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Do you take the time to clean before you hand over the keys?

 

I never thought of just walking out and apartment or house we have rented or leased without giving everything a good cleaning and I vacuum on the way out.

 

My sister said she has never cleaned when she left a place she was leasing:001_huh:.

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I can tell you as a landlord that I have only had one person clean before they left and then the floors still needed an industrial professional cleaning. I have a tenant leaving right now - unexpectedly. His wife left him while he was away on business. He says that he has some people coming from church to help him clean. I will believe it when I see it.

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Absolutely. We always have cleaned very well and we get all or almost all of our security deposits back. When we didn't, we were well aware why. IN Belgium, it was because we had no real way of getting a person hired to climb on our roof and clean very high gutters (we did the normally high ones ourselves but these had to include roof climbing in damp weather). We figured my dh was worth more than that deduction and our French speaking landlord could figure out the roof cleaners better than we could.

Then in Florida, we knew the owners would have to paint two bedrooms where our daughters tried using a so-called safe method for hanging posters. It wasn't and the rooms needed repainting.

 

But otherwise, the houses were always returned perfectly clean. We would hire cleaners and then come back and recheck their work.

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We clean every square inch. I have never not gotten 100% of my deposit back. On our last house, we ended up with $50 extra back. :confused: I have no idea why. And we lived in that house with 5 dc for 5 yrs 3 mos.

 

When we moved into this rental, it was so dirty, I cried. I was 5 months pregnant, 10 days before Christmas, 5 kiddos, ugh. I was madly scrubbing away so our belongings could be brought in. It was not awesome... :glare:

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It depended on who I was renting from. If we rented from an individual, it seems they are less greedy, so we would clean fully, nitty gritty, expecting a good portion of our deposit back.

 

If we rent from a property management company, we clean but not to the nitty-gritty. It's not dirty, it's not disgusting, but it's not pristine. Meaning I didn't get down and do the baseboards. I didn't bother looking for cobwebs. Why...because most property managers will find any and every way to dock your deposit and there's hardly any chance you are going to see it back anyway. So rather than bust butt to only to realize they weren't going to give it back anyway, we would rather do normal cleaning, because we aren't dirty people, but then spend our time on our new living quarters. Most of them hire cleaners to come in anyway before a new tenant moves in. So in the care of an apartment, nope, would not be doing heavy duty cleaning, just the normal "we are not slobs" cleaning.

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We clean every square inch. I have never not gotten 100% of my deposit back. On our last house, we ended up with $50 extra back. :confused: I have no idea why. And we lived in that house with 5 dc for 5 yrs 3 mos.

 

I've heard that in some states, landlords are required to keep your deposit in an interest-bearing account, and to give you the interest back with your deposit.

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Except for one place, I've always cleaned before I moved out of a place. And in the one place where I didn't it was because the landlord had been threatening to kill me and my pets, and I actually had to go and get a restraining order against him. I was in college, and terrified of the guy, so I didn't stick around to clean.

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my leases have always requested it to be clean. Now, clean can mean different things. I viewed one property that was awful and they said it was 'clean'. But I wouldn't have rented that place until it had a good deep cleaning!

 

Our last lease required receipts for carpet cleaning. Our current lease even requires proof the fireplace is in working condition from local person in that field!

 

I always clean. I want my deposit back.

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Do you take the time to clean before you hand over the keys?

 

I never thought of just walking out and apartment or house we have rented or leased without giving everything a good cleaning and I vacuum on the way out.

 

My sister said she has never cleaned when she left a place she was leasing:001_huh:.

Well, she should. Rentals are handed over with the express understanding that they shall be returned in the same condition, absent ordinary wear and tear. Dirt and damage are NOT ordinary wear and tear. Things like a wear path in the carpet over several years or a leaking washer in a faucet are ordinary wear and tear; things that would happen no matter how gently the house is treated or who lives there.

 

I'd withhold whatever it cost me to hire cleaners to put the place back in the perfect condition it was in when she rented.

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Your lease should have a section that details what's expected when you leave at the end of a lease. Various leases I've had have had different expectations - some required carpet cleaning, others just broom swept condition. None required painting as they all had provisions of "normal wear and tear" within the terms of the lease.

 

You should request a walk through with the landlord or leasing company the day you're turning over keys - get in writing the acceptable condition so they can't come back and say it wasn't clean!

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It was cleaner than when we moved in, and I documented it with photos.

 

We had to give a large-ish sec. deposit, so I definitely wanted it back. My LL had a pattern of behavior that was very clear, and I didn't trust we would get the deposit back without being very careful to not just clean, but photograph it all. Our house was quite dirty when we moved in, and he insisted he'd send someone over to clean it, which never happened. That was the beginning of a long chain of similar events ;) I ended up cleaning a big house by myself before the movers were due to arrive, and I had a one month old baby at the time in addition to two older kids. There was moss growing in the windows (I mean, huge chunks up inside the windows), the range was covered in grease to the point we had to disassemble it all and soak it in degreaser (absolutely disgusting), packing tape all over the windows that I meticulously scraped off with a razor blade (this took HOURS), etc.

 

We did get our sec. deposit back but it was a drawn out and ridiculous process since our landlord was a pretty shady character. So yeah, I didn't want to clean, but I did it, and documented it all.

 

In order to get our pet deposit back (and it was a deposit, not a pet "fee"), we had to threaten to take him to court. In my state, if it isn't returned within 30 days, you can take the LL for 2x the damages. 500 bucks wouldn't have been worth my time in dealing with small claims court, but for 1000, I told him to expect I'd be pursuing it. He coughed up the money but it took threatening him with court, unfortunately. He was a very unpleasant individual, to put it mildly.

Edited by Momof3littles
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I've heard that in some states, landlords are required to keep your deposit in an interest-bearing account, and to give you the interest back with your deposit.

 

That was my first thought when it happened, but apparently, here, you actually aren't allowed to keep the deposit in an interest-bearing account. I think it was a gift! :lol:

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I was an apartment building manager for one year. The tenants were charged for any part of the apartment that wasn't perfectly clean. These were college kids who often didn't understand this requirement and were unpleasantly surprised at not getting their full deposit back.

 

I have rented three times since graduating college. In all three cases the homes I moved into were FILTHY. It was soooooooo overwhelming to try and scrub other people's dirt while my possessions were languishing in boxes. I will NEVER do that to someone else--I leave the place clean. Period. I truly do not understand the mentality that says it's okay for others to clean up my mess.

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We have left them better than we found them, and this house will be no different.

 

We already deep cleaned the carpets and got out numerous stains that the LL didn't before we moved in. We landscaped the yard. We will repair anything we damaged and leave it 100% scrubbed down. We may even paint (with the LL's paint) any areas that are particularly dinged up.

 

If we move out of this house, it will be summer before it happens, so I have some time. I've already started a list of things that will have to be done and will start to gather the necessary materials soon.

 

It's the whole "treat others the way you want to be treated" philosophy.;)

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I've rented four different places from the same management company in my town. We have deep cleaned every place we left- this past time (only a few weeks ago)- we got docked $35 for professional floor cleaning, but I think that is standard practice for our management company.

 

The last place we left we got charged $50 for floor cleaning and cleaning the oven. I made sure DH cleaned the oven this time. :)

 

We figure that since we only have a rental history with this company, and we're relatively young, we really want them to like us if we need them for a reference when we finally move out of state.

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I only did a very basic clean up when we left the apartment that had bug carcasses in every kitchen drawer when we moved in. I figured I paid on the front end, there! :glare:

 

(Don't ever sign a lease sight-unseen based on your 23yo stbh's say so!)

 

I did a better job when we moved out of the next apartment, but not as far as a cleaning team. That building hired their own teams to come in after people left, repainted the entire place, and usually replaced the carpets as well. SOP.

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As a renter: I've cleaned my fingers to the bone, and been "dinged" on things such as a stove that no household cleaner would be capable of improving. Also, carpet stains that were there when I moved in, but was stupid enough not to document on film. Moved into a place with hardwood floors. I thought you couldn't mop a hardwood floor. Had a friend with a barefoot 2yo visit. I was sooo embarrassed when his feet got *black*. Decided to mop.

 

As a landlord: Bought a 2 flat with an existing tenant. They never paid any rent, so had to evict. I honestly think they never cleaned or vacuumed, ever. Food remains in all the rooms. Pulled up a bathmat to discover dozens of cockroaches underneath. Paid for an exterminator. Just gross. Oh, and I was 2 mos. pregnant at the time. Barf.

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The condition is usually specified in the lease -- the most common standard I've encountered as a renter has been "broom-swept," so clean but not super-clean. I've never had a problem with a security deposit.

 

I would be a bit twitchy about renting a place with very stringent cleaning requirements in the lease.

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I always have but it irks me because I will spend 2 solid days scrubbing a rental top to bottom once I empty it and doing carpets etc and they still charge me for cleaning because I didn't hire a professional company (has happened in 4 different locations by 4 different people/company, so I guess it is typical). I can understand paying for actual damages but that always irked me. If I was ever to rent again I won't worry about it or stress myself out about ever again. I am done cleaning rentals only to be charged upwards of $300 to clean them anyway why bother.

 

The last one put me over the top. I have been billed $1600 for repairs and cleaning, some of it should have been normal wear and tear (we were there over 8 years), for new paint, apparently someone dumped some garbage in my driveway(it was in the alley) after we left (they never did the inspection while I was still there) and I got dinged $250 hauling charges, it was not mine. They claimed they had to repaint the basement. It was an unfinished cement basement, no paint. They charged me for the bathroom tab that was off. I called them to fix it 6 times, it was totally stripped and instead of replacing it they would put a new screw and a month or 2 later it would be stripped again so I should never have been charged for that one. I understand paying for the couple of repairs needed but this was nuts. When I moved in the backyard was full of garbage and dirty diapers etc that I had to remove myself, so to get dinged for this nonsense put me over my limits for giving a crap about rentals anymore. Luckily I own a house now.

Edited by swellmomma
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I always have but it irks me because I will spend 2 solid days scrubbing a rental top to bottom once I empty it and doing carpets etc and they still charge me for cleaning because I didn't hire a professional company (has happened in 4 different locations by 4 different people/company, so I guess it is typical). I can understand paying for actual damages but that always irked me. If I was ever to rent again I won't worry about it or stress myself out about ever again. I am done cleaning rentals only to be charged upwards of $300 to clean them anyway why bother.

 

The last one put me over the top. I have been billed $1600 for repairs and cleaning, some of it should have been normal wear and tear (we were there over 8 years), for new paint, apparently someone dumped some garbage in my driveway(it was in the alley) after we left (they never did the inspection while I was still there) and I got dinged $250 hauling charges, it was not mine. They claimed they had to repaint the basement. It was an unfinished cement basement, no paint. They charged me for the bathroom tab that was off. I called them to fix it 6 times, it was totally stripped and instead of replacing it they would put a new screw and a month or 2 later it would be stripped again so I should never have been charged for that one. I understand paying for the couple of repairs needed but this was nuts. When I moved in the backyard was full of garbage and dirty diapers etc that I had to remove myself, so to get dinged for this nonsense put me over my limits for giving a crap about rentals anymore. Luckily I own a house now.

 

Yeah this.

 

And after the first landlord directly and blatantly lied (I had no idea I should've photographed, he said, among other things, that there was smeared in food and excrement all over the place, which was nonsense. It was broom-swept), I will never, ever move out again without direct witnesses being photographed IN the cleaned photos, along with newspapers and any other evidence of dates I can get.

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Every rental I've ever been in has been thoroughly cleaned by myself before leaving. Out of 12 rentals, there was only 2 that I didn't get 100% of my deposit back. One of those was a sudden company relocation. DH's company paid all fees regarding breaking the rental agreement, cleaning fees, etc.

 

Now moving *in* to rentals is a different story. For charging security deposits, I expect to find a clean rental to move into but that's a rare case. Our current home was obscenely disgusting with rat poop, walls tinged in grey from dirt, dangerous nails sticking out of walls (causing bloody gashes several times in my hands), etc. I have had to scrub the walls in every room from ceiling to floor 3 times just to get all of the layers of grime off. :ack2:

 

So yeah... we've always left our rentals much better than when we moved in.

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In Oregon, at least, if the LL has the carpets professionally cleaned just prior to your moving in, the LL can withhold the cost of having the professionally cleaned when you move out. So it doesn't matter how clean you think you left the place, the LL can withhold that cost from your security deposit.

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We have left them better than we found them, and this house will be no different.

 

We already deep cleaned the carpets and got out numerous stains that the LL didn't before we moved in. We landscaped the yard. We will repair anything we damaged and leave it 100% scrubbed down. We may even paint (with the LL's paint) any areas that are particularly dinged up.

 

If we move out of this house, it will be summer before it happens, so I have some time. I've already started a list of things that will have to be done and will start to gather the necessary materials soon.

 

It's the whole "treat others the way you want to be treated" philosophy.;)

I wish my former tenants were like you.

 

Even though the tenant claimed the unit was "clean" -- I would find myself having to detail the entire unit OR hire a professional cleaner to clean it. The carpet always had to be shampooed. Room walls and baseboards needed putty and new paint. Door hinges or drawer pulls needed repair. I would find the ceiling fan broken and a replacement needed. Toilets were leaking and the tenant did not report it. The microwave's door was broken and it needed a brand new replacement.

 

To turn over a unit meant I had to work it for 2 weeks (when I was not at work at my real job -- I cleaned it on nights and weekends). List it for rent for another couple of weeks. And it usually sat empty for 1-2 months. And I never found the cleaning deposit to fully cover the cost of cleaning/paint/repair/etc.

 

One memorable tenant who was evicted left the unit in horrid condition (think of TV's hoarders) with cat urine everywhere on the baseboards, floors, and carpet. After new carpet, professional cleaners, massive paint job, and new baseboards... we had spent over $1800 to get it back in shape. :glare:

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Always! I also produce a receipt for carpet cleaning if we had carpet. I make the sure the gardens are in tip-top shape, windows washed, carport/garage cleaned and swept, etc.

 

I leave the house as I'd want someone to leave it if it belonged to me. The last home we moved out of {which we really didn't want to} had a mouse issue due to it's location. Because I knew the owner wasn't moving in for a month and a half I even left some fresh rat sacks in the crawl space areas and under the house. I also left a few traps behind.

 

Upon leaving I also leave a Thank You note to the owner stating how grateful we were for the time we had in their home. My children often leave a note of something that was their favourite. Last time it was the family of black birds who nested in our yard annually. We rescued some of their babies once and they always hung out after that. I also include when trash collection & recycling happens. For instance, in our last house recycling was an every other week thing and you had to have your bins out by 5 am or you'd miss the trash and recycle guys. :D

 

 

ETA: Wow, no wonder people are so sceptical of renting! Must say, though, i've never ever moved into a clean rental. Drives me NUTS. This one wasn't just dirty but lots of issues. The rental company we rent through really raved to the owner about us so he was quick to fix all the problems we lamented about. It makes it even easier to take good care of something when that happens. ;)

Edited by kolamum
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Even though the tenant claimed the unit was "clean" -- I would find myself having to detail the entire unit OR hire a professional cleaner to clean it. The carpet always had to be shampooed. Room walls and baseboards needed putty and new paint. Door hinges or drawer pulls needed repair. I would find the ceiling fan broken and a replacement needed. Toilets were leaking and the tenant did not report it. The microwave's door was broken and it needed a brand new replacement.

 

All of this, except the leaking toilets that weren't reported, seems to me like it would fall into the category of "normal wear and tear." Especially after a longer-term rental, of course you're going to have to shampoo the carpets and paint.

 

I have always cleaned, but that has meant removing all of our things and every scrap of trash, sweeping and mopping, scrubbing kitchen and bathroom surfaces, and wiping down windowsills, baseboards, etc. I would never expect to retouch paint, cover scratches and dings, fix loose and broken things, etc.

 

We've always gotten our deposit back, except for our last grad school apartment where we were charged $15 for not cleaning the oven. Dude, it was so worth $15 to me to not have to clean the oven. :lol: I had no idea that cleaning before you move out isn't a standard practice.

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It depended on who I was renting from. If we rented from an individual, it seems they are less greedy, so we would clean fully, nitty gritty, expecting a good portion of our deposit back.

 

If we rent from a property management company, we clean but not to the nitty-gritty. It's not dirty, it's not disgusting, but it's not pristine. Meaning I didn't get down and do the baseboards. I didn't bother looking for cobwebs. Why...because most property managers will find any and every way to dock your deposit and there's hardly any chance you are going to see it back anyway. So rather than bust butt to only to realize they weren't going to give it back anyway, we would rather do normal cleaning, because we aren't dirty people, but then spend our time on our new living quarters. Most of them hire cleaners to come in anyway before a new tenant moves in. So in the care of an apartment, nope, would not be doing heavy duty cleaning, just the normal "we are not slobs" cleaning.

:iagree: The last house we moved in to was really very, very dirty. I can't even think about the stove without :ack2: I had to clean and clean for 3 days before moving in. We also painted the baseboards because they were so gross. That house was spotless when we left and we were still docked for carpet cleaning, oven cleaning (seriously?!?!?) , dog doo removal and trash hauling. :confused: But they had asked us to get out early (asked us to break our lease so they could sell) so the whole thing was a bad deal and we just wanted out of there. We didn't fight it, even though we supported our efforts with about 100 before and after photos.

 

This house was pristine when we moved in except for paint. They admitted it needed paint but the owner couldn't afford it right now. But they were also clear in the lease that they would be professionally cleaning and professionally carpet cleaning when we move out and it will be deducted from the deposits. No matter how clean I leave this place, they will deduct that amount, so why bother? But I know myself, I won't be able to drop off the keys unless it's already very clean.

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All of this, except the leaking toilets that weren't reported, seems to me like it would fall into the category of "normal wear and tear." Especially after a longer-term rental, of course you're going to have to shampoo the carpets and paint.

 

I have always cleaned, but that has meant removing all of our things and every scrap of trash, sweeping and mopping, scrubbing kitchen and bathroom surfaces, and wiping down windowsills, baseboards, etc. I would never expect to retouch paint, cover scratches and dings, fix loose and broken things, etc.

 

We've always gotten our deposit back, except for our last grad school apartment where we were charged $15 for not cleaning the oven. Dude, it was so worth $15 to me to not have to clean the oven. :lol: I had no idea that cleaning before you move out isn't a standard practice.

 

Exactly. When I move out of a rental I clean every nook and cranny, walls, windows, windowsills, baseboards, floors, cupboards and closets inside and out, kitchen (including the oven), bathroom etc. Everything everywhere scrubbed clean. Cleaner than when I moved in and still get dinged and never get the deposit back. Way more than the broom swept condition many here are talking about. Most of the rental properties owned by a corporation rather than private, unless you hire professional cleaners and a professional compnay to come in and shampoo carpets they will withhold the cost of those things even if the place is immaculate. They did the same to my brother in his condo when it was a property management company. He is OCD about cleaning, so his place was always clean enough that the Queen could eat off the floor, the company used his suite in it's advertising because it was nicer than the "showsuite" and perfect at all times. They still dinged him his deposit at move out because he didn't hire professionals and show reciepts to prove he had, so they dinged him for the cost of those professionals.

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All of this, except the leaking toilets that weren't reported, seems to me like it would fall into the category of "normal wear and tear." Especially after a longer-term rental. I would never expect to retouch paint, cover scratches and dings, fix loose and broken things, etc.

 

 

 

:iagree:

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All of this, except the leaking toilets that weren't reported, seems to me like it would fall into the category of "normal wear and tear." Especially after a longer-term rental, of course you're going to have to shampoo the carpets and paint.

 

I have always cleaned, but that has meant removing all of our things and every scrap of trash, sweeping and mopping, scrubbing kitchen and bathroom surfaces, and wiping down windowsills, baseboards, etc. I would never expect to retouch paint, cover scratches and dings, fix loose and broken things, etc.

 

We've always gotten our deposit back, except for our last grad school apartment where we were charged $15 for not cleaning the oven. Dude, it was so worth $15 to me to not have to clean the oven. :lol: I had no idea that cleaning before you move out isn't a standard practice.

 

That's what i thought too. I had a landlord once who was ticked because there was marks in the paint in the stairway - well it was a second floor flat with a really narrow walled in stair, any time you went up with an arm full of groceries you bumped into the wall. Fixing up that kind of stuff is just part of the cost of owning a rental property IMO.

 

I always do a good job cleaning, but it is hard to get excited when you know a lot of landlords don't really see your deposit as returnable. If they want to have a policy of hiring a cleaning company, that is their management decision, not something i am paying for.

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In the future, we will not hire a carpet cleaner again. Let the landlord decide. They probably have cheaper sources of carpet cleaning than we do anyway. But we do leave rentals clean.

 

I also have not been able to keep the carpet pristine since having kids. It NEVER looked the same after a year or two of living there than when we moved in. I frankly consider it normal wear and tear at this point.

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We always leave properties spotless. Right down to every nook and cranny, and appliances perfectly cleaned. My mum owns a carpet cleaner so we generally borrow that too. The only time we didn't clean was when the apartment block caught fire and we never lived there again after that night. We managed to get some of our belongings out the next day and the rest of them 3 months later. It was expensive way to move out of a property, we got our deposit back but ended up with double rent that month and all the expenses of having to cope without our stuff.

 

My sister once moved into a property with a huge burn hole full of ashes inthe worktop and grease all over the walls. It was grim.

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We've always left apartments/houses cleaner than when we moved in.

 

We have too. Unfortunately, we haven't always been rewarded for our efforts. Our last landlord gave the house to us filthy and gross. I found her ex-husbands old worn out underwear on top of the cabinets in the bathroom, crumbs and old food in the kitchen cabinets and the door to the master bedroom shower crusted shut! This is the same landlord who tried to have us move in without giving us house keys, because it was in the country and they "never locked the doors." :glare: Turns out, she didn't even know where they were and had to have a locksmith out to change the locks. Even after that, the front door never locked properly and needed a new door handle and lock completely, which she never replaced while we lived there. She was going through a divorce and had no money for repairs, so we did almost all repairs ourselves while we lived there. The few we reported to her, she never got around to fixing.

 

When we moved out, we spent days cleaning the house and had the carpets professionally cleaned. We waited patiently to get our deposit back, and she sent back a nasty message saying we "broke" the items that she had never repaired and that she had to have the carpets cleaned so we weren't getting our deposit back. Unfortunately, it wasn't large enough to bother suing her over, and we knew she didn't have the money anyway, so we just took it as a loss.

 

As landlords, one of our tenants ruined our parquet floors and tried to sue us for the cost of dry cleaning clothes she had stored in the garage- all due to a flood she caused by not hooking up her refrigerator ice maker properly. It turned out she was also running an illegal "massage" parlor out of our house.

 

Our next tenants allowed their cats to destroy built in bookshelves and window shades in the room they were apparently blocked in all the time. We found food and feces ground into the carpets of every room, soil in the garbage disposal, tracks of nail holes across the walls (apparently rather than using a stud finder, they just put in a nail every few inches until they finally hit wood), and large gouges in the dry wall where they'd used double sided tape to hang up posters. This, after they called to say they moved out and "cleaned up" and left their forwarding address for the deposit refund. :willy_nilly:

 

Both of these tenants were selected and vetted by a property manager. We've had much better luck since then renting to people we've picked out ourselves. Our current tenant (different house) loves our house and treats it like her own. They also told the landscaper to "do whatever he needs to" to keep up the yard, which is very large and well landscaped and worried us most about renting out the house. She also pays rent no later than the first, by direct deposit. We feel very lucky to have such conscientious tenants this time.

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I was an apartment building manager for one year. The tenants were charged for any part of the apartment that wasn't perfectly clean. These were college kids who often didn't understand this requirement and were unpleasantly surprised at not getting their full deposit back.

 

I have rented three times since graduating college. In all three cases the homes I moved into were FILTHY. It was soooooooo overwhelming to try and scrub other people's dirt while my possessions were languishing in boxes. I will NEVER do that to someone else--I leave the place clean. Period. I truly do not understand the mentality that says it's okay for others to clean up my mess.

Me either.

 

As a landlord, I spend days and days cleaning - even after the professionals, if I need to use them - just to make it absolutely PERFECT and SPOTLESS when a tenant moves in. Then I take care of all needs very quickly.

 

Because I go this extra mile and screen well, I get people who treat me the same in return. Very rarely do I have anyone leave a nasty mess, though their standards never quite meet mine, but I will let it go and finish myself if they made an effort.

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Exactly. When I move out of a rental I clean every nook and cranny, walls, windows, windowsills, baseboards, floors, cupboards and closets inside and out, kitchen (including the oven), bathroom etc. Everything everywhere scrubbed clean. Cleaner than when I moved in and still get dinged and never get the deposit back. Way more than the broom swept condition many here are talking about. Most of the rental properties owned by a corporation rather than private, unless you hire professional cleaners and a professional compnay to come in and shampoo carpets they will withhold the cost of those things even if the place is immaculate. They did the same to my brother in his condo when it was a property management company. He is OCD about cleaning, so his place was always clean enough that the Queen could eat off the floor, the company used his suite in it's advertising because it was nicer than the "showsuite" and perfect at all times. They still dinged him his deposit at move out because he didn't hire professionals and show reciepts to prove he had, so they dinged him for the cost of those professionals.

Wow, I'd never do that to anyone.

 

When I had a tenant like your brother, who was so immaculately clean that he color coded his clothes hanging in the closet, that allowed me to show the place before he moved out, which saved me lots of money. No cleaning required. I returned his Security deposit immediately, even the the law here allows me 45 days. I even consulted with him on the purchase of his next house. He ended up buying a house right down the street from me.

 

I wish they were all like him. The house looked perfect when he left, just as when he moved in.

 

Some people have said they can't keep a house clean with kids. That really isn't the case. I've purchased a house from a woman with 4 boys who had immaculate carpet. My carpet looks like it did when I moved in and I have two kids and have lived here for years. And the carpet is WHITE. We just don't wear shoes inside and keep food and drinks off the carpet. Problem solved. (No pets either, and I don't rent to tenants with pets, 99% of the time, but will occasionally allow an older, calm dog).

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As a landlord, I expect houses to be as clean as when the renters moved in. When I've had a renter not clean, I dock the security deposit. The last round on the house closest to the ranch was NOT cleaned, so they got very little of the deposit back. We try to give a very small portion back rather than keep it all, even if the house condition merits it. That way, once they've cashed that check, they've agreed that that's all they're getting refunded. On the house that was dirty--I hired the lady that was about to move in to clean. She was quite happy to do so and we took it off her deposit. She cleans professionally, so did a good job. I don't know that they'll ever get their deposit back, as I don't see them ever moving! :D

You do have to send an accounting in your state, don't you? Landlords can't just decide to "keep the deposit", but they can deduct costs incurred in returning the property to its original condition, which the landlord needs to document.

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I always have but it irks me because I will spend 2 solid days scrubbing a rental top to bottom once I empty it and doing carpets etc and they still charge me for cleaning because I didn't hire a professional company (has happened in 4 different locations by 4 different people/company, so I guess it is typical). I can understand paying for actual damages but that always irked me. If I was ever to rent again I won't worry about it or stress myself out about ever again. I am done cleaning rentals only to be charged upwards of $300 to clean them anyway why bother.

 

The last one put me over the top. I have been billed $1600 for repairs and cleaning, some of it should have been normal wear and tear (we were there over 8 years), for new paint, apparently someone dumped some garbage in my driveway(it was in the alley) after we left (they never did the inspection while I was still there) and I got dinged $250 hauling charges, it was not mine. They claimed they had to repaint the basement. It was an unfinished cement basement, no paint. They charged me for the bathroom tab that was off. I called them to fix it 6 times, it was totally stripped and instead of replacing it they would put a new screw and a month or 2 later it would be stripped again so I should never have been charged for that one. I understand paying for the couple of repairs needed but this was nuts. When I moved in the backyard was full of garbage and dirty diapers etc that I had to remove myself, so to get dinged for this nonsense put me over my limits for giving a crap about rentals anymore. Luckily I own a house now.

I would have given you your deposit back. You stayed 8 years, paid on time, and cleaned very well before you left? I'd have given you a bonus on top of your deposit!

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Rivka: All of this, except the leaking toilets that weren't reported, seems to me like it would fall into the category of "normal wear and tear."

 

Leaking toilets need to be reported to the landlord immediately so they can be fixed and not cause damage. If the tenant failed to report a leak and long term damage accrued, that would be on the tenant. If it was reported and the landlord just didn't bother, it would be on the landlord.

 

 

Especially after a longer-term rental, of course you're going to have to shampoo the carpets and paint.

 

Agree, and I always do that between tenants unless no paint is needed after a shorter rental. Anyone could move into my own house after 8 years and not paint either; tenants should treat the property the same way.

 

I have always cleaned, but that has meant removing all of our things and every scrap of trash, sweeping and mopping, scrubbing kitchen and bathroom surfaces, and wiping down windowsills, baseboards, etc. I would never expect to retouch paint, cover scratches and dings, fix loose and broken things, etc.

 

If you damaged paint, scratched up and dinged the place (more than minimally) and/or broke things as a tenant, those are the tenant's responsibility. Dirt and damage are not ordinary wear and tear.

 

We've always gotten our deposit back, except for our last grad school apartment where we were charged $15 for not cleaning the oven. Dude, it was so worth $15 to me to not have to clean the oven. :lol: I had no idea that cleaning before you move out isn't a standard practice.

 

It IS a standard practice to the kind of tenants I choose. I don't want the kind who don't think it is their problem to clean up their own dirt or fix (or pay to fix) the damage they caused.

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