Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 31k+ posts · 20k+ votes
The tenant who recently vacated this unit claims that he left the unit in "broom clean" condition. He's been calling the office harrassing my staff about getting his security deposit back. Lol, sorry my man it doesn't matter how many negative reviews you leave online. We aren't going to be giving that security deposit back.
What would you do if a tenant from hell left this fridge in one of your units?
I'm interested when you give them the letter explaining the reduction or elimination of the security deposit. Are you justified keeping all of it because the fridge is dirty? I know it's bad, but that can't me more then a couple hours of work, and for a $10 an hour employee.
I'm interested when you give them the letter explaining the reduction or elimination of the security deposit. Are you justified keeping all of it because the fridge is dirty? I know it's bad, but that can't me more then a couple hours of work, and for a $10 an hour employee.
When a Fridge looks like this you don't really think the rest of the unit is immaculate do you?
As a side note it's important to pay attention to the job market when hiring employees. Maintenance guys aren't $10/hour anymore. Walmart starts everyone at $12/hour & Amazon starts all their employees at $15/hour. Hiring guys at $10/hour isn't a scalable business. On top of the hourly wage you've got the cost of their tools, supplies, truck, insurance, workers' comp etc...So with all of that in mind you're better off just replacing this fridge. So after removal & delivery getting up to a $500-$600 cost to the tenant on the fridge alone isn't uncommon.
Is it incumbent upon the landlord to really try and clean that fridge? I guarantee you it would be cheaper to just throw it out and buy a brand new fridge. Is that mold? Bugs? The black plague? On a side note, the 1x1 sq ft area in front of the fridge could indeed be "broom clean". However, I require my units to be "bleach" clean.
We had a similar situation, luckily our worker did the first cleaning so I didn't have to even witness how gross it was.
I think it's absolutely disgusting, but hey... land lording is sometimes. We charged our tenant $75 in cleaning,... .it's a fridge, it shouldn't take but 2-3 hours of cleaning and A LOT of bleach.
I don't let them off cheap for this crap. Sometimes you can get the fridge clean, sometimes you can't. It depends on how deep the mold is spread through the fridge. I probably wouldn't clean this one.
I'd charge them for my time to haul it out of there and to haul a new one in. I would also charge them for the replacement of a fridge of comparable quality and the time it takes me to find one. I keep logs of the time spent and the receipts.
Don't go crazy with the rates you charge, or your replacement fridge, but also don't charge them the same rates you'd pay your friends brother who wants to work under the table. Your time is valuable, and this crap is preventing you renting the apartment.
Is that roach feces? If it is, it’s not only inside, but all in the coils and around the compressor as well. I think I’d duct tape that thing closed and haul it to the dump. You can pick up a clean used one on Craigslist fairly cheap to replace it.
I'm interested when you give them the letter explaining the reduction or elimination of the security deposit. Are you justified keeping all of it because the fridge is dirty? I know it's bad, but that can't me more then a couple hours of work, and for a $10 an hour employee.
In my neck of the woods, the cheapest and least reliable schmuck won't get out of bed for less than $25/hour.
"Broom Clean" is ambiguous. Nobody cleans a fridge with a broom, so how could a tenant know what's expected. I like when contracts say that the property should be in the same shape it was at the beginning of the lease, minus reasonable wear and tear. That makes it clear what the tenant is responsible for. An excessively dirty fridge clearly isn't "wear and tear".
@James Wise I saw the title of this tread and thought, "This has got to be a James Wise/Holton-Wise post". And sure enough you came through with a good one.
Gotta love the "give me back my deposit NOW or ELSE!" calls/emails/texts/letters/demands after they leave a unit in shambles. Folks think, well its just like 15 minutes with some windex to clean up, that can't be more than $25. Yea, tell that to my insurer. Tell that to my assistant who has to be paid to manage all this. Tell that to my maintenance man who can't work another job because the whole hour is burned w/ those 15 minutes. If it was just $25 worth of labor, why the hell didn't they just clean it themselves then? And gotta love when the remediation bill is $1k+ on their $750 deposit and they still want to argue over a $15 charge. Nope, go ahead and take me to court (yet to happen, but very possible), its not worth my time to discuss.
@Linda S. It interesting that you say this would cost 75 dollars in cleaning. And others say replace the fridge at a cost of around 500 dollars. That shows the sometimes huge price discrepancy between a PM company and those that self manage .
@Linda S. It interesting that you say this would cost 75 dollars in cleaning. And others say replace the fridge at a cost of around 500 dollars. That shows the sometimes huge price discrepancy between a PM company and those that self manage .
The tenant who recently vacated this unit claims that he left the unit in "broom clean" condition. He's been calling the office harrassing my staff about getting his security deposit back. Lol, sorry my man it doesn't matter how many negative reviews you leave online. We aren't going to be giving that security deposit back.
What would you do if a tenant from hell left this fridge in one of your units?
What would I do? Easy. Keep the deposit. If they call over and over block the #. I’d dmanages exceed deposit amount send the ledger to collections. Use that to negotiate with them for a two sided release
@James Wise I saw the title of this tread and thought, "This has got to be a James Wise/Holton-Wise post". And sure enough you came through with a good one.
Gotta love the "give me back my deposit NOW or ELSE!" calls/emails/texts/letters/demands after they leave a unit in shambles. Folks think, well its just like 15 minutes with some windex to clean up, that can't be more than $25. Yea, tell that to my insurer. Tell that to my assistant who has to be paid to manage all this. Tell that to my maintenance man who can't work another job because the whole hour is burned w/ those 15 minutes. If it was just $25 worth of labor, why the hell didn't they just clean it themselves then? And gotta love when the remediation bill is $1k+ on their $750 deposit and they still want to argue over a $15 charge. Nope, go ahead and take me to court (yet to happen, but very possible), its not worth my time to discuss.
Solid points. Many people living in the do it yourself world look at things with tunnel vision. They look at just the act of cleaning the fridge as a stand alone task. They fail to account for everything that is in place that put a person in the same room as the fridge with cleaning supplies in hand. This is why many small business owners never grow or find out that there is no actual sellable value to their business.
As for tenants suing you for their deposit. Nothing to worry about really. When you do loose one it's a bit costly as most jurisdictions award double or triple damages but a loss is rare. I believe we are running a 96% win rate on those cases.