What is a reasonable deduction for this...

[steveamills]

Ihope someone can offer some advice:

I am currently in negotiations with our letting agent over deductions from our deposit.

So far I have had all the "repairs" refunded as the items that have been repaired were highlighted as broken at the start of our tennancy when we were asked to sign the inventory. The inventory was obviously out of date so we never signed it. Luckily the letting agency dug up the letter when we pointed it's existence out to them and refunded us £100.

Unfortunately we have also been charged £345.00 for cleaning. We find this gaulling as the property was recieved in what was definately not a profesionally cleaned state. There was dust everywhere, liquid stains on the fridge freezers and pornography in one of the bedrooms. We highlighted this to the letting agency in the same letter mentioned above and they confirmed verbally that it had not been professionally cleaned.

Despite this at the end of our tennancy we all worked hard to clean the property and in general it was left in a much cleaner state than found in.

Upon querying the charge we recieved a single invoice which reads

"Quantity: 1 Full house clean (7 Bedroom) £345 inc. VAT" and photos of
Cooker door
Shower
Fridges
Garden

The cooker was replaced during our time there and we forgot to clean the inside of the oven door and apparently the fridges, despit being thouroughly cleaned grew mold after we left (we moved out a week before contract expired) and so I think that paying for this is perhaps not unreasonable.

However the garden was ina fine condition when we left it, but rubbish had blown in. This is a "feature" of the positioning of the garden and we had discussed it with the land lord who had mumbled about putting a fence up but never did anything. As for the shower, they have a highlited picture of some dust under the radiator and a spot of mould on the shower. I have photos of said shower disgutingly mouldy. The room was never properly ventilated and we constantly complained about the mould to the letting agent.

So questions:
Does the letting agent need to provide a break down of cleaning figures? If it was a shared occupancy house does it need to be room by room? Do they need to break it down to hours / labour rate etc? How much seems fair to clean a 2x fridge freezers and an oven door? Can we offset improvements (we purchased and left there a much more expensive microwave) And where does the fact we never signed any inventory leave us?

Thanks for the help...

[barracad]

So the inventory was never signed?

No signed inventory, no deductions... simple as that.

[steveamills]

Wow - speedy response. I am 99% confident it was never signed because it was obviously out of date. I understand how that would make charges for repairs unenforcable but is it the same for cleaning?

Your help's very much appreciated...If you believe in karma something good should be coming your way!

[barracad]

Yes it's the same for cleaning - if there's no inventory then there's nothing to say what the condition of the house was to begin with, so nothing to compare it to. What are they saying has been cleaned? The carpets?

Anyway, if there was no inventory signed by the tenants then there is no basis for dilapidations (in other words the landlord's agent cannot prove anything was or wasn't there, or the state of cleanliness).

They should therefore return the deposit in full as they failed in their duty of care to their client to ensure they had a proper inventory prepared and signed.

On top of that the deductions may be in excess of what would normally be acceptable. The age of the carpet must be taken into account and its quality too!

I suggest you put this to the agents in writing and threaten to take the landlord to court (not the agent) in order to have your deposit returned. There might be few red faces at the agents as it's their clients who will be suffering through their incomptence, and they won't be able to prove anything. If the deposit was held as stakeholder nothing can be deducted form it without the tenant's express authority.

If they are members of ARLA/NAEA/RICS then you can also make a formal complaint to one of the organisations to which they belong.

[livelylad]

Originally Posted by steveamills

Wow - speedy response. I am 99% confident it was never signed because it was obviously out of date. I understand how that would make charges for repairs unenforcable but is it the same for cleaning?

Your help's very much appreciated...If you believe in karma something good should be coming your way!

Hi just a quick note that may help, I have taken over a flat tha the Army pays for.When i moved in there was no inventory for me to sign, i pointed this out to the letting agent i also phoned the MOD contractor. They called back to say that the owner had not provided an inventory therefore no damages or losses can be claimed when i vacate the flat. Basically no inventory no claim. Hope this helps.