lived in a two bed room apartment with a house mate. We agreed to move on the 22nd this month and to avoid any hassle with bond that we would hire the recommended clearner that out agent recommended. The clearner asked to inspect the place and provide a suitable quote. He came in gave us a pricy quote ($500 all up), we decided to just go with them since I had to fly out of the country on the 27th. Had verbal confirmation from the cleaners that the house is all good and that the job has a 100% bond back guarantee.
So they cleaned on the 22th and messaged me later in the night asking for payment (there was no mention of anything wrong with the cleaning process), which I promptly paid. I asked them to send over the invoice so I can pass it on to the agent and they send it over the next day but I noticed there was no 100% bond back guarantee in the invoice, I messaged him about it, but no response.
Fast forward to early this morning (aus time) the agent came to inspect the house and emailed me (with pictures) saying that in one of the room the carpet there were deep stain mark and that if it cant be clean the carpet for the whole room need to be replaced. Just a note* Since I am already outside the country my former housemate is the one who've been dealing with this, and he said the cleaner haven't been answering his call or his message once he sent the stain carpet photo that the agent sent us. So both of us are dreading that the cleaner are just gonna ghost us and we'd be liable for the carpet replacement.
SO I just had a few questions.
1/Since I stupidly never gotten a 100% bond back guarantee from the cleaner in writing are the both of us screwed here? (meaning we have to pay for the carpet replacement) or are they still liable since I have gotten a verbal agreement?
2/ Since they made no mention of hard to clean the stain before asking for payment does that prove they are somewhat liable to come back and clean? (I know I should have stayed back and inspected their job but this past week have been hectic with moving out and flying abroad a few days apart)
3/What should be our next move if the cleaner is ghosting us?
Post up on FB Buy & Sell groups with picture of stain, get quotes to remove the stain, determine if it's worth your money/effort to do it.
You could also ask REA to get a quote to clean it and see if that's similar.
Basically it's easier to just move on and deal with the problem, than chase the cleaner.
Had a similar situation, cleaner did an exit clean and she had an off-sider do the gardens/outside. House cleaner did a shit job, and garden guy left the job halfway through because he claimed the cleaner wasn't paying him what he was owed. Was an absolute joke. Ended up just going in and finishing the job ourselves. Was time poor at the time so chose to just pay someone to do it, but had to find the time once they proved to be shit.