Vacate cleaning

[Lanne]

We have just moved house. It was exhausting.
We had termites in our last house and it had gone on for too long.. and then they came back. with 2/3 of the house affected ..we moved out.

I had 4 days.. to pack, move and unpack and reset everything up because I had clients in on day 5 LOL

One of the things I really didnt want to do.. was clean the old place. Vacate cleaning always takes about 6 hours with both of us doing it.. and i was on my own this time.. so i thought about 10 - 12 hours.. gah. I dont have 10 - 12 hours.

We got a quote for the carpets.. $495 - $550 for the 4 bedrooms, office and media room.. seems reasonable? But there goes another 2 days.. one to wait around for the clean and one to air it.. bang goes my week and i am trying to work!

When we moved in here the real estate agent mentioned we had to have the blinds professionally cleaned? I asked for a quote as there are a lot of blinds and it could be ridiculously expensive!

She let me have the cleaners details. She had cleaned the entire house, carpets and blinds for $800! This got me thinking.. could I just pay her to clean the old place?

Unfortunately not - we were out of her area.. but the old real estate recommended a cleaner.. He is doing everything for $550 inc GST... $550.. bargain!!!

That includes 2 bathrooms, all the walls and marks (we had 5 marks), the oven (which i am horrified hasn't been cleaned in 6 - 8 weeks).. all the floors and carpets, all the light fittings, washing all the skirtings, washing and polishing all the windows and doors.. AND all the kitchen cupboards. The work is guarenteed and they come back if the agent isnt happy.

He has won me!! I gave him my keys.. he lets himself in, and returns the key to the real estate!

Has anyone else had any experience doing this? it is a first for me but i def like the sound of it

[Julie-Ann]

Oh my gosh what a gem of a man. That is the deal of the century:clapping:.

[Lanne]

It turns out he was less gem like!

He did the clean on the Monday but couldn't get carpet cleaners in until the Tuesday (he subcontracts that which I knew).

He called Monday night and I paid.. no problems again (this is what we had agreed to). Well.. the bill was higher than expected... No.. his bill did not include the carpet cleaners and we had to pay them as well. The total was now $705.. which I would say is still a good deal.. but it was more than I thought we had agreed to. (insisting on a written quote would be important I think). So I wasn't overly impressed.. but .. Ok.

I did the school run (near the old house) and so stopped in. EVERYTHING was unlocked. There was one glass sliding door finger locked. The rest was completely open..every window, every door.. including the front door! and the blinds were all open as well (whole back wall of the house is glass)..

I assume that the cleaner (who had keys) .. left the place open for the carpet cleaner who needed access to save himself from going back out there! The carpet cleaner of course had no keys.. so they left it open and blinds open to help dry the carpet!

I was horrified. The address is online and people had obviously walked through it. We were legally responsible for the house!

I closed up, locked everything and put the air con on dehum. so it would dry out accross the day and had to come back in the afternoon and check on everything and turn air con off (which dried the carpets well).

I would absolutely engage another cleaner (despite cleaning a few more things when I got there) but.. a professional quote and a more professional cleaner might be needed.

[Julie-Ann]

How disappointing:(. But good advice to all of us to get a written quote.

[Elements]

Love the idea of the cleaner, Hubby has a problem with paying them though....but he does most of the cleaning so I am not complaining.
I am sorry to hear he was not very reliable but your right always get things in writing....and I hope your move into your other place happened with ease.:)

[mjm]

I absolutely detest vacate cleaning as I pretty much superficially clean things most of the time so by vacate time it needs a complete scrub down, especially the walls from the kids.... I'm so glad we own a house now and don't have to deal with inspections and vacate cleans.. my last one was about 7 years ago now, I had 4 kids, the youngest was nearly a 2 year old at the time, it was stressful enough just trying to get all the paper work together and jumping through hoops to get the loan for the house, I was exhausted after packing stuff and knowing I had to clean the new house before putting stuff away as well as clean up the house we were vacating :eek: my OH couldn't take time of work so most of it was left to me until he could help on the weekend with the moving of furniture and boxes.
I called my two best friends to come give me a hand to do the vacate clean at night, one turned up, the other one used her OH as an excuse not to come, said he would get angry with her.... a month or so later I found out that was crap and that she had just used him as an excuse not to come and help.. not happy jan.... the amount of times I have stuck up for her against her abusive OH and then she uses it as an excuse to not help me... her argument was that she had done my dishes on occasion when she had come to visit me before... I told her that was actually insulting for her to do my dishes and I had never asked her to do them ever. I need a friend when I need them, not when it is convenient for them. We argued on the phone and I pointed out that I do a lot of stuff around the house besides housework that requires physical labour to which she replied "I'm not very bright but I can lift heavy stuff".... not a good move. Anyhow that was the end of that 18 year friendship.
I haven't looked back since. You soon find out who your friends really are when you NEED help and they aren't there for you. Oh and then after working till after 3am in the morning scrubbing walls she turns up on my door at 8am waking me up when I am just totally knackered because she is now ready to come and help me... yeah thanks for that... I had a 2 yr old so I needed to get the work done at night time, not while I am trying to watch a 2 yr old and spraying toxic fumes into the oven!! so after a hard night I am then left entertaining her and making cuppas... grrrr ok, vent done :o:)

[Julie-Ann]

Sorry things turned out that way Mjm:(.

[mjm]

thanks julieanne, its all good now :D

[savelakealbert]

Well vented!! Gosh that must have been a stressful time for you. You certainly are having a bit of a rough trot....everything comes in cycles. so hopefully very soon, things will calm down and you can look back on everything...and........
CATHX