Cleaning charges and fair wear and tear explained

Why it matters

Landlords lose money in two directions here. Overclaiming leads to refused adjudications and bad feeling, while underclaiming means absorbing costs a tenant genuinely caused.

Legal requirements

• Fair wear and tear cannot be deducted from a deposit.
• A requirement to pay for professional cleaning as a condition of the tenancy is a prohibited payment.
• Cleaning deductions are judged against the check in standard, not a hotel standard.
• Deductions must reflect the age, quality and expected life of the item.

Common mistakes

• Charging a fixed cleaning fee regardless of the condition the property was left in.
• Claiming full carpet replacement for a stain in a carpet already several years old.
• Treating scuffs on a wall painted six years ago as damage.
• Failing to record the cleanliness standard at check in, which makes any claim guesswork.

Practical guidance

• Record cleanliness room by room at check in with photographs.
• Give the tenant a short check out standards note early, so expectations are clear.
• Claim the actual cost of cleaning the areas genuinely left below standard.
• Apply an age and life reduction to any replacement claim and show your working.

Applying depreciation properly

Adjudicators use expected useful life. A budget carpet might have a life of around eight years, a mid range oven around ten. If an item is halfway through its life and is ruined, a reasonable claim is roughly half the replacement cost, not the full amount. Show the purchase date, the price, the assumed life and the resulting figure. Landlords who do this voluntarily tend to be awarded what they ask for, because the claim already looks fair.

Common grey areas

Gardens must be returned in a similar condition, which means cut and tidy rather than landscaped. Picture hooks are usually acceptable in modest numbers if the agreement allows them. Limescale and mould are judged on cause, so a tenant who never ventilated a bathroom may be responsible while a tenant living with an untreated damp defect is not. Curtains, mattresses and white goods are frequent disputes, and the answer nearly always comes back to the check in record.