Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is looking
to charge and take some of the original deposit money because they say it is
not clean enough.

Friends say take photographs and go to the small claims court to retrieve
money. But it might be difficult to show cleanliness with photographs
unless you are a professional?

Any suggestions as to the best course of action. He still has a few days
access to the flat.

Dave Smith wrote:
Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is looking
to charge and take some of the original deposit money because they say it is
not clean enough.

Friends say take photographs and go to the small claims court to retrieve
money. But it might be difficult to show cleanliness with photographs
unless you are a professional?

Any suggestions as to the best course of action. He still has a few days
access to the flat.


Arrange a meeting at the flat with the landlord. Say that you want to go
through the whole property with him listing areas or items that need
cleaning. Clean them.
Next time photograph and/or video every damned thing before you move in.
My daughter had the landlord claiming that she'd 'irreparably damaged'
the big patio doors. But she'd photographed the doors and everything
else before she'd moved in and got the pictures signed and dated by a
solicitor (another solicitor; she's one). The landlord suddenly shut up
and paid the deposit back.
Landlords regard deposits as theirs by right, and will always try it on.

Bill

Dave Smith wrote:
Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is looking
to charge and take some of the original deposit money because they say it is
not clean enough.

First thing I do as a landlord when tenants move out is clean and tidy anyway,
it's part of the job. Unless there's feaces littering the floor, tiles ripped
off the walls, and holes burnt in the carpets, he's taking the ipss.

JGH

In article ,
wrote:
Dave Smith wrote:
Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is
looking to charge and take some of the original deposit money because
they say it is not clean enough.

First thing I do as a landlord when tenants move out is clean and tidy
anyway, it's part of the job. Unless there's feaces littering the floor,
tiles ripped off the walls, and holes burnt in the carpets, he's taking
the ipss.


our nextdoor neighbours had contract cleaners in before they finally moved
out. the new owners wanted some money back becaue the house wasn't clean.
That tells you the sort of new neighbours we have - bonfire last night so
we couldn't sit out in the garden is another example.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

On 01/07/2013 16:44, Dave Smith wrote:
Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is looking
to charge and take some of the original deposit money because they say it is
not clean enough.

Friends say take photographs and go to the small claims court to retrieve
money. But it might be difficult to show cleanliness with photographs
unless you are a professional?

Any suggestions as to the best course of action. He still has a few days
access to the flat.



People often knock the landlords but tenants sometimes try to pull a
fast one and cleaning companies don't always do things well. The last
time I had a change of tenants the place wasn't clean enough. Tenants
showed me their receipt as proof that it had been done so I asked them
to get the cleaner back to do a proper job. Cleaner moaned but came back
and improved things into the "barely adequate" category.

In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
Landlords regard deposits as theirs by right, and will always try it on.

There are some honest and some dishonest ones. Rather like aerial fitters.

--
*TEAMWORK...means never having to take all the blame yourself *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
Landlords regard deposits as theirs by right, and will always try it on.

There are some honest and some dishonest ones. Rather like aerial fitters.

Or retired sound men.

Bill

On Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:14:33 +0100, Bill Wright wrote:

Arrange a meeting at the flat with the landlord. Say that you want to go
through the whole property with him listing areas or items that need
cleaning. Clean them.

Best course to start with as there needs to be a definition of
"clean". Light switches that haven't had a wipe over for a year or so
and are a bit grubby some might consider "clean", to others they
would be "unclean".

In this context the person leaving the property might not even notice
grubby switches as they will have become grubby very slowly and they
won't notice how grubby they really are. Similar on doors edges where
fingers may pull them to a bit shut rather than use the handles.
Handles are like light switches...

--
Cheers
Dave.

In article , Dave Smith
scribeth thus
Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is looking
to charge and take some of the original deposit money because they say it is
not clean enough.

Friends say take photographs and go to the small claims court to retrieve
money. But it might be difficult to show cleanliness with photographs
unless you are a professional?

Any suggestions as to the best course of action. He still has a few days
access to the flat.



This sadly is all to common a tactic to keep some or all of the rental
deposit which should have been placed, if taken, in a government backed
scheme like the Deposit Protection Service where you can easily dispute
tactics like these.

If he has got it and hasn't placed it in that perhaps a call to the CTB
citizens advice, would be in order AFAIK its now an offence to do
otherwise.

And taking as many pix as you like and you keeping copies and giving
them to the agency is also a very good idea....


--
Tony Sayer

In message , at 16:44:06 on Mon, 1 Jul 2013,
Dave Smith remarked:
Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is looking
to charge and take some of the original deposit money because they say it is
not clean enough.

Friends say take photographs and go to the small claims court to retrieve
money. But it might be difficult to show cleanliness with photographs
unless you are a professional?

Any suggestions as to the best course of action.

Raise a claim with the Deposit Scheme, who will require the LL to
produce photographic evidence of the difference in condition.
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, 01 Jul 2013 19:53:41 +0100, Bill Wright
wrote:

There are some honest and some dishonest ones. Rather like aerial fitters.

Or retired sound men.

Not all retired men are sound, as you know.

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Dave Smith
scribeth thus
Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is looking
to charge and take some of the original deposit money because they say it
is
not clean enough.

Friends say take photographs and go to the small claims court to retrieve
money. But it might be difficult to show cleanliness with photographs
unless you are a professional?

Any suggestions as to the best course of action. He still has a few days
access to the flat.



This sadly is all to common a tactic to keep some or all of the rental
deposit which should have been placed, if taken, in a government backed
scheme like the Deposit Protection Service where you can easily dispute
tactics like these.

If he has got it and hasn't placed it in that perhaps a call to the CTB
citizens advice, would be in order AFAIK its now an offence to do
otherwise.

It's a civil offense offering compensation to the "victim".

You have to pursue it yourself, no authority will do it for you.

and because the remedy is compensation it can't be actioned in the small
claims court

And taking as many pix as you like and you keeping copies and giving
them to the agency is also a very good idea....

though they will not be accepted unless they have in vision date stamps -
like that actually proves anything :-(

On Tuesday, July 2, 2013 9:25:06 AM UTC+1, tim..... wrote:
And taking as many pix as you like and you keeping copies and giving
them to the agency is also a very good idea....
though they will not be accepted unless they have in vision date stamps -
like that actually proves anything :-(

The last tenancy handover I managed had photos printed, signed and dated by the tenant and the agent as part of the inventory.

Owain

On Mon, 1 Jul 2013 16:44:06 +0100, "Dave Smith"
wrote:

Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is looking
to charge and take some of the original deposit money because they say it is
not clean enough.

Friends say take photographs and go to the small claims court to retrieve
money. But it might be difficult to show cleanliness with photographs
unless you are a professional?

Any suggestions as to the best course of action. He still has a few days
access to the flat.


Some years ago when my son moved out of his first rented appartment
after uni my wife and I drove 260 miles ( return) and spent the rest
of the day cleaning including the cooker

The landlord's agent refused to refund the deposit because "The cooker
wasn't clean" . When we protested that his mother had come and cleaned
the cooker personally they said prior to him taking the tenancy the
cooker had been professionally cleaned and they expected the property
handing back in the same (pristine) condition it was before the
tenancy started.

ISTM this is unreasonable. Given say a twelve months tenancy, getting
12 months rent is self evidently compensation enough if the property
meets ordinary the ordinary standard of British cleanliness when
handed back if only for the reason that some wear and tear must be
accepted, an ordinary domestic electric cooker cannot be made to last
in perpetuity.

DerekG
Gordon Mac ****e-Features is a
"grate" economist.

I.E. He stinks.