Unreliable landlord, fianza, no contract

Dear lawyers,

me and other three girls have rented an apartment in Spain to stay here during our erasmus semester. We signed the first week a contract and paid a guarantee 400euro each, but after 4 months we are staying here, we still don´t have a contract nor any confirmation that we paid the guarantee (because it is stated in that contract).

This month is our last here and because the relationship with our landlord is not very good, we are worried she won´t pay us the guarantee back.

She also asked us to pay 800euros for final cleaning of the apartment (its a flat with 4bedrooms, livingroom, kitchen and 2bathrooms), which seems ridiculously high. Is there some limit? I also offered to clean on my own, but we heard from the previous tenants that she never find it sufficient and anyway rent the cleaning company.

And the last problem is that we destroyed (a bit burned) super old carpet sold by meter, and she wants us to repay it, how is the procedure to state the price for it? Because the carpet doesn´t have a value more than 20 euros.

Thank you very much for your respond, as we are not spanish she thinks she can treat us as a fools.

So my question is how can I protect myself to get the guarantee back, when I´m pretty sure, the landlord will charge us a lot for the final cleaning services and also for the destroyed carpet. Are there any limitations?

Thanks.
Jana

Hello Jana,

Your landlady cannot request to keep any money to cover cleaning costs, unless you left the apartment in a disastrous and filthy state. In any case you must be aware that 800 € Euros for cleaning is an abusive amount! Cleaning expenses cannot be demanded from the tenant, as the landlady is cleaning the apartment for it to be rented to someone else, and that is her duty, not yours. I recommend you to clean the apartment before leaving it and keep evidences ( witnesses, photos ) to be able to prove the apartment has been left in good living conditions.

Regarding the carpet, you would have to find out what is the approximate cost of a similar one and in this case the landlady has the right to keep an amount of the deposit to cover the cost of replacing it. If there was a conflict about the value of the carpet, a judge would have to take a decision for you.

If you vacate the apartment leaving it in perfect living conditions, the landlady cannot keep the deposit/guarantee. The fact of not having a written rental contract could mean an obstacle as you would be unable to prove those 1.200 Euros were given to her, though it could be proved by other means ( eye-witnesses, emails, etc..).

If you prefer to discuss the case in detail, please feel free to contact me.

Regards,