To think I don’t owe my landlord a professional clean after everything that’s happened?

[MyHonestLimeDog]

I have a legal case against my landlord involving disrepair, harassment, intimidation and an attempted illegal eviction. Before it goes to court, they have approached my solicitors to discuss a settlement, including a financial settlement, compensation for damaged possessions, the return of my full deposit without dispute, a contribution towards legal costs and a vacate date. As you can probably gather, it’s been a prolonged and incredibly stressful experience and, to put it mildly, they have been absolute arses throughout.

My question is this, when I leave, is there any point in paying for a professional clean? Ordinarily I would leave a property clean and tidy but given everything that has happened, part of me thinks fuck it and that they can have it exactly as it is when I go. I’m not talking about deliberately damaging anything or leaving rubbish everywhere. I just mean not spending my own money on a professional clean for people who have treated me appallingly.

AIBU?

Just get it added to the agreement that there will be no professional cleaning at the end of tenancy

What does your contract say.bpresumably you have died LL for their unreasonable behaviour. They could just take professional clean out of your deposit if you don't get it done if that is what contract states.

There is no obligation to have it professionally cleaned. Only the same state of cleanliness that you moved into.

Our letting agent told me that they can never insist on a professional clean but can ask for a "professional standard" clean. But ultimately you only need to leave it as clean as you found it, minus wear and tear.

Depends what is in your lease, a settlement prior to the end of the contract won't nullify your contract, just in the same way you still need to pay rent until the end.

Take a clear video of the property before you leave so the state it is in, is very clear.

Frankly, if it got to where it is and they are now prepared to reach an agreement, they are not going to care a iota whether it is spotless or not. They will be happy it's all over and you've vacated.

This.
No point messing about now you are all at the final hurdle and I'm sure the landlord will be as keen as you are to be done with everything so should have no problem agreeing.

As an ex cleaner I’ve helped my daughter clean all but one of the rental properties she’s moved out of. The only time she didn’t get her full deposit back was when I didn’t help her - they found a single hair in her room and charged £600 for a ‘professional clean’. The landlord had been awful from start to finish. They had a rat infestation caused by next door leaving rubbish out. He tried to say it was nothing to do with him till they got CAB involved. I’m guessing he just wanted to get his money back for that 🤷

this was the state of the bathroom when they moved in - he refused to clean this but charged the girls £600 for a single hair 😡

Given the fact you are coming to a legal settlement to leave I wouldn’t jeopardise this by breaking a contract term which they would then argue was a reasonable expectation for you to follow- it could risk them not then upholding their side fully. As others have said, just get it added to the agreement.

There is if it’s in the contract.

LL can’t decide to withhold anything from a deposit! If they want to claim anything it needs to go through the scheme. It’s a pretty high bar. A’single hair’ won’t do it. What did the scheme agree to?

You should still clean to the same standard as Check-In, unless there is an appropriate agreement to the contrary.

A paid professional clean or doing it yourself is up to you and the standard depends on how you received the property.

I thought a "professional clean" is not enforceable, even if included in your tenancy agreement? Leaving the property as you got it should suffice. You should always take photos when you move in.

I didn't think any landlord could request an end of tenancy professional clean, as long as you leave it tidy and in a reasonable state they can't do anything. I moved into a property some years ago when viewing there was furniture in the property from a previous tenant which they told me they would have moved the day I got the keys I spent a good part of moving in day removing that furniture into the garden and waited weeks for the owners to remove it. He then had the cheek to withold my deposit when I moved despite me leaving it in a better state than they gave it me in

I moved into a flat that, allegedly, had been professionally cleaned via the estate agents. The kitchen had a white tiled wall at the back of the sink/cooker/workspace which had got grimy over time. The cleaner had obviously just reached over and wiped as far as they could reach, rather than using a small set of steps for example. I was faced with a set of arches, white and clean below, yellow and greasy above. The rest of the professional cleaning was to the same standard, I spent my first week in there solidly cleaning. The estate agents were nonplussed when I told them about the standard of work.
So, upshot is, professional cleaning isn't necessarily very good!

With a proper professional end of tenancy clean you can normally report items not cleaned to a high enough standard within a specified timescale and they will return and do the bits that weren’t cleaned well enough.

Thanks, I tried this but the estate agents weren't interested, they were rubbish at a lot of things, like omitting to tell me there was a garage I could use. Only found out when the landlady sold the flat and asked me to remember to removed any of my items from it.

If you've already agreed full return of deposit without deductions, then the clean or not clean status is completely irrelevant.

Deposit deductions are how that would be handled, and if they've already given up all leverage, and the settlement agreement has been signed, then unless there's a cleaning term in the settlement agreement, it's a completely moot point.

I didn’t know that. It was 2021 so our time to sort has gone ☹️. I’ve never rented! Daughter was a student at the time. I’ll let her know as she moved out of another flat this weekend and they really could do with their full deposit back (she may well now be aware of this!)

thank you

Ps they just accepted the deduction as they didn’t want poor references ☹️

If part of the settlement includes getting all your deposit back then I would do a basic clean not a professional clean

All deposits need to be protected under a scheme. If not then that’s a claim in itself and you could get a lot of money back. Your DD should have been given the info as to where it is protected.
If the LL wants to make a claim it goes to the scheme and they decide. Ultimately your DD can apply to the scheme to have the deposit returned when she leaves and the LL would need to make a claim at that point. As I said the bar is very high.

I literally had NO idea. I’ll let her know. That’s very helpful, thank you

No there is not, law trumps anything in a contract.