Tenancy inspection today - can they say anything about a messy house?

[YorkshirePuddingBelongs]

I have a tenancy inspection this afternoon - my landlord is a nasty prick, his DD is doing the inspection. It’s a long story but he’s been awful, sending me harassing emails, making threats and breaking the Tenancy Fees Act as well as his part of the tenancy agreement. I move next month, thank god, but he’s 100% out to get me - and I think he has likely briefed his DD to look for problems.

There is no damage in the house bar a scuff or 2 on the walls (it’s an old house with tiny narrow staircases and this was from carrying the bed up - he’s seen them before and said it’s fine it always gets scuffed). But we’ve been going through some stuff and I haven’t had time to spring clean line I always do. I have a horrible feeling she will comment on the mess. It’s mostly things like the bathtub and shower needs a clean, the kids’ rooms need a hoover etc. but I KNOW they will be looking for problems because they’ve heavily hinted at it, sending me messages about “if there’s damage you haven’t reported you will be liable for the costs” etc.

It’s a bit late to be worrying about it now isn’t it?

Are you working this morning? If not I’d prioritise sorting mess and obvious dirt.

Why don't you just clean then?

If he's a prick then yes he will probably have something to say.

You're leaving soon anyway though so 🤷‍♀️

Not to be a cow but, why didn't you just clean up at the weekend?

Can you not give the shower a quick clean?

Are you at work? Because otherwise those things you mentioned could be sorted in less than an hour.

They shouldn't, in the sense that it's not their business as long as it's not damaging the house, but they can, in the sense that people can say anything and your LL has already shown himself to act inappropriately in more serious ways.

Do what you can, take photos, if shecomments say you are doing a spring clean when you leave, why are they doing a tenancy inspection now if they will do another one in a month when you leave,

If you're leaving soon then it really doesn't matter what he and his DD think.

That said, if it's stressing you out then give the rooms a quick run over with the hoover and clean the bath. These sort of jobs don't take very long, and you'll feel so much better if you do them rather than worrying about being judged.

He is 100% entitled to charge you cleaning costs and scuffs to the wall!

If the house is looking grubby then you need to do something about it don’t you?
I imagine they’ll be thinking that it will need a deep clean after you leave if it’s not basically clean now.

Not while she still lives in the house though. Presumably there will be a final inspection when she moves out and they can't charge her anything until she does. Now, if she were to leave the house in it's current state, that's another matter but I don't think that's what the post is about.

I’m at work

Long story - DH and I sort-of seperated at the moment and DD in particular had a hard time of it and needed by full attention. She had really bad anxiety over it and I prioritised her over cleaning

Not mid-tenancy he’s not

I will deep clean before I leave.

Tell them you aren't able to meet today and you'll have to reschedule. Then put it off until everything has been moved out. It's not like they can do anything about it, and you move in a month, anyway.

If you’re working there’s nothing you can do. There’s a big difference between mess and grub, mess is normal, actual dirt isn’t ideal. But you’re leaving anyway.

You move out next month? The inspection is not necessary. Cancel it, they can inspect after you've moved out.

He says he wants to inspect over “serious concerns due to heavy rainfall” and that next door has had concerns about the rain.

Which is wierd considering there’s just a yard that’s (and I’m not joking) about 4ft x 6ft.

Also he obviously doesn’t know that I’m friends with next door and she doesn’t know what he’s going on about - it’s not his property and she doesn’t know him!

Interesting that you say he's 100% entitled because he's definitely not 100% entitled to charge anything! Depending on how long OP has been there and when the property was last painted he might be entitled to a % of the costs (never 100%) but he also might not.

You know you can decline the inspection right? Not sure what years is a typo for

Hi there, you can always contact Shelter charity for advice. We rented from a horrible landlord, stayed for 10 years as it was convenient for other reasons. When we were moving out in March 2022 our estate agent had the decency to inform us that any damage to the property would be paid on a depreciation basis. The landlords are meant to completely refurbish the property every 5 years. In our case, we paid nothing despite our landlord dropping strong hints to the contrary. I think he knew the rules, was just hoping to pull the fast one

You could decline the inspection regardless but you leave in a month and you know his a twat so I just wouldn’t give a fuck tbh

Yard. I’ve edited it.

Ive already declined 2 and I only said yea to this one to get him to stop emailing me.