How much cleaning would you do in this situation? (End of tenancy)

[flatbuyingdilemma]

TL/DR: I didn’t pay a deposit when i moved in as I had to pay 6 months rent upfront .. flat was filthy when I moved in, should I bother to deep clean it when I leave?

I have been privately renting a flat since last Spring having separated from my partner, and have give notice to leave in July (hopefully will be moving into flat I’m buying in the summer if all goes to plan). The landlord is a non professional LL - older man who decided to sell his house/leave London and buy flats to let as his retirement income, but everything is a bit crap, poorly maintained and he doesn’t ever sort out problems. When we moved in the flat had been empty for months and was filthy, and I think i partly understand why now!
it is the dustiest flat I’ve ever known, I think because of rubbish windows, which are old and rotting. It’s damp, and gets overrun with flys in summer, and the although I cleared and disinfected everything there is a moth infestation in the kitchen cupboards.

as I didn’t have a deposit, I'm wondering how much cleaning k should do when I move out… I was a landlord myself and have seen the way some tenants leave even when they’ve been told it needs to be professionally cleaned… but I’m also a good person and don’t want to cause a problem. But I just if there’s any benefit to me spending half a day/paying someone to clean a flat that was grotty when I moved in, and generally poorly maintained by the owner?

I’d leave it in the state I would expect to find it.

Assuming that it's generally kept clean anyway I would be tempted to do it myself and just give the loo a scrub, wipe counters and wip the hoover around but wouldn't bother with wiping skirting ect it won't take long
It'll be in a better state than you got it but without wasting money to pay someone

What can he do if you don't? Absolutely bugger all.

That’s kind of my thinking too @Shedmistress- I just feel like it wouldn’t be “nice”. But he’s been really crap (promised to do all kinds of repairs before I moved in, and 18 months later hasn’t done anything) so not sure why i should worry about this! I’m also weirdly paranoid about things like the fact that the crappy kitchen flooring has all lifted (no doubt cheap and badly fitted) and probably needs replacing as if somehow I will be in “trouble”. But his exact words to me were “there’s nothing in the flat that you could wreck and I’d be upset about it” 🤨

If you have good pics of condition before you moved then dont worry, also why no deposit in the holding schemes, you do know he can be fined and you can be awarded a sum for this..!!..are all the certs for gas and electric up to date.??

@bumblebee1000i didn’t pay a deposit at all. I rented via a website (open rent) that did affordability checks and I failed it marginally - he said he’d still be prepared to rent it to me as long as I paid 6 months rent upfront (ouch) hence no deposit. I assume that means there’s no fine situation possible?
I did ask him for all the certificates before I moved in and pretty sure those were provided but I will check…

Have some respect for yourself, and the next tenants. Leave it clean. The fact he didn't take a deposit from you as you failed the affordability echecks would make me want to leave it immaculate.

I havent come across this before, i do work one day a week in estate agents, i thought that maybe some of your rent would form a deposit and so be liable to holding in one of the schemes, i would give place a quick clean up and talk to him about this...if you havent paid a deposit then he cant withold anything !

Not true. Taking a deposit is not a legal requirement.

Is he even going to notice you didn’t clean since he didn’t notice it was filthy when you moved in? I would do a brief clean myself like I would in a normal week but no more.

Take photos of absolutely everything before you hand back the keys, Since you didn't pay a deposit, he can't automatically deduct money, but he could still try to pursue you for costs. Just give it a basic 'broom clean' so he can't complain, but don't spend hours scrubbing a place that was filthy when you arrived. Good luck with your property purchase

I wouldn’t leave it actually dirty but I also would feel I’d already done the deep clean that I would normally do on moving out, given how dirty it was when you moved in.

I would leave it clean because my pride wouldn't let me leave it dirty. But I wouldn't scrub it or deep clean it.

When I left my rented apartment I and a professional cleaner scrubbed it for hours. It was spotless and the landlord still tried to take money out of the deposit for "necessary cleaning".

Don't stress about getting into trouble. He can't do anything.

Thanks everyone! I’m clearly overthinking this in the manner of someone with a million things to do that I can’t do just yet 😝 i think my instinct is as many of you have said, which is to do a normal level clean rather than a deep clean - I absolutely couldn’t leave it dirty as I’d be too embarrassed, even if there were no financial repercussions! And I’ll try to stop stressing about getting in “trouble” for things I can’t control (like the floorboards having lifted, nothing I’ve done to make that happen, so I need to relax about it!).

If you didn’t leave a deposit then do nothing at all , assuming you don’t need a reference from him

I wouldn’t pass on the shitty situation you started with. There must be a middle ground which is ok standard.

Yes, normal weekly clean effort sounds fine; I'd leave the kitchen and bathroom hygienic, surfaces wiped and floors hoovered/mopped. I wouldn't clean the tops of kitchen cupboards (would wipe the insides so they can be used right away), not light fittings, skirting boards, doors, architrave etc.