Cleaning the property between tenants

[Sunny Rajvansh]

Hello,

I have been thinking about this a lot. When a tenant moves out, they usually clean as per what they think is clean. There is always some things left behind. things like inside stove, refrigerator, inside the Owen, corners, some cabinet shelves, window frames some residue on the walls etc. I always find lot of things that could be cleaned better. And I always end up calling professional cleaning service to get a deep cleaning to ensure the tenant moving in does not complain about the property being not clean.

I am wondering is it really landlord who need to bare the cleaning expenses between the tenants? I have tried to deduct some amount from deposit to cover the cleaning fees, but some tenants were bitter about that. They say, they already spend so much time cleaning the place and now they don’t want to lose the cleaning fees from deposit. But again, its never in a condition that a moving in tenant would be ok. How do you tackle this situation? I am now thinking to include in my lease that the property has been professionally cleaning before the lease, so I recommend to have a professional clean the property before moving out. I am not enforcing to get professionally cleaned but I am only recommending. Your input and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[Bjorn Ahlblad]

We have a couple of people we call that clean to our satisfaction between tenants. We deduct 150.00 for cleaning from the tenant per the lease. Cleaning is generally more than that, but the 150 helps. 

Yes there are always things that get overlooked, oven, fridge etc. and we take care of that as needed. Frankly I don't care about who pays as much as I care about a good job done quickly. I don't think including professional cleaning in the lease will solve things I'd rather we take care of that on our own. All the best.

[John Underwood]

I charge at least a 1.5x of the rent for a deposit so they are usually highly motivated to clean well enough to pay the last month's rent and get their big deposit back.

This is usually good enough for the next tenant. I rarely have to touch up a fee things. 

I am in such a hot rental area that they new tenant is so happy I have selected them that they can overlook some minor stuff.

I also always get self cleaning ovens. If it's not perfect I put it on a cleaning cycle usually while the power is still on in the vacating tenants name.

[Debbie C.]

@Sunny Rajvansh

We have SFH's and kept running into the same issues with cleaning not being acceptable when tenants moved out and then having to deduct from the security deposit, or pay out to have it cleaned. We changed to charging an upfront non-refundable cleaning fee. On our smaller house its 250.00, bigger houses 300.00. The cleaning company comes in after a tenant moves out and cleans from top to bottom. The houses look great, the tenants are excited when they are moving in, and I have not had complaints about the fee yet. ( We made the change about 4 years ago, and have had a number of tenants moving in or out).

Just seems like the tenants pay the up front fees to move in without complaining, but when they move out, how clean they leave the house was many times an issue, and they didn't like deductions from the security deposit for cleaning, especially if they think they did an ok/good job.

[Bruce Woodruff]

IMO, the departing tenant is only responsible for leaving the unit in a 'reasonably clean and tidy' condition. The Landlord should send a professional cleaner through and clean behind the stove and in all the cabinets. You want to make sure that the new tenant receives the unit in excellent condition, and you should want to know that everything is in good working order, i.e. no leaks under the sinks etc....

This will cost about $200-$300 and you can either just eat this or build it into the deposit.....worth every penny....

[Henry T.]

When a tenant is moving out, he's only thinking about one thing. His new place and getting the heck out. It's the exceptional tenant that  cleans up after himself, and when this rarity happens it's a pleasure to return their deposit.  Most rarely even sweep. I awlays send a complete description of what needs to be done to restore the property to move-in cleanliness. A good effort goes a long way in consideration.

[Theresa Harris]

For things like carpets, tenants need to have a professional come and clean it (and provide receipts).  If they fail to clean the oven or inside of a fridge and you have a professional come in and clean it-get those itemized and charge them back to the tenant (ie take it off their deposit).  It is important that you have photos from when they moved in and moved out to back up claims.

Tenants will be annoyed if they think they cleaned it and are charged-wouldn't you?  There is always some cleaning that needs to be done that is above and beyond what you'd expect a tenant to do (the deep cleaning) and that is the cost of turnover. If you have a rental where there is high turnover (eg students), then factor in some of those costs into the rent.

[Cameron Tope]

Quote from @Sunny Rajvansh:

Hello,

I have been thinking about this a lot. When a tenant moves out, they usually clean as per what they think is clean. There is always some things left behind. things like inside stove, refrigerator, inside the Owen, corners, some cabinet shelves, window frames some residue on the walls etc. I always find lot of things that could be cleaned better. And I always end up calling professional cleaning service to get a deep cleaning to ensure the tenant moving in does not complain about the property being not clean.

I am wondering is it really landlord who need to bare the cleaning expenses between the tenants? I have tried to deduct some amount from deposit to cover the cleaning fees, but some tenants were bitter about that. They say, they already spend so much time cleaning the place and now they don’t want to lose the cleaning fees from deposit. But again, its never in a condition that a moving in tenant would be ok. How do you tackle this situation? I am now thinking to include in my lease that the property has been professionally cleaning before the lease, so I recommend to have a professional clean the property before moving out. I am not enforcing to get professionally cleaned but I am only recommending. Your input and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 The property is professionally cleaned after we're done with any make ready and if we don't get it in the same condition after the tenant vacates, we charge the tenant the entire amount to get the property back to show ready. 

We also (at the owners expense) usually send a cleaner a day or two before move in to clean the property from all the showings so the tenant walks into a truly clean property. 

[Sunny Rajvansh]

@Debbie C. Thank you Debbie for your input. I have given charging upfront a thought. I am not sure if it's legal in my market. I am in Connecticut. What market are you in?

[Debbie C.]

@Sunny Rajvansh

I am in Arizona, we are allowed to charge up to one and a half times the monthly rent for a security deposit and/or fees. I charge an amount equal to 1 months rent for a returnable security deposit and then also the non-refundable cleaning fee. 

[Samuel Eddinger]

@Sunny Rajvansh - with few exceptions if you have a policy, you cannot charge back the tenant.  If you always paint the walls between tenants then even if a tenant marks up the walls, you cannot charge them.  The exception is around allowing pets into the property (where you can mandate the carpets being professionally cleaned for example).

In CT, the law also just passed where you cannot charge any move in fees (like a move out cleaning fee).  I run a PM company in CT and we require that the property be given to a tenant broom swept and the tenant leaving also leave the property broom swept.  We would charge back for dirty appliances as an itemized cleaning if the remainder of the property was broom swept.

[Mario Bellavia]

Quote from @Sunny Rajvansh:

Hello,

I have been thinking about this a lot. When a tenant moves out, they usually clean as per what they think is clean. There is always some things left behind. things like inside stove, refrigerator, inside the Owen, corners, some cabinet shelves, window frames some residue on the walls etc. I always find lot of things that could be cleaned better. And I always end up calling professional cleaning service to get a deep cleaning to ensure the tenant moving in does not complain about the property being not clean.

I am wondering is it really landlord who need to bare the cleaning expenses between the tenants? I have tried to deduct some amount from deposit to cover the cleaning fees, but some tenants were bitter about that. They say, they already spend so much time cleaning the place and now they don’t want to lose the cleaning fees from deposit. But again, its never in a condition that a moving in tenant would be ok. How do you tackle this situation? I am now thinking to include in my lease that the property has been professionally cleaning before the lease, so I recommend to have a professional clean the property before moving out. I am not enforcing to get professionally cleaned but I am only recommending. Your input and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 One thing my property mgmt. company recently implemented was something we market as a concierge service.  We say something like, "if you would like to skip the cleaning of your home at move out, as we know you are very busy, we offer a cleaning service to help reduce the stress of moving out, it's $150.00 and includes all the cleaning, so long as the home is free of any over sized items."  This is exactly what are cleaners charge us.  If a couch is left behind, we need to have a company discard it, that would be a fee billed back to the tenant.  In CT you can't make money off a move out, you have to provide a detailed breakdown of charges when returning the deposit.  If your cleaner charges you $250, you can charge that back to the tenant, but you can't bill them back $350 and make $100, it's just to cover your cost.  Take a look at your lease, typically the home is to be returned as provided "broom swept".  If your cleaners however need to spend extra time on the stove, fridge, tub, etc. and they charge you back for additionally cleaning time beyond normal wear and tear, those are also charges you can bill back.

Be sure to return the security deposit within 30 days of move out.  

Here is a great info link on CT deposits https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/DOB/consumer_help_nonHTML/Rent...

[Lynn McGeein]

My cleaners will itemize anything above normal charges, so I pay for the normal cleaning fee, but deduct from tenant's security deposit anything like charges for extremely filthy bathrooms, grease, appliances, etc.  We get pictures of it before they come in to clean so it's documented.  

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Sunny Rajvansh, let's put this in context first. When selling a house the expectation in my market is that the house will be provided "broom clean". That makes sense to me. You don't want any stuff or garbage left and you want things to generally appear fairly clean. However, MANY times a seller is moving out immediately before closing and there is no time to get a professional to deep clean.

In my mind, the same challenges happen for a tenant. I want my leases to be fair for all parties, so why would I put a burden on a tenant that I think in most cases they would have a hard time living up to?!?

So, I expect a place to be broom clean. Even if it looked VERY clean, I'm still going to clean anyways because often things appear clean but aren't. So, going beyond broom clean really doesn't save me much.

If it isn't broom clean, I charge for the additional work. Also, when its not broom clean, its OBVIOUS and a tenant and even a judge will SEE that it isn't clean and its easy to justify what I charge against the tenant's deposit. 

[Lisa Hammond]

We go over this thoroughly at move in -- you notice the baseboards are clean? The return vents, oven, fridge, behind the toilet, etc. and go through the entire house. We show them the list of our Move Out Procedures and all of these cleaning tasks are noted on it. Then they initial that they received it in this condition and will return it as such or pay for the cost to do so.