Final Charge Of Cleaning After Move Out! (apartment, security deposit, inspections)
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Unless there is a specific state aw stating landlords cannot require the tenant to pay for carpet cleaning unless the carpet is damaged, it is completely normal for landlords to either a) require the tenants to have the carpets professionally cleaned on move out, and b) to clean the carpets professionally, and charge it to the tenant. That is pretty much industry standard these days.
It should, however, discuss the required charges for carpet cleaning in your lease or other move-in paperwork. Check your records: if it does discuss your liability to have carpets cleaned, then, well, if you had a problem with that you shouldn't have signed that lease. On the other hand, if it doesn't, you might get somewhere complaining that they never alerted you to the fact that you were liable for the cleaning of the carpets upon move out.
In most states the law is that they are only required to do the move out inspection in front of the tenant if the tenant requests it. (Sometimes they aren't even required to do that.) If you didn't ask for this, then most likely they did not do anything wrong. Check your state law.
We rented a home through an agency for a year. Never again! It was agreed upon that steam cleaning the living room carpet would come out of our deposit. We had two toddlers, and there were a few stains that I was not able to get out, so we considered this fair and reasonable. Our deposit had been $800, so we were expecting to get some of that back; we did not know how much a carpet cleaning cost, but we assumed we'd get back at least half.
Instead of the rest of our deposit, we received a BILL for $750! They sent a letter stating that they needed to charge us for the cleanup of a stain on the driveway (???), a screen door that did not close all the way (which we called about two weeks after it was replaced due to a hurricane... it was not hung properly in the first place, but they never fixed it), and 36 hours worth of "miscellaneous cleaning." The house was clean when we left it. I had mopped the floors, cleaned out the appliances, etc.
What I did was send a letter certified mail, and copied to an attorney who happens to be a family member. I wrote that the door was reported as faulty shortly after it was installed, that we were not paying for a mark on the driveway, and that I'd like an itemized bill for exactly what took 36 hours to clean. We never heard back from them, nor did we receive the rest of our deposit. Nothing was ever sent in to the credit bureau.
We are currently renting from a sweetheart of a private landlord. That other experience left a bad taste in our mouth for dealing with rental agencies.
Having rental properties, the perspective of whats clean comes up often. Normal wear and tear is a cost of doing business. You might think that glass shower door is clean because you wiped it down. If I see water spots, I'm going to try to clean it. If I can't remove the spots you don't pay. If they come off you pay. That's the way I rented it to you, that's how I expect to get it back.
I'm currently a landlord and rent out my basement, which I plan on converting to a full apt. in the future. So far, I would say being a live-in landlord has given me advantages of keeping an eye on the place. If something goes wrong, they notify me immediately. My last tenant moved out and left me about 3 hrs of cleaning. Now that my second tenant is moving out, I want to make it very clear the expectations on move-out so my work before the next tenant is upgrades, not cleaning. I'm going to add stipulations for the new tenant on cleaning common areas and carpet cleaning-either make it mandatory to have professionally cleaned on move-out or charge a non-refundable carpet cleaning from the beginning because no one wants to pay for that unless forced. No matter how clean a tenant is, it has to be done. I'm not sure what to charge an hourly rate for on cleaning yet. I pre-screen my tenants very carefully since I live with them, so most are very respectful of my property and clean.
I'm currently a landlord and rent out my basement, which I plan on converting to a full apt. in the future. So far, I would say being a live-in landlord has given me advantages of keeping an eye on the place. If something goes wrong, they notify me immediately. My last tenant moved out and left me about 3 hrs of cleaning. Now that my second tenant is moving out, I want to make it very clear the expectations on move-out so my work before the next tenant is upgrades, not cleaning. I'm going to add stipulations for the new tenant on cleaning common areas and carpet cleaning-either make it mandatory to have professionally cleaned on move-out or charge a non-refundable carpet cleaning from the beginning because no one wants to pay for that unless forced. No matter how clean a tenant is, it has to be done. I'm not sure what to charge an hourly rate for on cleaning yet. I pre-screen my tenants very carefully since I live with them, so most are very respectful of my property and clean.
Make sure you read up on your local laws and see if they say otherwise. Where I am, units only have to be left in "broomed clean" condition when a tenant moves out, which is a very low threshold to meet. I'd be unable to charge for any household cleaning unless it was above normal wear and tear, such as smoke odors or pet stains.
I'm currently a landlord and rent out my basement, which I plan on converting to a full apt. in the future. So far, I would say being a live-in landlord has given me advantages of keeping an eye on the place. If something goes wrong, they notify me immediately. My last tenant moved out and left me about 3 hrs of cleaning. Now that my second tenant is moving out, I want to make it very clear the expectations on move-out so my work before the next tenant is upgrades, not cleaning. I'm going to add stipulations for the new tenant on cleaning common areas and carpet cleaning-either make it mandatory to have professionally cleaned on move-out or charge a non-refundable carpet cleaning from the beginning because no one wants to pay for that unless forced. No matter how clean a tenant is, it has to be done. I'm not sure what to charge an hourly rate for on cleaning yet. I pre-screen my tenants very carefully since I live with them, so most are very respectful of my property and clean.
In order to keep money from a security deposit, you must send along the paid receipt for the services to the past tenant w/i 30 days in almost all jurisdictions. You cannot perform the work yourself and charge to former tenant. So hire a cleaning service and submit the paid receipt.
My leases stipulate that move in and move out conditions must be the same. Upon move in, the tenants complete a form indicating any repairs needed and the move in cleanliness. Then upon move out, I send an email prior to move out indicating all the cleanliness expected (windows and ledges, interior and exterior of cabinets and closets, flooring, light fixtures, switch plates, countertops and faucets, etc. etc. etc.). If the place is not cleaned I hire someone to clean it and withhold that amount from the returned security deposit.
You cannot perform the work yourself and charge to former tenant. So hire a cleaning service and submit the paid receipt.
In every jurisdiction I've heard of, you can definitely do the work yourself and deduct the materials from the security deposit. There's no rule that you have to hire a cleaning company or handyman if you're perfectly capable of doing the work yourself. This will usually end up saving the tenant money, anyway.
In every jurisdiction I've heard of, you can definitely do the work yourself and deduct the materials from the security deposit. There's no rule that you have to hire a cleaning company or handyman if you're perfectly capable of doing the work yourself. This will usually end up saving the tenant money, anyway.
Absolutely deduct the materials (because you would have a receipt) but not the labor -- which is the major expense in cleaning. I have been drilled that a landlord cannot directly bill a tenant for her own services that come in the form of labor. Labor can only be billed when paid to a 3rd party
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