Cleaners

[Tasty]

As some of you may have read in my posts in various threads...we had a cleaner clean our new house that we moved into today as the owners had already moved out a few weeks back.

I chose her the real estate agent got her to clean the oven in the new place as it was disgusting. She did a really good job for the condition it was in.

Anyway, she I mentioned to her some of the things I wanted doing but she said she could do everything and it would take her about 6 hours.  Anyway, today we got to go in and see the results. Firstly, she didn't do the dusty blinds which was the thing that I wanted done most. She said they needed unscrewing and doing by a blind cleaning person. I noticed one blind in the main bed had been removed and just left on the sill instead of being put back in place. She said she had done all the windows - but I could see all the watermarks like it had been washed with some cloth, especially when sun was shining directly through. The doors and walls hadn't been done even though she said she could do everything several times. She spent 7 hours there and all I can really tell that she did was the windows, which weren't done properly and probably the mopping. She said she did the kitchen but I didn't notice much difference to when I went earlier in the week and did most of it.

I'm quite disappointed and haven't paid her yet. I want to mention all these problems but don't know if I should pay the full amount and get her to come fix the problems or what? What would you do? And do your cleaners clean windows so they're streak free (I'm sure I do a better job with my cheap squeegee). I even noticed a flyscreen not put back in place and it had fallen apart too.

Does anyone know of any decent cleaners out there in Perth?

[Mama Fergie]

My cleaner does anything that i ask her to do but obviously within the 3 hours that I pay her for..
She will clean windows, my oven, even my fridge and pantry.
Normally she dusts, vacuums, mops and does all the bathrooms thoroughly but if I need something else to be done I ask her to leave the guest bedrooms and bathrooms if haven't even used and she will do something else. She does the skirtings and steel balustrades on the staircase and void.
She works for magic maids here in Perth. We are NOR 

[mcmich]

That's disappointing tasty. My cleaner is great. She doesn't do windows though, I have a fellow come and do that 3 times a year and he charges $200.00 for a 2 storey home and that includes the tracks.

I don't know what sort of venetian blinds you have. I had wooden (wood tone) blinds in my last house and I dusted/cleaned them regularly. I thought I would have them done professionally and the company came and took them away for the day and they came back like brand new. It cost me well over $500.00 for a three bedroom home plus study, lounge, familyroom and dinning room.

At the moment I have white wooden venetians and as I have had them from new they are reguarly dusted and don't require a lot of maintenance.

Maybe question the cleaner before payment is made.

[obbie]

I have a cleaner 4 hours a fortnight.
she vacums, mops floors, does all my windows, ( I have a enjo)  2 bathrooms, dusts, mops 2 more bedrooms, and office downstairs.

 I would question her before payment.

[Yvette]

Tasty that is no good, unfortunately there are a lot of bad cleaners out there, speak with the real estate agent and see what he says

[goldfish]

I thought it would have been up to the previous owners to either DIY or have professional cleaners come in as part of their obligation.  I think this cleaner may have been a little overly optimistic as to how much she could get done - just the blinds would have taken considerable time to do them properly - and yes - if you can, have them done professionally.  Companies who do this will come in, take the blinds down, and reinstall them after they've been cleaned.  I know it's more expense but I think you'd be pleased with the result.  As Yvette suggested, have a word to the real estate agent.

[faffa_70]

Unfortunately there is no obligation on the previous owner to clean the house unless you have it stated in your contract of sale (as my Dad found out this year when he purchased a house of sloppy PIGS!!) the only obligation is to remove all rubbish from the property 

7 hours is a lot of cleaning time, especially in an empty house where you are not having to work around furniture etc ... I would be questioning her before payment.

[gertbysea]

You will need to negotiate the payment I think. The work was not done and no point in getting the same person again. Lesson learned. She probably did the best she could do but she was not a professional. I would say  pay her 75%.

For a home like this you need what they call exit cleaners. You get a team who make the  place like new including washing down the walls and every other service. One person for 7 hours is way to optimistic.  4 people for 8 hours would be reasonable.

Call in  professionals. Expensive mistake but you want your new home to shine for you.


Gert

[cookie1]

How very frustrating. Perhaps you could ask her to itemise the jobs she did.

[meganjane]

Wow! 7 hours! The house should have been sparkling.

Definitely speak with the Real Estate Agent.

I'm so very lucky. The house we bought was pristine clean when we took over. We purchased anything they wanted to leave as they were travelling and leaving a lot of stuff. I can't believe how much stuff I got for the money I paid. And how gorgeous the place looked.

She had put a reed diffuser in the main room and had little smelly things in other rooms. They even rang a couple of times to make sure everything was all right and she even wanted to come and do the gardening after we'd taken over!!

[Mama Fergie]

Here in the west they are called vacate cleaners which would be exactly the same as Gert's exit cleaners.
I have done this in the past after selling a home and it's been sparkling clean everywhere.
Well worth the little bit extra cash as nobody wants to move into a home that is less than clean 

[Tasty]

Thank you all for your responses. I am definitely going to be questioning her and am still deciding whether to pay her in full and ask her to do the windows again properly or do as Gert sugggested and pay 75%. Needless to say, I will not be using her or recommending her in future.

7 hours - although it sounds a lot isn't much time when the place needs a good clean. I did a quick clean of all the kitchen cupboards the other day when I had the carpet cleaner go through and that took me long enough. Then I did a thorough clean today (after the cleaner had gone through) and that took quite a while, amongst sorting and organising the kitchen.

As for the blinds, we are thinking of getting new ones in the main bedroom as the current ones are temperamental and flimsy and we want blockout blinds so the room doesn't heat up in summer.

I'll keep you updated with what happens re the cleaner.

Oh and I did look into vacate cleaning but thought it was just a big cost at $550-$600 to have a few people come in and do an exit clean. So instead I went with this cleaner the real estate agent recommended at $30/hr. Next time, I will just save my money and do it myself slowly to my standard (something I am in the process of doing now anyway )

Thanks for all your suggestions/comments. Something I've learnt from.

[Tasty]

So I ended up calling the cleaner saying I wanted to discuss the cleaning. I told her some of the issues I've mentioned above in a calm and polite manner. The cleaner started making excuses eg saying 'did you know it rained?' regarding the windows. When I told her these were not rain stains....she didn't have anything to say. She just kept saying 'What do you want me to do?' so after mentioning a few of the problems I had with her cleaning...I mentioned how I did not want to pay her in full due to these. She had a really bad attitude during the conversation and as soon I said this, she got angry at me and hung up.

Later in the day we received a text from the real estate agent asking her to pay us in full as she did what we asked of her and at short notice.

We informed the real estate agent that this was not the case and even though she made the initial referral, it was now a matter between us and her.

So we texted her (so she couldn't hang up again) and she ignored the fact of the blind that was broken and couldn't be reattached, etc and her reply was only. Are you going to pay me in full? We asked her for an itemised invoice of what she did and for how long ....as the more I think about it....there was no way she needed 7 hours for what she did end up doing. We're still waiting to hear back from her even though she agreed to it.

I think next time I will only trust recommendations from people close to us.

[gertbysea]

Sounds like you are doing everything right.  Good lesson for all of us to call in the professionals.

I am surprised that she did not own up to the broken blind though. We all know theses things can happen but at least say sorry and the whole job was beyond her . Cleaning is a very hard job and to do it well it does take time.  I am astounded that my cleaner has to take three hours to clean my house but   it does actually sparkle when  I return.  If she were doing a vacate clean she would need two days at least if she were on her own, possibly longer.

I hope it is  sorted soon so you can be rid of the angst hanging around the house.

Gert

[Yvette]

Tasty I would be tempted to just send her a cheque or however you were going to pay with the 75% of the total as you had mentioned earlier which is probably still too much and see what happens