March out charges

[Craig855s]

Had my proxy march out carried out last thursday (2 and a bit weeks after we moved down south..and 6 weeks after i phoned DE to book the march out-wanted to do it myself the day removals came)

Anyway, Me and the missus spent the whole week leading up to the move cleaning,along with the whole day of the move out cleaning the house (4 hours alone doing the cooker with micromesh and vinegar) and I wouldnt leave the house on the monday until it was absolutely spotless. Carpets cleaned,windows polished,walls wiped,pinholes painted,kitchen units and drawers cleaned out..everything. Not a spot of mess anywhere!

Anyway,my proxy contacts me on Thursday saying the march out had been finished and a few things that been noted (at least 1 piece of burnt on carbon on the cooker shelves and some "greasey/sticky wall(s)"..however he told DE that i had done the pre-payment clean thing (he had this in his mind because he was doing a second proxy march out that day for a lad who had pre-paid)..
So the DE guy says "There is no pre-payment here but ill check at the office" and my mate calls me, i tell him I havent pre-paid and the house should be spotless and if he could have a word with the DE guy and see how much these wee bits will cost me.. He comes back with "A level 3 sparkle..at one hundred and eighty something pounds inc admin fee"
Now for an oven sparkle (which i know to be just under 30 quid) and a wipe of possibly ONE WALL (we may have missed one wall while cleaning but we certainly didnt miss half a house) how the hell can they charge me nearly 200 quid to have a cleaner spend half an hour or so bringing the house up to inspection standards.

Im beginning the complaint/appeal procedure tomorrow (tried today but DEs offices are closed for staff training..which seems to be a common occurance when i call em)

Leave a house in a completely uncleaned (apart from hoover round) state and u get charged 280 quid...to spend dozens of manhours of ur life doing the house to get charged 60% of the full charge is just rediculous!

I wont go into what happened when we tried to march into our allocated house at RAF badquarters but we'll leave it at....We didnt march in it was so bad! contractors had left **** in the loo and the cleaners hadnt been near the house in months so we were allocated another house there on the spot (after the missus was in tears stood in a hellhole of a "home" they wanted us to take

Anyone else had any experience of marchout charges not reflecting the standard of the house

 

[Weebl]

Anyone else had any experience of marchout charges not reflecting the standard of the house

Lots of people mate, including me.

My first ever DHE marchout after they took over from the RAF we cleaned the house to our normal marchout standard. We then moved up to Coningsby and were offered, what I can only descrive as a minging hovel.

I pointed out to the bloke doing the march in that the place was filthy, the paintwork was sh1t and the garden had building rubble all over it and had no fence apart from a few rusting bits of wire laid all over the place.

All he could do was show me the bill from the cleaning company dated 3 days previously which he thought 'proved' the place was clean, even though we are stood in the house which clearly had not been touched for months. Same with the paintwork, he had a bill for painting, so it obviously had been painted (I was at this point peeling flakes of paint off the wall and showing it him) As to the garden, yes it was a bit untidy but he would have a man round in a few weeks.

It was at this point I remembered I was speaking to a representative of a commercial company, not a families officer. I pointed out the RAF would be interested in bills paid to parts of his company, by other parts of his company and ultimately paid for by the RAF, when anybody who was not a fcuking moron could see fcuk all had been done (I was incredibly p1ssed off at this point and the bloke was obviously treating me like a cnut) Also, while I am on a roll, the garden is not untidy, it is dangerous and a hazard, and seeing as I was dealing with a commercial company, should my young child hurt himself in it, I would take great pleasure in suing both him, and his company.

Result was, we cleaned the house and got 3 months free rent, they painted the place within the week and the day of march in 6 blokes came round and sorted the garden in 3 hours.

The real kick in the crotch was when my mate doing my proxy marchout reported that while the bloke was checking the front room in our old house, he found a hair in the lightshade (from when my missus took it down to clean it) My mate removed it but the bloke said it would still be billed, at half an hours labour, totalling £18.

I told them they had no chance I was paying for a clearly made up charge and they could write to my boss if they wanted it as I would ignore all correspondence in the matter. Never heard another thing.

That is what you need to do, remember that they are a commercial company, not part of the RAF and treat them as such.

(disclaimer) I have done a couple of march outs since then and without fail have been treated fairly by the varied parties involved, they are not all cnuts.

 

[vim_fuego]

This is an area of our lives that needs to be addressed by an independant review...I swear animals get treated better either when marching in or out and the practise of not allowing people to view houses before being put on the spot after a long tiring car journey is so unacceptable its bordering on the insane...They seem to get away with it because of the 'you're paying peanuts for the place to quit whinging' excuse whilst forgetting that if you're posted somewhere where you don't want to be it is your only option as a home until you've done your bird and able to move on...and why should we pay top dollar for a house that every year the internal dimensions shrink by a couple of mm when the numb-nuts of a painter and decorator contractor puts yet another layer of cheap paint everywhere, even where it shouldn't be, then charges whoever runs the quarters these days for a full, in-depth re-dec...

As you can tell I'm not a fan...

 

[MakkaPakka1]

I give in I do. I just pay the cleaner because neither me, my missus or the baby can be asred with any of the hassle. It's rediculous, the money that they charge people doesn't seem to go towards cleaning the house anyway. Our current qtr had sh*te on the walls, dead insects, mucky celing, the garden looked like a tip, and the shed was full of old toys and coat hangers. THE DOOR HANLDES HAD FELL OFF ON 3 ROOMS! I know the rent is only peanuts, but like ya man says, when your being posted to places like (for example) Marham, you dont expect to feel like a cheapskate. The rent is cheap because we get posted every so often and its a hinderence to family stability ie kids schools and missus's job, not to live in a hovel.

Always like a nice rant. I wonder if anything will ever change with the situ? Doubt it.

 

[Talk Wrench]

I give in I do. I just pay the cleaner because neither me, my missus or the baby can be asred with any of the hassle. It's rediculous, the money that they charge people doesn't seem to go towards cleaning the house anyway. Our current qtr had sh*te on the walls, dead insects, mucky celing, the garden looked like a tip, and the shed was full of old toys and coat hangers. THE DOOR HANLDES HAD FELL OFF ON 3 ROOMS! I know the rent is only peanuts, but like ya man says, when your being posted to places like (for example) Marham, you dont expect to feel like a cheapskate. The rent is cheap because we get posted every so often and its a hinderence to family stability ie kids schools and missus's job, not to live in a hovel.

Always like a nice rant. I wonder if anything will ever change with the situ? Doubt it.

You get cheap rent because the housing is substandard. End of story.

Just to highlight how pathetic the system was when it moved from families to DHE, I was asked to move quarters because the house I was in was about to be sold off as part of Aningtons exorbitant profit making scheme.

I was given the keys to the new quarter to have a look and accepted.

I also went and grabbed a wagon, took the "inspection passed " cooker out of the new quarter and swapped it with "clean but not to inspection standard " cooker in my soon to be old quarter.

Yep, you guessed it. On march out, even though nobody else would be moving into my old quarter, I was told that my cooker was not clean enough by the very same man who handed me over the same cooker, which was certified as clean in the new quarter.

Oh how I laughed as I was billed 30 quid for my foresight and ingenuity.


TW

 

[The Logitician]

I give in I do. I just pay the cleaner because neither me, my missus or the baby can be asred with any of the hassle. It's rediculous, the money that they charge people doesn't seem to go towards cleaning the house anyway. Our current qtr had sh*te on the walls, dead insects, mucky celing, the garden looked like a tip, and the shed was full of old toys and coat hangers. THE DOOR HANLDES HAD FELL OFF ON 3 ROOMS! I know the rent is only peanuts, but like ya man says, when your being posted to places like (for example) Marham, you dont expect to feel like a cheapskate. The rent is cheap because we get posted every so often and its a hinderence to family stability ie kids schools and missus's job, not to live in a hovel.

Always like a nice rant. I wonder if anything will ever change with the situ? Doubt it.

Does anyone know how much the average charge would be for them to clean the house, standard 3 bed?

 

[Craig855s]

Does anyone know how much the average charge would be for them to clean the house, standard 3 bed?

Its something like £260 and u pay in advance of your move out date. And all u have to do is hoover the floor and make sure the lav aint minging then walk out the door. So long as there is no damage thats all u will pay. Or you could walk out the door after hoovering and bog cleaning WITHOUT paying the pre-pay charge and see what the march out person says..the MAXIMUM you can be charged if the housing dude picks fault with everything (which he will if u haven dusted owt etc) is £280

Those facts are correct (give or take a few quid) for DHE prime contract scotland (rosyth)

Im writing a proper letter of complaint and appeal to Rosyth and i will refuse to pay up until ive had
a)photo proof of the dirt theyre talking about
b)a quote on the cleaning req'd..worst case scenario its an hours labour..more like 10 minutes if im imagining the 1 speck of carbon and 1 spec of olive oil on the wall correctly

I think there are back-handers going on somewhere, that £180 aint going to a cleaning company..no way

 

[grumpyoldb]

Now it seems that there is a lucrative sideline possible for a few unemployed wifey's on each station. Set up a march out cleaning session for say £180.
I'm sure lots would pay it.

 

[Talk Wrench]

Now it seems that there is a lucrative sideline possible for a few unemployed wifey's on each station. Set up a march out cleaning session for say £180.
I'm sure lots would pay it.

I know of one person who's wife did this at a large transport station and I kid you not, the carpet cleaniing consisted of her "MOPPING the carpets to spread the dirt around, letting it dry a bit and then hoovering over the carpets"
Go for the "approved" method of letting someones mrs earn a dodgy few quid out of the sight of HMRC and you're okay.

Do it yourself and do a stirling job, cough up anyway out of your tax free disturbance allowance.


Can you see how this beginning to form a picture?


TW

 

[SgtScribbly]

some people have no shame

even if I was I, would never be posting a thread about being a minger

DT_Xtremez_42:

 

[The Logitician]

Its something like £260 and u pay in advance of your move out date. And all u have to do is hoover the floor and make sure the lav aint minging then walk out the door. So long as there is no damage thats all u will pay. Or you could walk out the door after hoovering and bog cleaning WITHOUT paying the pre-pay charge and see what the march out person says..the MAXIMUM you can be charged if the housing dude picks fault with everything (which he will if u haven dusted owt etc) is £280

Those facts are correct (give or take a few quid) for DHE prime contract scotland (rosyth)

Im writing a proper letter of complaint and appeal to Rosyth and i will refuse to pay up until ive had
a)photo proof of the dirt theyre talking about
b)a quote on the cleaning req'd..worst case scenario its an hours labour..more like 10 minutes if im imagining the 1 speck of carbon and 1 spec of olive oil on the wall correctly

I think there are back-handers going on somewhere, that £180 aint going to a cleaning company..no way

Cheers mate, good to know, seems like it is worth taking the risk if the max is £280. When i left my last quater, my own fault, whole cooker was spotless apart from one half of the wire rack, charge £53.50, and we all know it was left.

The quater i am in at the mo, when i moved in the cooker was bloody disgusting, unfortuantley being new at the time to the whole march in things, i never gave the place a good look over, a bit nieve i know. When i complained they agreed that the cooker will be cleaned for me, i have that in text, however i wish i complained about the rest, too bloody nice, not anymore.

Biggest bunch of c~@ts around, told me it will take them 72 days to get back to me with an answer to wether they will clean my carpets, hallway/downstairs, the 3yr clean point. ******'s

 

[Craig855s]

Paying some wifey £180 to clean the house for u offers no guarantee that DE wont charge u anyway..wheras paying DE the pre-pay method guarantees a pass..because DE send the cleaners in not before they do the march out..not after they do the march out...but just before the new tenants march in (therefore,after any contractors have been in in their muddy shoes and whatnot)

However,surely DE have to pay to get the house cleaned pre-march in anyway (if u march out of a house without charge then 8 months later the house is allocated to someone..surely there will be cleaning required..and DE will fork out for the cleaners to spend a day getting the house ready) but when they do charge people then that means they only have the property cleaned just before march in..not straight after u march out then again at march in

 

[Tashy_Man]

Now it seems that there is a lucrative sideline possible for a few unemployed wifey's on each station. Set up a march out cleaning session for say £180.
I'm sure lots would pay it.

When we finally left quarters last year we got an "approved" cleaners details from the Hive. (I was offshore at the time and didn't want the hastle for my missus)

Paid the woman, removals came, apparently the cleaner then went in but god knows what she did as when my missus did the march out they said nothing had been touched and we would be billed the full cleaning charge (plus a bit of damage but that was expected). We gave them the details of the cleaner but were informed that we would have to pay the charge and recover the money paid to the cleaner ourselves.
This woman used to work on camp (as a cleaner !) but could find no details out (where she lived etc.) to take her to court as she refused all our calls.

I did hear that they had had problems with her before but the hive was still giving her details out......also heard that she got sacked so that was some good news but it didn't get our money back.

If using one of these services I would get full details of the company and address and what is covered, in writing and get a receipt for all money paid.

 

[Sniffer]

At my last Unit, I used one of the wifeys who had set up her own gaff cleaning business and she was the absolute dogs dangly bits.

My marchout was 4 days after removals so I left her a set of keys and she got on with it.

At the march out she arrived half an hour early, with bucket and cloths etc to give it a quick once over. The guy doing the march out had a quick nosey round then told me that he knows there will be no issues as she has got an excellent record of march out cleans. Didnt check the oven or anything!

Just hope her hubby gets posted to this Unit so I can use her again. DT_Xtremez_30:

 

[T93]

You get cheap rent because the housing is substandard. End of story.

******

As per TWs statement above.

The houses are sh+t so you pay rent accordingly.

 

[Crabbity Ann]

At my last (which was also my first) marchout we were billed £120 for a 1-inch diametre dent in the bedroom door. I don't mind paying for damage I've caused but the thing that fcuks me off is knowing that my money is probably lining someone else's pockets while the new occupants of number six have to live with a still dented door.

I knew the ppl that had the house before me and they said they were (understandably) billed because of damage their dog had inflicted on the kitchen cupboards. We accepted the house on the agreement that there was a work order in place already. Over a year and umpteen harassing phonecalls later someone finally came out to look at the doors. It took another 3 or 4 months for them to finally fit some oversized, clashing-coloured doors with handles that fell off (were only glued on) after 3 weeks use. They looked better with half the bottoms chewed up.

I just don't understand why it's ok to take us for a ride when if this happened to civvies there'd be hell to pay. If the council started billing people willy nilly for really anal stuff (exaggerating and in some cases apparently making things up) forcing people to pay for repairs that never happen or only 'sort of' happen.....well, actually...as I type I'm starting to see some similarities. Seriously though, this system is totally unjust.

 

[Mug?]

as said

as said

The DE cleaners are the only sure way of getting a bill free clean. Damage and wear is another matter.
All I say is get everything down on that 14 day sheet, mucky carpets/ pin holes damage, etc. then when you come to march out there is something in writing.

The houses are sh+t so you pay rent accordingly.

not always true. the 4 tier grading doesn't always work.
you can have a house with only a few sockets, decoration substandard, no window locks or shaver socket, fixtures and fitings all damaged/ chipped, carpets stained and all manor or faults and it will still only attract 5 penalty points. where as next door can be fantastic and refitted out and you pay the same!! or even worse they could be a lower grade because they are a fraction closer to a runway?

There is not a standard house, but there is a standard charge.
Gone are the days where you can try to get above entitlement, so you find young couples in a 3 bed paying the same as a family with 3 kids.
The whole system is open to abuse, I know one estate manager whose brother ran the repair and cleaning contractors. he was the same guy who told me i had to pay £100 extra on top of contract price to clean the carpets because I had a small child. The same as pet owners had too!

 

[Crabbity Ann]

you can have a house with only a few sockets, decoration substandard, no window locks or shaver socket, fixtures and fitings all damaged/ chipped, carpets stained and all manor or faults and it will still only attract 5 penalty points.

When were you round mine? DT_Xtremez_31:

Sad thing is...I'm not even joking DT_Xtremez_09:

 

[ChrisBrit81]

If they do manage to get the money out of you, they certainly won't get anyone in to clean up the so called "mess". They'll leave it there for the new occupants to put it on their 14 day observation sheet, and that will be that.

My colleage put a dog flap in his back door, on march out he was charged £200 for a new back door, which he admitted was fair. 8 years later he was posted back to the same camp on promotion and for "old times sake" took a wander to his old married quarter... lo and behold they had never replaced the door and his dog flap was still there 8 years later.

 

[Stevienics]

I would walk off with the old back door out of pure spite. Plus anything else they asked me to "replace".