Landlord Took All Your Money? We Can Help

With Christmas and New Years now a distant memory, and what is hopefully the worst of the winter weather behind us, I have started trying to fulfill my resolutions for 2010. Tardy I know, but in years past they’ve gone unfulfilled full-stop, so better late than never is what I’m telling myself. After giving up smoking (and crossing off that tricky resolution that has been lingering on my list for about the past decade), the next major task is to find a new flat: this means dealing with landlords, and for end of tenancy cleaning London is a tough place. After trying to find a moving company and scouring the net for cheap professional carpet cleaning. I’ve got a bad case of the Mondays, and an even worse case of Bad Landlord Blues.
Shepard’s Bush has always been good to me, but I’m more than ready for the lifestyle change that will come moving somewhere a little more central, severing all ties with my elderly Australian landlord George in the process. Both very welcome alterations to my current existence. The thing is, back when I signed my lease in the summer of ’02 – my god, I’ve been in the Bush too long – I was just concerned with having somewhere to live, and party. Since then I have matured a good deal, and only recently found out that in addition to my New Year’s resolutions, there are contractual obligations that need fulfilling too.
The most tedious of these will be having my entire flat professionally cleaned, just as George – curmudgeonly old sod that he is – stipulated in my original lettings agreement way back when. If I don’t do this, George will do it for me, and the money will come out of my bond. I’d rather keep my £650, thanks. And so in addition to Bad Landlord Blues, cursing George in my sleep, I’ve also got tenancy cleaning doldrums, and acute rage toward all things professional carpet cleaning. Stopping smoking was easy compared to this. So currently, my New Year’s resolutions have come to something of a standstill. I am writing this now as a personal indictment to perseverance. I must go on... I must will myself to believe that George is not the stingy bastard he seems to be at times, to believe that there is a company who will perform an end of tenancy cleaning for less than a monthly mortgage payment on my new place, and I MUST believe that I can find carpet cleaning prices that reflect the difficulty involved in that activity. You wouldn’t pay someone a hundred and fifty quid to hoover your floors with a bit of water would you? And so this is what New Year’s resolutions are about...