Return of tenant deposit - deductions for cleaning

[maggiethecat]

Am about to vacate and have had cleaning quotes for about £350 excluding carpet cleaning for another £100.

It's a big house but it's been given a clean by us so the quote is I suppose to get it to this 'professional standard' which I gather is to make things really nice and shiny - washing all woodwork, shining cupboards etc. (and also oven, and extractor clean).

I'm tempted to go back in and polish up - it would take a few hours but I cannot see where £350 is reasonable. On other hand, part of me feels that because cleaners are recommended by agents, it's more likely to get passed.

wwyd?

Some landlords see this as a nice wheeze to extract a few extra hundred at the end of the tenancy to cover the wear and tear they should be paying for as part of their maintenance costs.

OP I am really glad you're getting your full deposit back. Hurray.

Our landlady tried to deduct £500 because we'd not professionally cleaned the place at the end (although we did spend nearly 2 days doing it ourselves). It wasn't professionally cleaned at the outset (when the check-in was done) so she was being blimming cheeky. She backed down in the end when we threatened to go to arbitration.

As a landlord, we have have a clause in our contract saying carpets and oven and windows professionally cleaned, obviously the house must be to the same standard as when occupied. We leave receipts from the previous oven/ carpets/ windows for new tenants as proof it has been done, so the cycle continues. Previous experience has told us, one persons clean is not anothers.

Another landlord here. Professional clean is standard in the contract. I have to pay the extortionate cleaning charges at the beginning of the tenancy, the tenant has to pay them at the end. The flat is very nice and clean though. The agent arranges it all, but my experience of trying to 'beat the quote' has not been very productive, so now I just go with it.

Certainly no 'wheeze' though narmada. The money goes to the cleaning company, not to me sadly

Well, I am glad you are not ripping tenants off, megandraper. There are some good ones out there, but if there weren't bad un's, there'd have been no need to introduce the tenancy deposit regs, would there?!

True enough narmada. I think the deposit scheme works better this way - it also seems to regulate against tenants not paying the last month or two of rent and expecting the landlord to use the deposit instead.

common sense needs to prevail I think. I've used professional cleaners twice on properties that I rent out (wearing my landlord hat) and was not satisfied with the standard of clean. If my tenant cleaned the property to the standard they received it in I can see no reason to require that they use a company and produce supporting receipts.