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We rented out of our small townhouse 3 years ago. Now the lease ended, time to inspect and make decisions about the renter's deposit.
The is the first time we do this, so wondering if anyone have any experience.
1. The renter is a normal clean person.
but he just moved out without vacuum and cleaning. refrigerator, stove, bathroom, some spots on the carpet need to be cleaned. Also window and blinds which I myself usual will not clean. Should I charge him not cleaning the room? how much should I charge? or should I just pay for a professional cleaning service?
2. he punched a big hole on the colored wall, he tried to fill it in already with white base. but we still need to refill it and paint the room. Should this cost be his or mine?
3. blinds are 3 years old and a few places are broken, should this cost be his or mine?
4. 3 years old carpet on the staircase, his cat scratched it badly. replacement cost is $250. should this charge to him?
We rented out of our small townhouse 3 years ago. Now the lease ended, time to inspect and make decisions about the renter's deposit.
The is the first time we do this, so wondering if anyone have any experience.
1. The renter is a normal clean person.
but he just moved out without vacuum and cleaning. refrigerator, stove, bathroom, some spots on the carpet need to be cleaned. Also window and blinds which I myself usual will not clean. Should I charge him not cleaning the room? how much should I charge? or should I just pay for a professional cleaning service?
2. he punched a big hole on the colored wall, he tried to fill it in already with white base. but we still need to refill it and paint the room. Should this cost be his or mine?
3. blinds are 3 years old and a few places are broken, should this cost be his or mine?
4. 3 years old carpet on the staircase, his cat scratched it badly. replacement cost is $250. should this charge to him?
thank you for any answers.
In my experience:
1. You can't charge for cleaning unless it's excessive. Doesn't sound like it is to me from your short description.
2. You can charge for this - it's not considered wear and tear to punch a hole in the wall.
3. Blinds are generally cheap to replace and the inexpensive ones don't last long without small problems. If they are cheapies, replace them yourself.
4. Did you know he had a pet? Depends on how bad the damage is, but you can probably charge if you can show the carpet would have otherwise had a useful life left had the cat not damaged it.
Keep extensive records including photos of before and after and a signed statement of condition by both you and him upon move-out if you can. If you have to go to court, this evidence will be invaluable to help your case.
I am usually the renter in these situations but here's my take on it. I live in California.
1. I disagree with RDUBiker. It should be at least as clean as when possession was delivered to the tenant. If it's not, you should be able to deduct for reasonable cleaning charges to bring the unit back to the cleanliness level it had before the tenant. When I've moved out of rentals, I've had to make the decision whether to clean or not. Depending on how busy I am/how the move went, sometimes I don't bother to clean the apartment just because the dollar amount the landlord is going to deduct from my deposit is just not worth the time I would spend cleaning. But I am very aware when I don't clean that it will be deducted. I'm not a messy person and I clean the place I live in regularly, but when I move out inevitably things are dirty...once furniture is moved away you find dirt/dust/possible stains, etc.
Anyway, if it's something small, like one spot on the stove that you can take two seconds to wipe up with a wet cloth and otherwise it looks good, then don't charge the tenant. If the stove and oven are plastered in grease that's hard to remove (like on the glass oven window) and there's spaghetti sauce splattered on the stovetop or down the side of the range, I would charge for cleaning. It sounds like the unit needs general cleaning and so I would charge them for it.
Imagine as a tenant if you took possession and the shower/tub were dirty with someone else's hair and who knows what else. Wouldn't you feel a little ripped off that you paid a security deposit and first month's rent and now you have to clean someone else's body hair out of the shower just to have a clean shower? That's gross. The unit should be reasonably clean.
2. Tenant is responsible for the hole/repair/paint. Charge him for this.
3. This one is kind of up in the air. I have no idea how nice the blinds were so no way for me to know here if it's wear and tear or not. Cheap blinds can get bent easily. If they were thick wooden ones and there's chunks of wood missing out of them, that might be damage that the tenant is responsible for.
4. If the cat damaged it badly, then yes you can charge him. If the cat urinated on the carpet, then yes you can charge him for either cleaning or replacement, depending on how bad it is.
As RDUBiker said, I would definitely take photographs and keep all receipts for any work that was done. Make sure all work is done by a reputable company that charges reasonable fees.
1. I disagree with RDUBiker. It should be at least as clean as when possession was delivered to the tenant.
My opinion and what the courts allow differ. If it were up to me, I would say it has to be at least within a reasonable amount as clean as when the lease began, but I'm not certain NC courts allow landlords to charge for cleaning like this.
I know this might not be very helpful now with your immediate problem, but your original lease should have addressed these issues ahead of time. In the future, I recommend specifying in the lease your expectations for wear and tear on the unit, cleaning upon vacating, and provide a move out checklist that the tenant should complete. Without these issues being spelled out in writing ahead of time, you leave room for questions. If you charge the tenant and the tenant takes you to court, the judge might have a hard time deciding what is reasonable since the tenant did not agree in writing to any specific terms about the condition the unit was to be left in.
Best of luck.
My opinion and what the courts allow differ. If it were up to me, I would say it has to be at least within a reasonable amount as clean as when the lease began, but I'm not certain NC courts allow landlords to charge for cleaning like this.
Using the sticky for state tenant laws, this is what I find related to the OP's post:
Considered Damage, not wear and tear:
* Holes in wall from hanging pictures, removal of Decals on the walls. Larger gouges etc.
* Tear in carpet, animal stains (even if landlord knew you had a pet).
* Broken or missing blinds or curtains. If they were there when you moved in, they must be there when you leave.
* Excessive Bathroom mildew.
* Excessive dirt or filth in an oven or refrigerator.
You can't make an old fridge, stove, shower or tub look brand new again obviously once it's been used. That's wear and tear. Crusted on food on the stove, body hair in the shower, some unidentifiable sticky stuff stuck to the shelf in the fridge...that's something that should've been cleaned by the tenant.
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