Letting Agent taking excessive deposit cut

Sairus

Greetings,

I moved out of my apartment in Cork at the start of June. We had paid a deposit of €900 and left the place in what I would consider a near spotless state. (We spent two days cleaning it - not intensive, but we washed every floor, cleaned what we'd thought was every cupboard - we missed one -, etc.) The letting agents inspected the place and said that it required a cleaning to be done, so they hired in a crowd that are now charging €200 for the cleaning. On top of that there's a fee of 15% for organizing the cleaning, plus VAT on that fee, so in total we're being charged €250 for the cleaning of an apartment that we felt was already clean.

They sent us photos of the apartment before it was cleaned, which included:

• Drawers in one room had clothing fluff and some strands of hair inside.
• Shower was clean, but had some stains between the tiles around the base we forgot to bleach.
• Dark patches between some tiles in the kitchen that we couldn't remove.
• Dust under fridge, along with some post-mopping spots on the skirting boards.
• General usage stain on the counter top that was there before we arrived.
• One of the spring hinges on the back of the kitchen door was disconnected. (Forgot to put that back on)
• Freezer was not defrosted.
• Five pebbles in kitchen sink from an emptied fish tank
• Bottom of oven is caked in burnt on grease. It was there when we moved in and 3 attempts to remove this was unsuccessful.
• 4 cooker hobs also have burnt stains. Same as above.

So yes, I freely admit that we missed some stuff, but I hardly consider that €250 worth of cleaning. I have a copy of the invoice they were issued from the cleaning company and it lists all the cleaning they did. Basically it was a once over of the entire apartment, which was pretty much completely clean already.

The contract specifically mentions this:

Immediately before handing up possession of the premises on the termination of this Agreement to thoroughly clean all cookers, fridge, sanitary apparatus and other appliances and all carpets, floor coverings, curtains, blinds and all furnishings and to deliver up same in a sound and clean condition, fair wear and tear excepted; provided always
that breach of this condition shall enable the Landlord to deduct the cost of cleaning the premises from the Security Deposit. The Tenant will also be liable to pay a 15% management plus VAT on the cost of this cleaning.

I contacted Threshold and they mentioned that the landlord can inspect the apartment after we leave and if they deem it unacceptable they have to contact us and give us the option to clean the apartment to their standards before contacting a third party.
Does anyone know where I can find this actual law/rule? I haven't found it in my searches thus far.

Aside from this, does anyone have any advice as to what I can do in this situation? Threshold simply recommended sending them a formal letter of our intent to dispute the charges, but I'm trying to gather up as much ammunition as I can before I do that.

As a final extra thing, they are also charging €50 to replace a chest of drawers that is damaged. It's a fake wooden thing with a wood textured plastic skin on it. The skin has torn and is peeling.
Again, it was like that before we moved in, but we foolishly never mentioned it. We were never given an inventory of the apartment before we moved in and as such there's no proof it wasn't damaged already. Is it possible to dispute the €50 on that item?

djimi

Do you have photographic evidence to prove the state of the cooker/hob/drawers when you moved in?

To be honest I would write them back and inform them that you are opening a PRTB dispute and that you intend to follow up on it. The chest of drawers aside (which can probably be replaced from Ikea for half that amount) very little of what you have mentioned sounds worthy of requiring professional cleaning. By the sounds of it you made a reasonable effort to leave the place clean and the photos they sent you to me give you evidence of how petty they are being.

Also €200 for a professional clean on an apartment is massively taking the piss. I would bring that to the PRTB also and dispute how much they tried to deduct; they could have gotten the place cleaned for half that amount, if indeed it actually needed a clean.

StillWaters

The advice threshold gave you that the LL must give you an opportunity to clean the property is incorrect. Threshold are well-meaning but not always right.

€200 for a days cleaning is not excessive. €100 would probably be fairer in this case, and tbh none of those issues bar the tile stains, freezer and cooker warrant extra cleaning. However I do think it would be a gamble going to a PRTB hearing on it, but certainly worth threatening the LL with it.

Pkiernan

djimi wrote: »

Also €200 for a professional clean on an apartment is massively taking the piss. I would bring that to the PRTB also and dispute how much they tried to deduct; they could have gotten the place cleaned for half that amount, if indeed it actually needed a clean.

Wow - can you come and professionally clean my apartment for €100??

If you can, you will have no end of work.

€200 is a good price for a move-out clean.

I don't know why the agent gets 15% of this though.

Sairus

Thanks for the responses everyone!

djimi wrote: »

Do you have photographic evidence to prove the state of the cooker/hob/drawers when you moved in?

To be honest I would write them back and inform them that you are opening a PRTB dispute and that you intend to follow up on it ... very little of what you have mentioned sounds worthy of requiring professional cleaning. By the sounds of it you made a reasonable effort to leave the place clean and the photos they sent you to me give you evidence of how petty they are being.

Unfortunately no, it didn't occur to us to photograph that stuff. We did send them a bunch of damaged photos for other things that we would no doubt be paying for now otherwise, but we didn't think of the oven.

Yar, I'm definitely going to write them and demand at least a partial refund on the unnecessary cleaning. The photos are so specific in the dirt they show I would hope that will be a benefit to us as they imply the rest of the house is already clean.

StillWaters wrote: »

The advice threshold gave you that the LL must give you an opportunity to clean the property is incorrect. Threshold are well-meaning but not always right.

€200 for a days cleaning is not excessive. €100 would probably be fairer in this case, and tbh none of those issues bar the tile stains, freezer and cooker warrant extra cleaning. However I do think it would be a gamble going to a PRTB hearing on it, but certainly worth threatening the LL with it.

Yar, I gave the contract a closer look and they actually specifically mention they don't need to contact us prior to getting the place cleaned anyway.

Pkiernan wrote: »

€200 is a good price for a move-out clean.

I don't know why the agent gets 15% of this though.

I'm starting to see that a full apartment clean is usually around that €200 mark, but my problem is that the apartment was almost entirely clean before that. If it really was cleaned to the extent the invoice mentions it was a wasted effort.

The 15% is specifically mentioned in the contract, so I guess since we agreed to it I can't really dispute that cost.

Pkiernan

The cleaners still have to travel to and from the job, it doesn't really matter how much cleaning has already been done unfortunately for you in this case.

Grolschevik

Sairus wrote: »

Yar, I'm definitely going to write them

Sairus wrote: »

Yar, I gave the contract a closer look

On a completely off-topic note, how do you find the plundering of doubloons in and around the Spanish Main these days? :pac:

The_Conductor

Grolschevik wrote: »

On a completely off-topic note, how do you find the plundering of doubloons in and around the Spanish Main these days? :pac:

Probably a lot more satisfying than random comments from you.
Keep it ontopic please.

fasttalkerchat

Unless it was a new build between the tiles would not have been spotless when you moved in. If you can find photos taken when you moved in that should keep them quiet. Dust under the fridge they cannot expect you to damage your back lifting a fridge unnecessarily.

I think what has happened is that because you gave a big deposit, they think you will be happy getting most of it back.

Caseywhale

I know my idea of clean and my wifes idea of clean are certainly not the same. I dont count dust as dirt and she does

Post some photos, so we can all understand what you are talking about rather than just guessing at it. Otherwise I dont see how any of us can really have an informed opinion of how clean it was.

Sairus

Caseywhale wrote: »

Post some photos, so we can all understand what you are talking about rather than just guessing at it. Otherwise I dont see how any of us can really have an informed opinion of how clean it was.

That is unfortunately one of the main issues. I foolishly didn't take any photos.

Either way, we've managed to bug them into giving us back €75, and I will continue to pester them about giving us a receipt for the €50 chest of drawers they plan on buying to make sure they actually do buy it.

I doubt we're going to get much more back from them.