Rental Property Investor · San Marino, CA · Member since 2011 · 398 posts · 144 votes
Wanted to survey all the multifamily managers out there and ask them how much of the actual unit turnover costs do you deduct from the tenant security deposit?
For example, typically if a tenant leaves the unit in good condition, we'll refund the full security deposit minus a nominal cleaning fee. However, there will still be some charges incurred by landlord such as carpet cleaning, touchup painting, etc that is goes over that cleaning fee. In this case, I would incur that overage as a turnover cost.
Obviously if there are large damages or larger jobs, I would deduct from the deposit.
I'm curious of all the landlords out there, how much of the turnover that you charge to the previous tenant and how much you incur as the landlord's expense?
Jason Mak we are operating in the class A world, and have written a $200 "Restoration Fee" into our leases. The fee is charged at the time of move out, so it's deducted from the deposit refund. And we also charge for actual cleaning and damages, which usually translates into recovering about 50% of our turn cost.
Jason Mak we are operating in the class A world, and have written a $200 "Restoration Fee" into our leases. The fee is charged at the time of move out, so it's deducted from the deposit refund. And we also charge for actual cleaning and damages, which usually translates into recovering about 50% of our turn cost.
that sounds like what we do too. I charge a $200 cleaning fee and deduct for damages. However, typically that $200 doesn't cover the cost of a full paint and clean ($500).
So if the unit required a full paint, would you charge the tenant for that?
@Jason Mak It sounds like you're doing it right. Not much else you can do. You are not able to charge for regular wear and tear, so unless it's a real damage you just need to pay for it.
Jason Mak agreed. It doesn't cover the cost of a full repaint. But we are able to get good results with a touch up in most cases. We've found it really tough to get satisfactory touch up results with a contract painter though, so we've added a painter to our payroll. When that position is "in house" it's easier to train them to produce the results we expect with a partial re-paint.