|
|
Question Title: End of tenancy cleaning
| Question: 354 |
| Tenancy agreements commonly include clauses requiring the tenants to return the property in 'good and clean condition' or even requiring them to have 'all carpets and curtains professionally steam-cleaned at the end of the tenancy'. I used to work for an agent that routinely deducted money for professionally cleaning a property even through it was not professionally cleaned, just because of this clause. Is this type of clause now considered officially 'unfair' maybe? Can the tenant refer to the check-in report, see the carpet was recorded as dirty and then 'duck out' of the obligation in the agreement? Is it at the courts discretion? Are you able to shed any light on this matter at all?
|
| Answer: |
| It is situations like these that have brought the letting industry into disrepute and is leading to calls for further regulation of agents and landlords. Although the law is not clear in this area since there is so little case law regarding what terms are deemed unfair, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has taken a firm view as to what it considers acceptable. The OFT will now ask agents to remove standard clauses that require a tenant to have items professionally cleaned at the end of the tenancy as this might imply that a tenant should leave the property in a better condition than it was first received. Agents and landlords might be able to counter this argument if they could show that, prior to each letting, every property is professionally cleaned. Equally, the OFT will expect such 'good condition' clauses to be qualified so that it is clear that it is the landlord's expectation that a property will be received back in the same state and condition as at the commencement of the tenancy. The OFT requirements may sound excessively picky, and are making the drafting of such agreements a more complex process, but the unfair terms regulations do provide the court with the power to strike out such terms and render them unenforceable. The only exceptions to this are firstly, where the term in a tenancy agreement has been 'individually negotiated' or secondly, where the letting is to a company - both these (exceptional) cases are not covered by the regulations. For more information see our Letting Factsheet 10 & 10b.
|
|
References:
|
Pages:
|
Hyperlinks:
|
|
Letting Update Journal |
Oct 2004 page 26 |
letting-update-journal.html
|
|
Letting Handbook |
Chapter 10 |
letting-handbook-and-factsheets.html
|
For more information, discuss on the Forum
|
|
