20 days, despite 6 follow up emails, I finally received a response saying they will respond later. They responded at 9pm today to say cleaning had already been done and we needed to pay.

I have asked for proof of reciept, but I am dubious that they have one, as I'd imagine they would've had to hire the cleaners after check out, as they wouldn't have been able to say the flat needed it until then? Which only gives them from noon on Sunday to 9am Monday, which seems a short window for cleaners to make any substantial difference.

If they don't provide a receipt do I have any action I can take? Also just wondering if anyone else has been in a situation like this where they've paid for professional cleaner and are being told to pay again?

Also should I say anything to the cleaning company if we do end up with the charge (£180) deducted from our deposit? They advertised themselves as an end of tenancy cleaner, but if we're charged again they clearly didn't dotheir job right?

For further info, the company is very well known, but operates mainly out of the capital, and hires intermediates for checkout and lettings.

Honestly, I was on your side until you said Honestly I don't doubt the cleaners missed a few things, they seemed a bithalf arsed,but at the end of the day they spent three days cleaning.

The flat was clearly not perfectly clean and ready for the next tenant to move in, and additional cleaning was required. The amount of time spent on cleaning inadequately is neither here nor there.

You can check your deposit via the links in the Shelter website.
england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/tenancy_deposits/check_if_your_tenancy_deposit_is_protected
If your landlord hasn’t protected them then they’re in a world of trouble and you might be due a nice payout.

Hi sorry I responded before reading the rest of the replies. We might have the contract somewhere staying where the deposit was held, but we moved in 6 years ago and we were never given the information in subsequent years.

The cleaners may not have done a perfect job, but they would've done a lot more than cleaners that only had at most 10 hours to clean the flat before new tenants moved in. Also the flat was given back in a better state than we moved into, but we unfortunately don't have photos to prove this. Our mistake but we trusted the check in guy when he said hed send us the photos. In my original question I have asked if I should go back to the cleaners about the fact we are being charged again?

I think at the end of the day we got professional end of tenancy cleaners in on the advice of the landlord, the implication being that doing so would save our deposit. Had we not been advised to bring in professional cleaners we would've been charged the £180, but not been a further £132 out of pocket from the cleaners we hired.

OP, this is not a dispute to be resolved between you and your landlord. It's between them and the deposit scheme, and you and the deposit scheme. They are not obliged to provide a receipt to you.

To be honest, I doubt some of the landlords bother to have properties professionally cleaned. They just pretend that they are going to as an excuse for taking money. I have had this issue arise several times when my DDs were renting property whilst at university. The properties were never properly clean when they moved in and when I requested a receipt for cleaning it wasn't produced.

We also had one landlord who didn't put the deposits into a deposit guarantee scheme so I brought a claim through Money Claims on Line. It's very easy to do and there is no defence, as it's a statutory offence. They have to pay back the deposit plus compensation, which is typically one or two times the deposit . We settled out of court but we later found out he was still continuing to break the law, so he must get away with it most of the time.

Go online and each of the 3 deposit schemes will allow you to check whether they hold your deposit

Once you know who the scheme is with email the letting agent and say that you don't agree to the charge and will be raising a dispute with the deposit scheme about the cleaning charge and the fact the rest of the deposit is being withheld - this may give them a kick up the bum

Raise a dispute with the scheme

Deposit schemes have been in force for far more than six years. The landlord was obliged to give you details of yours within your first 30 days. They can provide that information again now and you must insist they do so.

You can certainly ask your cleaning company for evidence that they completed an end of tenancy clean, as contracted with you.

You need this evidence in order to defend your position with the deposit scheme too.

However, your cleaning company is not responsible for anything that happened after they finished, or for your landlord's money-grabbing tendencies.

Hang on - you say you paid £132 for 'a good three days' of cleaning? Is that right?

Bypass the landlord, you need to find out who the deposit is held with and get in touch with them

Please do go on the hunt for a certificate. They have to serve you one along with a couple of other documents within 30 days of you paying your deposit, and there is no leeway on this. If they haven't, then basically they have NO RIGHTS whatsoever, and as soon as you make them aware of it they should be falling over themselves to give you everything back before you sue them. They WILL end up massively out of pocket.

It's also worth digging your contract out today, to see how long it says they should be repaying your deposit in- normally it's about 14 days. As soon as you find it, send them a formal email pointing out the clause/ timescales.

Raise a dispute with the deposit scheme it's with. Don't concede to anything. They have a tendency to side with the tenants, but if you agree to any part they will obviously take that as given, even if it's over the odds cost wise.

We once got charged for lawn mowing, the house was empty for a month over summer after we moved out, having mowed it on our departure!

Keep pushing. Call them, you’ve waited long enough, do then email the conversation so that you have a paper trail

Refusing to advise you who your deposit is held by is also against the law. They are obliged to tell you who is holding your deposit, the scheme number, and provide a copy of the certificate if asked. It’s not hard- it’s all online and they could do it in 5 minutes if they’ve done it legally.

If they haven’t? Well, as others have pointed out they’re in much more serious trouble than £180. The tenancy deposit penalty is between 1 and 3x your deposit; so they’re on the hook for between £1,500-£4,500 for not using the scheme. They’re stupid if they try playing games with the deposit.

Definitely raise a dispute with the tenancy deposit scheme. I've been both landlord and tenant and can tell you unequivocally that they tend to side with the tenant. The process is not difficult. Also, they must return the uncontested balance straight away.

If you've paid for an end of tenancy clean from a professional cleaning company, they should be footing the bill for any problems, not you. That's why it's called 'end of tenancy' clean - it's to be of a high enough standard to guarantee return of your deposit.

Google deposit scheme and at least one you can search with them if your property is with them. Might be be lucky and be that one.

OP, if they are refusing to tell you where your deposit is being held they are breaking the law.

The fact that you have paid for professional cleaning does not in itself mean that the property was cleaned to the appropriate standard. All it means is that you have paid someone to clean. As an inventory clerk I have seen properties that have been professionally cleaned that leave much to be desired. Cleaning companies vary enormously from those that leave the property looking as if no one has ever lived there to those that leave it looking as if it has hardly been cleaned at all.

However, the landlord is only entitled to get the property back in the same state it was in at the start of the tenancy as shown in the inventory. From what you say it was not great at the beginning. If they are demanding more cleaning they will have to be able to show that the property was in a better state at the beginning than you have left it at the end as far as cleaning goes. If it goes to dispute they will have to be able to produce dated photographs of the areas they are claiming now need cleaning to show that they were clean at the start of the tenancy or to show that they provided you with an inventory that showed these areas to be clean and that you accepted that inventory as accurate.

I would recommend that you tell the landlord/agent (whoever you are dealing) with that you intend to raise a dispute unless you get the whole of your deposit back immediately and that refusing to tell you where the deposit is until you pay for cleaning is illegal and will form part of your dispute.

They were also in the wrong in telling you that you had to leave the property before they did the check out inspection. You have to have removed all of your belongings before the inspection but you have the absolute right to be present and to be shown anything that they are claiming is a fault. Otherwise they cant prove that what they are calling faults didn't happen after you left the property, caused by, eg. The landlord going in to carry out work in preparation for the next tenancy.

If you take this to dispute, the fact that they are refusing to give you information about the deposit holder and the fact that they did not allow you to be present at the insoection will count against them.

We had the same issue last year when we moved out. We told the estate agents that we would dispute it trough the tenancy deposit scheme. It was a really simple process, we uploaded a copy of our tenancy (they were also in breach of a clause in our contract for time between moving out and deposit return) and our receipt for cleaning and a short statement summarising what we had paid for and that we had been provided no photographic proof of the work they took issue with. On doing this we got the undisputed portion of our deposit back.
Around two-four weeks later the landlord hadn’t bothered to contest it, so we got the remainder of the deposit back.