Who pays for deep cleaning appliances - landlord or tenant?

[Melissa Faraias]

Hello BP community,

I have a rental property with tenants who are an older couple. They called because of a bad odor coming from their washing machine. On evaluation, the unit was extremely dirty, moldy, and it took my handyman over 3 hours to deep clean it.  I was assuming that the tenants would deep clean the appliances on a regular basis, but they said that they were unaware that it had to be done. How do you ensure that appliances are been cleaned regularly? My lease does not explicitly state that the tenant should do this although it does state that the tenants are responsible for keep the appliances in good working order. Should i charge the tenants for this cleaning?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Mohammed Rahman]

Hey, thanks for sharing this.

Honestly, this is one of those gray areas that a lot of landlords run into. Since your lease says they’re responsible for keeping appliances in good working order, you could argue that regular cleaning falls under that, especially if the neglect caused mold and odor. But if it's not clearly spelled out, it's tough to enforce or charge them without risking pushback or damaging the relationship.

Moving forward, the best thing is to update your lease or create a basic appliance maintenance guide/checklist to give new tenants. Just something simple like “clean washer gasket/filter monthly” kind of thing. That way there’s no confusion.

As for this case, I’d probably eat the cost this time (maybe gently let them know this isn't typical maintenance), but use it as a learning moment. You could say something like: “We took care of it this time, but regular cleaning is part of keeping the appliance working properly, and we’d appreciate your help with that going forward.”

Keeps it friendly but sets a boundary.