Landlord charging for a deep clean

[Mamma182838]

We moved out of rental. DH cleaned the house after we left and generally he does a good job but he missed a handful of specific things that were picked up in the check.

Landlord wants to charge for a full deep clean. Is that fair? How do we dispute it? Do we approach a cleaning agency and say x, y, z needs to be cleaned, how much would this. be, and go back to the landlord with the quote, or cleaners not work this way?

You don’t need to pay for a deep clean, but you must return it in the same condition you found it. If there was a dual signed inventory then you should take photos to compare the conditions when you moved in.

No, it's not.

Standard is to leave it in the same condition as you received it

Only with rip off landlords.

It's not an enforceable contract term.

No it's not, at all. As long as you leave it as you found it, there is no need. And having rented a good few places, I reckon very few places are professionally cleaned on entry!

They can't force you to have a professional deep clean before you go, but they can require it be cleaned to a "professional standard" and cleaning carpets would be part of that. That can just be you using a borrowed Vax carpet cleaner or hiring a rug doctor, doesn't have to be done by a firm.

The argument would be that airborne allergens can exist in the carpet so to be ready for a new Tennant it should have had a decent clean.

No, that's not right. It has to be the same as when you moved in, less wear and tear.

If the carpets are old and manky when you moved there is no way you'd be expected to have them cleaned.

It is, if the property had been professionally cleaned previously...

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/tenancy_deposits/what_can_your_landlord_deduct_from_your_deposit/cleaning_gardening_decorating

The place should have left as a deep clean.
When I moved out of my last rental years ago, there was a list, oven, washing machine, dishwasher, including detergent drawers, skirting boards etc.
It doesn't sound like you left it as you found it.

Question about the garden - we kept it in a reasonable state but a period of high winds and rain damaged some of plants and they couldn’t be revived. So the garden hasn’t kept the same character as when we moved in. Should we be charged for gardening too?

Many EoT cleans don't include carpet cleaning as standard. It's an extra. And you're still only expected to leave it as you found it.

If the carpets are deemed to be at the end of their lifespan, I would very much dispute any cleaning charge for them, regardless as to whether they'd been done before due to the wear and tear clause.

I don't need to use any fingers to count how many of the rentals I've lived in were professionally cleaned before I moved in.

Thanks I’ll read the link through now

I agree on carpets, but if the OPs agreement required a "professional standard" and the landlord has a recipe showing that was done prior to their moving in, then if the OP has done less than that, they could well have to pay.

You are of course correct that many landlords took, and pocketed the cleaning money, hence that is now not permitted.

There is stuff in there about gardens too.

Presumably before you moved in there had been rain and high winds? But the garden had been cared for so that when you moved in it wasn’t damaged **

Even 'professional standard' doesn't hold water if it wasn't that standard when you moved in. You only have to leave it as you found it. Which is why you need to have your own record of entry and exit conditions. And don't sign an inventory which states that it's 'very clean' etc if it's not!

You'll just have to wait and see what the DPS say. How long were you in the property? If only a year, professional carpet cleaning probably won't be expected, but several years and it might be.

The schemes are very fair in my experience, so they will award fair costs if they find in the landlord's favour, not necessarily what he has asked for.

Garden is more tricky, Shelters advice is that "when you move out it should be in a similar state to when you moved in"

If you dispute it, the landlord will have to provide evidence of the state it was in when you took the lease. If they can't evidence that, they won't win.

Another example - we made a subtle improvement to the property and this has now worn down but it still works as
intended. It’s not a permanent improvement and can be removed without any damage in a few seconds. Landlord is charging us because it’s worn down which we obviously don’t agree with. (They probably don’t realise we added it in the first place and in hindsight we should have just taken it off when we left but it’s the kind of thing that’s easily overlooked.)

How can we make these kind of specific arguments to DPS? The inventory shows that it’s worn down and needs to be fixed but there’s nothing to show that it was not there in the first place.

Ah ok, that answers my question. So the DPS should be in our favour for addition we made then.

Another example - we made a subtle improvement to the property and this has now worn down but it still works as
intended. It’s not a permanent improvement and can be removed without any damage in a few seconds

what is this subtle improvement and if worn down and only seconds to remove… why didn’t you?

Right. And when I have left, I have made sure there were no cobwebs behind radiators, piles of dirt under mats, scrunched up packets under mattresses, gunk in the sink, and other things I have met with when moving in.

Because it can still be used and we overlooked it, as I said in my post.

Yours replies are provocative and unhelpful so I’m just going ignore you now.

Thank you you all for taking the time to reply. It seems like it’s best just to leave it in the hands of DPS now.

Im always amazed that whenever we leave a rental property we are made to pay for a professional clean but when we move into a rental property they are always filthy.
Without fail.

And landlords wonder why they are hated.