Lots of people used to do their own bond cleans, some still do. I've had one done recently, and it was almost half of the actual bond when carpet cleaning and gardening was added.
When did it become this thing that houses should be in showroom condition (as against just clean)? Has it happened in the last 10 years?
is that Queensland? I've seen quite a few REAs claim the entire bond at first-after everything has been cleaned and fixed- and then claim 'only 3 or 400' for some vague thing. Arbitration tells the tenant oh look, they've compromised.
Yep… Dust in the windowsill costing 200 for callout cleaning…
The Rea's often have "approved" cleaners as well that they recommend - they can't enforce it, but it's an interesting conflict of interest to have if yr the cleaner.
Everyone that I know that hasn't used the REA recommended cleaner have used cleaners who guarantee full bond back. Every one of them has had issues found after the clean, always very minor of course but the result is some bond lost and trying to claim on the cleaners so called guarantee is next to impossible and incredibly time consuming which is what they bank on.
yup. Queensland Property managers (over generalizing here) are less than honourable.
We used a bond cleaner from a different agent, but that wasn't good enough for the one we were leaving. We ending up in court and lost, not surprising when you consider the agent was on first name basis with everyone in the court. We even got slapped for asking for 3 days rent back (that's just petty greed) but when the agent asked for 2 days extra that was just 'looking after the owner'
Short answer here is use their cleaners, it's just easier
Firstly, I think arbitration tends to be quite fair and at the very worst case ends up with 50/50 if its a purely he-said-she-said situation. If you have evidence that you did your part according to the tenancy laws, they are very likely to rule in your favour.
Remember that arbitration cost the agent/owner time (which is money). If the potential returns is not good enough (i.e small sum or strong evidence/knowledgeable tenant), the agent/owner is not likely to pursue this avenue.
Lastly, you can always go with a bond cleaner who does bond guarantees. If a part of the home has been included in the clean, the bond cleaner will pretty much guarantee that the aspect will not come up from the agent (if it does, they'll go back to clean it at no cost). The benefit of this is that the bond cleaners will often collect enough evidence to protect themselves and you can use this to go to arbitration.
I am a landlord and sometimes I still doubt my agent is giving me the best price for certain services to be honest but I'm too busy to deal with this shit anymore (which is what they're betting on I guess).
It’s a conspiracy with ‘Big Clean’
I think it depends on your REA. We recently cleaned out mums unit and vaccuumed/cleaned it ourselves, she got her full bond back within the week, no problems. I guess some REA's are still honest?
I've always self cleaned and always received full bond back for 6-8 properties. Across qld, act, vic.
Did you just fail to clean the property? Otherwise might be worth arguing your case?
I have seen many REA try to take partial bond money for things that really are just wear and tear, not intentional damage.
what case, I haven't heard anything back from the REA.
We have actually helped many tenants get their full bond back by removing stains other cleaners were not able to. In many of these cases the REA was threatening to keep the entire bond, telling the tenant that they would have to replace the carpet. Of course they don't replace the carpet, they just rent it out again and keep the bond. One of our customers took her REA to VCAT and won - we had cleaned her carpet regularly during her tenancy (every 6 months) and wrote a report for her to take to the hearing, it helped her prove that she had looked after the property and the REA was being unreasonable.
Until I purchased a house, we always did our own bond cleans. Never had a cent deducted, but we had thorough entry reports. If people don't know the rules, they will get screwed over.
When I rented recently the place was not that clean when we moved in as it been empty for a while. I took hundred of photos and sent them to the agent with a list of all unclean items with the inspection report. When we moved out they wanted to see the receipt for cleaning. I said no and we cleaned ourselves, and even though it was cleaner than when we move in, they tried to claim for a "professional clean". I sent a strongly worded email with all the photos and we got our full bond back
This. Take photos of absolutely everything before you move in or risk being blamed for something that already existed.
Take photos of absolutely everything before you move in
and make sure you share them with the agent as well via email and keep that email. Otherwise it becomes 'harder' to claim they are from the move in condition.
pictures are your only defence. Video and pictures are even better, but video is not good enough alone.
And get EVERYTHING in writing. If they say you can leave it the way you found it then get that in writing, without that it never happened and you are on the hook for the clean.
When did it become this thing that houses should be in showroom condition
When renters expectation change to have 'showroom condition' for houses they rented.
So the deal is, its showroom condition on the way in, and showroom condition on the way out.
it was almost half of the actual bond
As you said above, nothing stopping you doing your own bond clean, gardening. People get 'lazy' and pay the price for letting cleaning and the garden slip over the rental period, which means the bond cleaning gets more costly.
not always. As I said in a previous post, we had a bond clean done but our agent at the time still tried to scam us out of money.
It really sucks, Australian real estate treats renters like pond scum - I've had friends from overseas come here and can't believe how renters are treated.
we had a bond clean done but our agent at the time still tried to scam us out of money.
YMMV, not really sure what that has to do with my comment though.
So you did a bond clean using a 3rd party company and how did the agent try to scam you? From your comments above, the clean wasn't good enough, you went to court to fight it and the court agreed your bond clean wasn't good enough, hence you lost? Not sure how this is a scam. The agent would have given you a chance to correct the mistakes, but you chose not to and went the court option.
and can't believe how renters are treated.
On the flip side, I can't believe how SOME renters treat the places they rent to.
No one is perfect on both sides of the fence.
So the deal is, its showroom condition on the way in, and showroom condition on the way out.
So the deal is landlords flout the law by having tenants pay for wear and tear that they are not liable for.
The private sector fails again while the moronic victims of privatisation continue to vote for more privatisation because apparently these idiots cannot lose their own money fast enough.
So the deal is landlords flout the law by having tenants pay for wear and tear that they are not liable for.
Last time I looked, cleaning doesn't including fixing wear/tear. Tenants want a clean place to move into, then they need to leave it that way on the way out. Its only fair.
The private sector fails again
So you're putting up public housing as the alternative solution to privately controlled rental properties?
I certainly did not get lazy, I've had gardening and cleaning services in every fortnight except in the last month.
You asked a 'general' question, I gave a 'general' answer to it, I didn't say you got lazy.
If you have been getting gardening and cleaning services every fortnight, then there really shouldn't have been a huge amount of things to do when you moved out, so one of two things then.
Your fortnight services haven't been doing their jobs or your bond cleaner ripped you off.
I've been renting since 2003… since then for me. Agents and owners see this another income stream and it's rotten, owners don't like new places because it's 'harder' to get something back on bond. Slum lords everywhere.
They're not. You just only hear about the horror stories because the smooth cases of landlords being happy with a normal clean and refunding the bond aren't dramatic and don't make the news.
I just expect my tenants to maintain it to the same degree as I rented it to them. I got a bond clean group in before my tenants moved in. I wouldn't insist that they do the same, but they should aim for the same level of cleanliness. If it's not then we would have to bring in cleaners again before the next tenants and we may expense the tenant for that. We still have our original tenants in so haven't had to deal with that situation, and so far they've kept it cleaner than we did when we lived there.
Well how much did u pay? I paid something like $380 for inside, oven and carpets for a 3bed 2bath 3 storey town house. The one recommended by agent wanted $700+ so we went cheaper that included bond guarantee. (Vic) I did not think they did a great job but the agent said nothing. Probably helped we did a very thorough condition report with pics and video on the way in and had been there almost 4 years so they couldn't claim much as it was normal wear and tear. Had two cracked tiles and some black grout. Also had to soak the blind in bleach that was fun. But I got it white again so was worth it! The price was worth us not having to do it ourselves…
yes, 700 plus. Used the REA's cleaner.
That's how they get you! Plenty of other places do bond guarantee so you don't have to use the agent one. You know for next time…
You shouldn't get any hassles now though at least since u used theirs.
When agents started realising they could profit on bond claims. Where I live, if you give up their very brief time frane/opportunity to fulfil all requirements, they can take as much as they like from the bond. Safe bet for them is that most renters need some of the money back soon rather than none of it if it goes through arbitration.