My tenants just moved out. They were very pleasant, no problems at all, but they did have a small dog and a cat. There are no obvious signs of damage but I want to take $100 from the security deposit to have all of the carpets steam cleaned before someone else moves in. Thoughts?
I’d expect my money back. Dirty carpets are normal wear. You need to put steam carpet cleaning at move out time into the contract if you want to charge them for it.
If the unit is clean and not obvious signs of damage or unreasonable wear & tear, you can not withhold their security deposit.
Did they have a separate pet deposit? Those are usually non-refundable to cover carpet cleaning etc.
Whenever I have rented, it is assumed that new paint and carpet is standard maintenance costs incurred by the owner and is not part of a deposit. YMMV
My contract states that as a tenant, I will get the carpets steam cleaned. If the contract you held with your tennant doesn’t, then I think you should foot the cost.
You should have the carpets steam cleaned between each tenant just as a normal way of maintaining the unit. That’s part of your cost of doing business and should not be charged to the tenant. (If you’ve got the charge in the lease, or a non-refundable pet deposit in the lease, that’s a different story. Doesn’t sound like you do.)
Whenever I’ve rented, steam carpet cleaning and/or pet fees/deposits are disclosed ahead of time. If your lease makes no mention of this, I don’t see how it’s appropriate to charge them.
For what it’s worth: my last place did not specify, but we borrowed a small carpet cleaner to get high-traffic areas just to prevent problems (our landlord was a bit unpredictable, and also, as we found out later, a convicted thief). We did not pay for a professional cleaning since it wasn’t required, and if we had been charged, we would have fought it. We did have a medium-size dog, as well. We took lots of pictures before we moved out to demonstrate no unusual wear and tear, as is my habit.
Agreed. As a renter, when I move out I assume that standard (ie, won’t be deducted from security deposit) cleaning includes steam cleaning carpet and repainting the walls.
If there was like, gigantic pee stains or red wine stains, I could maybe understand it, but it just sounds like a standard steam cleaning. No obvious signs of damage == no security deposit deductions. I’d be pissed.
Cleaning carpets is part of the make-ready process for a new tenant. Only if the carpet is stained would I expect the landlord to withhold any of my deposit.
I’ve lived in a lot of apartments, and only rarely did not get all of my deposit back. In those cases, the management company seemed to go out of their way to find the most nit-picky things to charge me for. One charged me for stained carpet caused by a broken toilet in the unit above mine - it was RAINING in my apartment, and it took them an hour to get a maintenance guy to turn the water off, since the people upstairs weren’t at home. I was, as you can imagine, extremely pissed when they withheld money for that one.
As a matter of reality, I always have considered my deposit to be lost money. Every landlord I’ve had has found some reason to keep it. It wasn’t worth the effort to fight to get it back.
The one I recall as the most outrageous was the landlord who had decided to turn the apartment house where I was living into his personal residence. We got along okay - he even offered to rent me the smaller house where he had been living after he moved into the bigger house. As part of the renovation for converting the building from apartments to his own dwelling, he ripped out and replaced all of the walls, ceiling, and flooring in what had been my apartment. This was not needed repairs - it was just something he wanted to renovate. So there was no possible damage I could have done in that apartment that wouldn’t have been covered by the renovations - I could have been raising and slaughtering livestock and any trace of it would have been gone by the time he was done. But despite this, I never saw a cent of my deposit.
I find these replies interesting… I have not rented in a long time, but I -never-, not once, got my full security deposit back.
But now that I am the landlord, I want to do the right thing, so it looks like I’ll just give it all back.
Exactly. My lease had exactly that provision. It is normal to steam-clean between tenants.
The only time I’ve not gotten a security deposit back was if the landlord & I have agreed that they will use that rather than me paying the last month’s rent.
I always left the place in better condition than I found it though - and I always did a final walk through or took pics to ensure that everything was found acceptable.
I once had someone try to withhold my deposit - but that was because she was a drug addict and she had spent it already. She came up with all these other outrageous claims as well and tried to take me to court. But since I had pics and an email from her stating the place looked great - it all got tossed out.
I lived in a place like that once. I had a roommate who worked at the local furniture rental shop, and the last thing he did after we had moved all the furniture out was to borrow a steam cleaner from work and meticulously steam-cleaned every inch of carpeting in that place. The landlords withheld our security deposit anyway, saying that the place hadn’t been cleaned adequately. When we argued the point with them, they responded by giving us some BS story about how we had been a day late with our rent one month and therefore they weren’t obliged to give us anything back and that in fact we should be grateful that we weren’t evicted. We went back later in the summer to visit some friends who were still living in our old building, and discovered that the owners were tearing out and replacing all of the old carpeting in the empty units. Bastards.
If you had a special provision for pets, you can keep some of it for the steam cleaning. If you never said anything about pets, or that a cleaning would be required before move-out, then it’s a normal cost of business and it comes out of your pocket.
Sounds like you need to give it back.
I discussed this subject (move-out and deposit) with my landlord when I moved into a new place a few months ago. He’s apparently of the mind that the tenant that’s moving out has to fully clean and ready the place for the next tenant, and if you don’t, he gets to keep your deposit. I tried to make a case that the cleaning is his responsibility and part of the business of being a landlord, but he says no. So who’s right, then?
OP, I’m glad that you’re going to do the right thing. It would be pretty bogue of you to decide at the last minute to keep some of the deposit when it wasn’t specifically laid out in the lease.
If you’re going to continue to be a landlord, you should really, really familiarize yourself with the laws of your locale. There are often very specific laws regarding security deposits - like maximum amount, how it’s held (often in a completely separate bank account), interest you must pay the tenant on it, how long you have after the lease ends to return it, and the hoops you need to go through to withhold some.
FTR, I’ve rented about 5 places, and the only time I didn’t get the full deposit back was when the SOB landlord withheld $35 to clean the oven - which was no dirtier than when I had moved in. I fought him over it, won, and then put a pile of “tenants rights” pamphlets from the state in his front lobby.
I did tell them when they moved in that I wouldn’t require a specific pet deposit or pet rent like some places charge, but I would look at the condition of the apt when they left and decide what to do then… to which they obviously agreed.
BUT… like I said, they were good people who didn’t cause any problems, so it’s probably not worth the hassle or potential ill will to try and keep some of the deposit.
Cracked tiles, torn wallpaper everywhere because of scratching cats, hopelessly stained carpets, massive mold invasion…
No, I don’t really expect my deposit back. Anyway, I don’t even remember having payed one 
This is good advice, but as soon as I can sell this place without losing my shirt, I will. I hate being a landlord.
You should check out the laws anyway. You can lose money by breaking the rules - for example from the MA tenants bill of rights:
If the landlord uses a lease that contains any provision that conflicts with the Security Deposit Law and attempts to enforce that provision or attempts to obtain from you or a prospective tenant a waiver of any provision of the Security Deposit Law, the landlord cannot keep your security deposit for any reason including making deductions for damages.
(my bolding)