I have been living at a Sydney based University residence on campus for 3 years and for the most part have never had a problem until the last few months when new management has come in and things have been going down hill. I will start with saying that my shared apartment is by no means dirty. It was last cleaned on Friday (vacuumed, benches cleaned, bathrooms done).
To put things short, i have received an email at 4pm Wednesday stating that apparently our apartment of 5 is not clean and at an unacceptable standard. They demanded this to be fixed and brought up to standard otherwise we will be charged a large sum of money for them to hire cleaners at 11am Friday. Now, this is a problem because the only access to vacuum cleaners are during 9-5 office hours, and since i did not personally see the email until tonight i will no longer have a chance to borrow one due to class all day tomorrow and Friday morning.
Here is a list of things to be done.
- Vacuum everything (move furniture, vacuum furniture).
- Clean all walls, tiled splashbacks, cupboard doors, fridge doors, windows etc
- Mop all floors
- Clean all tabletops, sinks, range hoods, microwaves (internally), ovens, windowsills
- Remove ALL soap scum from both showers, leave glass streak free (whole shower is a giant glass pane, could easily fit 6-8 people in that shower).
- Leave toilet spotless
In other words they would like the entire apartment spotless from top to bottom with 1 days notice at a university village where students are studying and working full time. I should also mention this goes against there contract as it states they will give is a minimum of 5 days notice for all inspections. This is not at all possible as 2 of our roommates a generally out from the very early hours till late at night due to postgraduate work or graduate full time work in the city. I and the remaining roommate have class all of Thursday and i also have class from 9-11 on Friday.
I have sent an email to them outlining how this is unfair and against what i have signed, but based of the experiences of friends here, and based off there recent activity i doubt they will have any mercy. Is there anything else i can do as this is unreasonable and certainly goes against the intentions of the previous managers to provide a supporting residence for the students.
I have heard sending a complaint to the Rental Ombudsman could potentially be an option. I would also like to apologize for the large block of text, i have attempted to add formatting to highlight key points and make it more readable.
Edit: If anyone is doubting me that it is clean / already at an acceptable level, i took photos of all areas of the apartment prior to receiving the email and would be happy to provide. I do know they have a bunch of students living on campus hired as cleaners who are available as needed on call, wouldn't surprise me if this was a technique to try and make some money while students are at a busy time of semester.
Edit2 We already have four scheduled cleaning inspections per year with dates notified to us at the start of the year.
Edit3 25/8 I have received a response back to the village management and the response is that the time/date is final. There is apparently a clause aside from the table of allowed times that is nearly identical to that of the fair trading NSW one, that states they can request access to common areas at any time for inspection. In that case, management is only hurting themselves when alot of residents are already wanting to move off campus due to the actions of new management. Its probably a good thing there is 2 new student friendly complexes opening across the road that appear to me cheaper then here with significantly less restrictions.
I think the request is fair enough