Nobody wants to spend hours cleaning a rental property, hand back the keys thinking the job’s done, and then find out that parts of your security deposit will be deducted from your rental deposit.
The reason? Most tenants clean what they can see. Professional cleaners clean what inspectors actually check.
The difference between returning a full deposit and a long list of deductions and disputes can be as simple as recognizing the huge gap between a clean rental and a property that has been properly cleaned for a formal move-out inspection.
Why Surface Cleaning Is Not Enough
You’ll find a list of all the things that your landlord or property management company will be checking for when they complete your move-out inspection. In most cases, these items will have been noted during your move-in inspection, and photographs taken. In many cases, every single item will have been checked, and you will receive a list of all the things that you’ve done wrong.
Professional cleaners know exactly where property managers are looking for dirt. Here’s a rundown of the main areas where tenants usually go wrong with their cleaning.
Extractor Fan Covers
Extractor fan covers in the kitchen and bathroom are another area most tenants don’t even realize exist. They’re usually hidden from view in the ceiling and get completely forgotten during a move-out clean. Over time, the covers can end up caked with grease and grime.
When it comes to extractor fans, clean covers are a giveaway as to how well a property has been maintained during a tenancy. In some cases, a fan might not even have been used, in others, it might have been used continuously. In either case, a tenant may not be aware of the build up of grease and dust which can leave visible stains or even get into the fan itself. This is why, when a property is being cleaned for a tenant’s departure, the covers of all extractor fans should be removed and the entire fan, including grilles and internal housing, cleaned and wiped down.
Limescale Inside the Dishwasher
The interior of the dishwasher is one of the most commonly overlooked spots during a move-out clean. Most people would think that because you use a dishwasher to clean your dishes that the interior of the dishwasher would also get clean. This is not the case.
Over time, hard water deposits can form in the spray arms, filter basket and body of the dishwasher. The bottom filter can become clogged with food and other debris as well as forming mineral deposits. The American Cleaning Institute states that appliance interiors, such as dishwashers, are surfaces that require routine descaling in order to keep them in good working order and to provide the required cleaning and hygiene.
When a property manager opens up a dishwasher for an inspection, they are usually very disappointed to find that there is brown limescale staining on the inside of the doors and walls, and that the filter at the bottom of the dishwasher has not been cleaned and is blocked with food debris and mineral deposits from hard water.
Skirting Boards and Baseboards
Skirting boards are found on the bottom of walls in every room. They are constantly coated in a layer of dirt and can get scuff marks on them. Because they are found near the floor, many people neglect to clean them as part of their regular cleaning.
Professional cleaners approach the cleaning of skirting boards as a separate task, using appropriate cleaning products to clean the dirt off and to remove any paint marks. Where there are any scuffs or marks on the paint of the skirting boards these will be cleaned and where necessary any fair wear and tear marks will be cleaned also.
Inside the Oven Door Glass
Of particular note here are the exterior of the oven, which will typically need wiping down with a neutral detergent and the interior of the oven, which will need to be scrubbed in order to remove all traces of food debris. (In addition to these, the gap between the two panes of glass in the door will typically require cleaning, this is often a neglected area that, once noticed by the property owner, results in a deduction from the deposit for the ‘unusually dirty’ oven).
Grease and splatter leaking from between the two glass panels of the door can penetrate deep into the door and even the surrounding panels or walls of the oven. As time passes, a brown haze or stain can form and be viewed through the door of the oven. This type of staining cannot be cleaned from the exterior of the oven door and requires partial disassembly of the door in order to clean.
This is exactly the kind of detail that turns up in photos of a move-out inspection and results in a deduction for oven cleaning from the tenants’ deposit.
The Inspection Checklist Problem
However, the key to protecting tenants’ deposits is for property managers to provide them with the same criteria used by property management companies in a move-out inspection. Many property management companies prioritize transparency and supply inspection standards beforehand so everyone is working off the same page – companies like Earnest Homes approach this by making their full move-out checklist available to tenants in advance.
Cleaning companies should provide a tenant with a copy of the inspection criteria prior to the clean. In this way, the tenant will have a full understanding of what is expected of them with regards to the move-out of the property.
In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency comments in a School Fact Sheet on Improving Indoor Air Quality that ignored ventilation parts and appliance interiors can negatively impact the air quality in a property.
What Professional Cleaners Bring to the Process
A professional end-of-tenancy clean is NOT the same as a deep clean of a property. It’s a systematic process of cleaning and inspection, working against the same specific criteria a property manager will use to check every area of a property, including:
- Extractor fans and ventilation covers
- All appliance interiors, including dishwashers, ovens, and refrigerators
- Skirting boards, door frames, and light switches
- Window tracks and sill interiors
- Behind and underneath appliances
- Bathroom extractor grilles and tile grout lines
These items show up on a normal end-of-tenancy inspection checklist too, and they’ll turn into deductions if they haven’t been properly cleaned before your move out.
Do Not Let the Small Things Cost You
It’s the little things that count when trying to get your deposit back. Professional cleaning of an empty property can cost a lot less than the accumulated sum of the differences that would be deducted from a tenancy if the above points were not met.