In chatrooms or review forum or when talking with friends what you hear most about rentals is the security deposits. Mostly you hear complaints that tenant’s did not get their deposit back even though they cleaned. What is happening here? Are landlords charging deposits for profit? Are tenant's being ripped off? Are tenants underestimating their cleaning expenses?
It is time to shed light onto this topic. We want to share with what our tenant's refunds look like. Services for repairs and cleaning are expensive, in addition to moving costs spending money on these is frustrating to tenants, and owners of rental properties. Transparency on this issue is very helpful, and we wish more property managers would share their information. We pulled our move-out-report data for the last three years.
First off, 23% of Paramount Property Management, Inc tenants’ got 100% of their deposit back over the last three years. This means they had no outstanding charges for rent, late fees, cleaning, carpet cleaning or repairs. The unit looked better or identical to when they moved in and they got their deposit back entirely. Good landlords understand what charges are normal wear and tear and what charges are a tenant's responsibility. Although these seem like common sense they vary by state.
The remaining 77% did have to pay for cleaning and/or repairs from their deposit The average charged from a deposit on move out was $276.84. Of the 77% that had charges to their deposit 92% had charges fully covered by their deposit and had money returned to them.
There was 18% of the tenants that had a charge to their deposit that exceeded their deposit amount. This 18% were over $1000.00 due to tenants not paying rent for for over 2 months or longer, or having large repair issues, such as painting, touch up and retexture of walls, missing closet doors, broken appliances, abandoning trash and furniture, lawn care, several hours of cleaning and pet damages. Of those tenants that exceeded their deposit in repairs and cleaning a small portion paid the bill owing to the owner. The remaining were sent to collections or small claims so the property owners’ could recover their loss.
Although Idaho does not have a public statistical account for what property managers refund tenants. most companies will explain what they charge for. It is covered in the lease agreement and if you communicate with a landlord prior to your move out most are happy to do the inspection a few days early to help you prepare to clean or repair items you may have missed. If you are worried about a deposit the best thing a tenant can do is take pictures and document their own move in, keep a copy of the inspection report and take pictures on move out.
