End of Tenancy cleaning

The letting agent, we have been with for the past 6 months has been a complete nightmare from the beginning. We didn't have a working oven for over a month, didn't have a working toilet seat for over a month, didn't have a light in the living room for over a month - (in fact it still wasn't done when check out inspection was done). We cleaned the flat from top to bottom however check out inspection was carried out a week after we handed in the keys. They don't let you be present for the inspection either. They are charging us £200 for light cleaning - it's a 1 bedroom flat. The photos they took of the dirt you can hardly see. Its literally spots of dust. Its worth noting that the vacuum cleaner they provided was not effective at deep cleaning at all - but had to make do. They told us before we moved in that they would get cleaners into the flat - what they didn't say was this cost would be passed onto the current tenants. Tenant before us still had 2 months of their lease remaining before we moved in. There is nothing in the tenancy agreement that says it needs to be done to a professional standard. When we moved in the check in report said that it was however the shower curtain was filthy and mouldy that we had to replace there were 5 bulbs in kitchen and hallway that weren't replaced either. We also didn't realise that the block of flats is mixed tenure and the flat directly next door is used as homeless accommodation and the tenant above was highly aggressive meaning we felt uncomfortable for the term of our lease. We felt compelled to leave a month early due to the nightmare neighbours. The letting agent are being quite unfair with cleaning charges - they are not apologising for the problems we had on the tenancy either but instead blaming the problems down to the contractors they use.
Don't really know where to go to complain about this - we live in Scotland so things might be different in terms of the law compared to England and Wales. I asked what needed to be done and they didn't give any cleaning list and they just said to hand in the keys.

Please can you help us ?

Reply 1

doodle_333

Was your deposit protected? If so file a dispute with the DPS. If not, it's a legal requirement that the deposit is protected so you can advise them of that fact and inform them you won't file a complaint against them (which could lead to big fines) providing they return your full deposit (or your deposit minus a reasonable cleaning fee). Also - do you have your own pictures of the flat when you left? This will be helpful for your claim.