Advice on how to handle house cleaning after tenant turnover

[Neil Hunter]

My current tenant is about to move out, and I'm not sure how to go about the move out process. The tenant before him broke his lease early so I just kept his security deposit, and had someone professionally clean the carpet and deep clean the entire house. That cost me about $1k.

This tenant has been great, and has been there for 3 years.  I'm not sure how to handle the cleaning this time around. I re-read the lease agreement I used and the language is fairly generic:

"This deposit money minus any necessary charges for

missing/dead light bulbs, repairs, cleaning, etc., will then be returned to TENANT with a written

explanation of deductions, within 60 days after they have vacated the property."

I'm planning on replacing the downstairs carpet myself and eat the cost, because when he moved in it wasn't in great condition, and its time to replace it anyway. But the rest of the carpet/house? Should I require him to have it professionally cleaned?

[Michele Fischer]

If they have been a great tenant, give them the benefit of the doubt and don't nickel and dime them.

A grand for turnover costs when there is no chaos seems way too high to me.  Unelss it is a lot of square footage I'd look for cheaper options.

My lease requires that they leave a receipt for professional carpet cleaning or we can charge them, but usually we have to replace the carpet from pet damage.  

Unless a tenant doesn't stay a year, we expect costs and don't sweat it.  We allocate 5 hours of cleaning for each year of tenancy and don't charge unless it is well over that.