Accused by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) of failing to provide cleaning services and for making false and misleading statements, Deepak Verma from Brisbane will have to pay more than $10,000.
Deepak Verma operated an online company offering pest control and cleaning services to customers in Queensland.
There were six counts of failing to perform all the services for which he was paid, and six other accusing him of false or misleading statements, and in all counts Mr. Verma was pleaded guilty.
He was fined $7,000 and ordered to pay $3,321.60 to six affected consumers.
It was reported to the Court that Mr Verma accepted payments from eight clients to provide end of tenancy cleaning with a “100% bond back guarantee”.
And along with this guarantee, the website provided a checklist of cleaning services, which in addition to not passing on the property exit inspection, the items were not completed by the cleaners.
Mr. Verma’s clients were forced to accept the bond with an amount removed, or to pay another cleaning company to get their money back. Mr Verma failed to clean the property to an acceptable standard and did not refund the customers’ money.
Fair Trading Executive Director Brian Bauer said failing to provide services of this nature was a strain on landlords and consumers alike.
“Consumers are paying for cleaning services in an attempt to do right by their landlords, leaving them with a clean house,” Mr Bauer said.
“Moving house is stressful and costly enough, without the threat of losing your bond, or being forced to fork out for a second bond clean.
“If a cleaning business is going to advertise a bond back guarantee, they need follow through on that promise.”
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