My simple advice for renters dealing with refund of deposits is this: you can dispute any charge to your deposits.

Question: Can my landlord do this?

Answer: Yes he can, but you can dispute the charge.

It obviously sounds like your landlord is trying to charge you a fee that you shouldn’t be required to pay. But just so you understand, there are things that landlords will find and charge you for. Some of the most commonly forgotten items are: Drip Pans, Stoves, and behind appliances.

Even in a unit that you feel has been cleaned, the landlord still may be able to justify some charges. I suggest you contact the landlord to dispute the charge. Also, if you are going to dispute with your landlord, don’t cash you deposit refund check. By doing so you are in agreement to the charges. You will have to decide if its worth it or not to dispute charges to your deposit.

Yes the landlord can do this. In fact its fairly common for landlords to charge a general cleaning fee. Almost everytime that I have a tenant vacate, I always have to do some type of cleaning or work in order to bring the property to rentable state. The general cleaning fee varies, but unless the unit was left spotless, there is always some type of cleaning that the landlord can do.

Yeah, I get sick of landlords charging for stupid stuff! I just got my deposit breakdown from the property manager and instead of getting money back, they say I owe them. It’s just stupid!