Hi!

I know that I am legally obligated to return my apartment in the same condition that I got it. The issue is, the place was a mess when I got it. The owners had moved out the previous night, there were onions in a drawer in the kitchen, dust thick enough that you could see it on the windowsills and ceiling fans, etc. Now, I'm not the world's best housekeeper, so I generally get some maid service to do my move-out cleaning. In this case, I just swept, vacuumed, wiped down the counters, etc. To be honest, it's a lot cleaner than it was when I moved in, but not spotless. Can they charge me for failing to clean to a sufficient level?

Hey, froggy! I wondered how your moving-out situation was going.

This is one of the trickiest situations I deal with. If you have any proof of the conditions that existed when you moved in, then you could bring it up to that condition, or better, and you'd be fine. Otherwise you're kind of at the landlord's mercy.

Did you fill out any sort of condition form, or anything written at all that indicated the place was not clean?

Well, the leasing agent actually suggested that if I could afford to not move in for a few days, they would get a cleaning crew in. Other than that, it wasn't the kind of thing that you can really document well on the move-in form. "rug needs to be vacuumed, shelves are dusty. etc." But so far the owners are being reasonable, so I will just cross my fingers. My big concern is if they want to charge me for shampooing the rugs, which really do need it.

Weren't you there a fairly short time?

Have you tried to get either the owner or the leasing agent to do a walk through WITH you?

If they've been decent to work with you've pretty much got it pegged right. Just hope for the best.

You do need to make it spotless depending on your landlord opinion, and when you moved in and it was dirty you should have told the landlord to clean it, at that point it was his responsibility, but by the sounds of it he/she doesn't seem to care a whole lot

I agree you need to make it spotless. Landlords tend to look at you cleaned the last tenants mess as a favor you did but when it comes to you leaving it messy then it is suddenly looked at from the business angle.
It is always best before you move in to make the landlord aware, a list and photograph anything you think the landlord can come back after you about.

Shampooing of carpeting is to be expected when a tenant moves out. This should not be charged to the tenant leaving but charged off to normal wear and tear. If you've cleaned it to the best of your ability then so be it. It really does not matter what the place looked like before you moved in. It all hinges on what it looks like NOW that really matters. Just because you put some elbow grease into the place to make it liveable should not matter now that you are moving out. If YOU left the place a mess, then of course you'd be charged accordingly to clean it up. Next time, let the landlord hire a clean up crew and clean it for you before you move in - unless you were in a huge hurry to move in or they gave you an incentive to move in early without it being cleaned up.

I was moving from Texas to California with a dog and two cats, so I really expected to find the spot reasonably clean when I got there. And finding a spot to stay for a few days until they got around to cleaning the place was going to cost me money, and stress, that wasn't worth it compared to just cleaning. I rented a private townhome, and I get the impression that these are new landlords. Thankfully, I'm in my new house, so once I do the walk-through, I'm through with landlord hassles until I get a new job somewhere else!