The property Column                    December 2006

The property column 

How clean is clean?

Liz Hodgkinson discusses the Number One bone of contention

Whenever there is a dispute between landlord and tenant, at the end of a tenancy, it is almost always about the cleanliness of the property. The new Tenancy Deposit Scheme, which reported on its first year of disputes that needed independent resolution, says that cleaning has proved to be overwhelmingly the number one bone of contention.

So how clean is clean? Many people imagine it is simply a matter of opinion, but in fact this is not the case. VisitBritain, the umbrella organisation for British tourism, has laid down absolute standards of cleanliness in its handbook for the holiday properties it regularly inspects. A cleanliness level of 40 per cent is awarded One Star, whereas 90 per cent cleanliness merits a Five Star rating. But if the cleanliness only achieves 85 per cent, the property will be downgraded to a Four Star.

Inspectors are taught to ignore their own personal preferences, the handbook continues, so what does it all mean in practice?

• The minimum requirement is that surfaces and equipment must be clean and free from dust, with all carpets vacuumed and all floors cleaned.
• In addition, all metalware should be polished and free from tarnish, and electrical equipment left clean. There should be no dust or static on any appliances.
• Curtain linings must be checked for staining.
• Particular attention should be paid to room corners, light fittings and under sofas, chairs and beds.
• Tops and insides of wardrobes must be clean, also insides of drawers.
• Bedheads and mattresses must be spotlessly clean.
• In bathrooms, areas behind the loo, washbasin and the soil pipes must be cleaned, plus shower rails, drainage pipes, plugholes and shower curtains.
• Showerheads must be descaled and venetian blinds and extractor fans cleaned.
• In the kitchen, ice boxes must be defrosted, dishwasher filters left clean, washing machines left free of powder residue, and cookers thoroughly cleaned inside and out. There should be no dust or grime on extractor hoods and all insides of drawers and units must be left clean and free of leftover foodstuffs.

Remember – this level of cleanliness is just for the basic 40 per cent one star rating. To achieve Five Star rating, all surfaces must be left not just clean but gleaming and polished, and all soft furnishings and carpets should be as new and completely free from any stains. Five Star properties must look like a show home, with not the slightest sign of wear anywhere.

The question is: will Tenancy Deposit Scheme adjudicators look for a 40 per cent or 90 per cent state of cleanliness in the case of a dispute?

Here to help the process is an expert view from inventory clerk Maggie Probert. She says: “The most important thing is that the landlord and tenant have exactly the same standards. When I check a property I am looking for an absolute standard and this means that skirting boards should be cleaned, windows left gleaming inside and out and all carpets and curtains professionally cleaned.

“Ideally, the property should be independently assessed and all details of its condition written down on the inventory. The trouble is, both landlords and tenants like to cut corners, and this leads to many disputes. When I check a place out, I am not interested in what the tenant regards as clean, and if I see that something has been missed, I will insist that the cleaners come back and do the place again.”
Very many tenancy agreements – which tenants rarely read – insist that the property should be professionally cleaned before being vacated.

But Liz Thompson, director of lettings for Marsh and Parsons, says this can have its problems. “A lot of tenants will argue that because they have paid somebody, then the property has been professionally cleaned. But that is not necessarily enough! Clean in our terms means that the carpets have been steam-cleaned, curtains taken down and dry-cleaned, linen has been laundered and pressed.

“It is certainly true that disputes over cleanliness are vastly in the majority and often, problems arise when properties are not professionally cleaned at the start of the tenancy, as this means the tenants will try to worm their way out of having professional cleaners when they leave, even though this is part of the contractual agreement they signed at the beginning.

“Tenants almost always moan about the cost of having the place cleaned by professionals, and frequently want to save money by doing it themselves. Then we get into the familiar round of arguments and withheld deposits. So we always advise having independent inventory clerks who note every aspect of the level of cleanliness.”
It is likely that the introduction of the TDS will elevate rented properties to unprecedented levels of cleanliness, as neither landlord or tenant will want to enter into a dispute if they can possibly help it.

Here are two recent case studies of cleanliness disputes, and how they were resolved by TDS assessors:

In Case One, the landlord sought to retain the entire £1,500 deposit as there was a bad stain on the carpet when the tenant checked out. When the tenant moved in, the Inventory had noted that the carpet was in perfect condition.

Accordingly, the adjudicators felt it was reasonable to charge the tenant for a replacement carpet, as the stain proved impossible to remove, and the whole deposit was awarded to the landlord.

In Case Two, the landlords sought to retain £1,525.23 of the £2,910.00 deposit as they maintained that the curtains were discoloured and the floors in the bedroom and bathroom were left dirty. The adjudicators decided that only 25 per cent of the cost of cleaning the curtains should be paid by the tenants, as they had not been cleaned before the start of the tenancy.
They also decided that the tenants should pay one-third of the cleaning costs of these floors. The final assessment was that £598.67 was awarded to the landlord, and £926.56 paid back to the tenants.

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