Moving out of a Texas rental: what a landlord can charge for cleaning, and what not

What the law says, in a few sentences

In Texas, a landlord may not keep any part of your security deposit to cover normal wear and tear, which the Texas Property Code defines as deterioration that results from the intended use of a dwelling. A landlord can deduct for damage and for charges you are legally responsible for under your lease, and many leases spell out cleaning expectations or specific charges. The landlord generally has to refund the deposit, or give you a written, itemized list of deductions, by the 30th day after you surrender the premises, once you have given a written forwarding address. So what you owe for cleaning depends mostly on your lease and on the condition you leave the home in.

I run Texas Kings Cleaning Services in Garland, and families who are moving are the clients I most want to hear from. I am not a lawyer, and this is general information, not legal advice; for your own situation, talk to a licensed Texas attorney or a legal aid organization. What I can tell you is how the rules look from the cleaning side, and how to leave a rental so there is little to argue about.

Normal wear and tear versus damage

The line between wear and tear and damage is where most deposit disputes start. Wear and tear is what happens to any home when people live in it as intended: carpet that thins in the hallway, paint that fades, fixtures that collect some dust. Damage is the result of an accident, carelessness or abuse. TexasLawHelp.org, a legal information site, gives examples on both sides, and they line up with what I see in move-out homes.

The examples below are general. Your lease, the age of the item and the length of your tenancy all matter, which is why a worn carpet after many years and a stained carpet after a few months are treated differently.

The most useful way to think about it is to ask what the landlord would have to do before the next tenant moves in. Repainting a wall that has faded after years of sunlight is part of owning a rental. Scrubbing an oven full of burned-on grease, hauling away a closet of belongings or treating carpets soaked with pet urine is work the tenant created, and that is the kind of thing that tends to appear on deduction lists.

• Wear and tear: worn carpet in walkways, peeling paint, dusty fixtures
• Damage: a broken window, a hole in the wall, a large carpet stain
• Often disputed, in my experience: heavy grease, pet odor, burned-on oven residue, items and trash left behind

Where cleaning fits: start with your lease

The deposit rules in the Property Code do not include a detailed list of cleaning tasks. Instead, a landlord may deduct for damages and charges you are legally liable for under the lease, and leases often say how the home must be left: clean, with appliances cleaned, trash removed, and sometimes carpets professionally cleaned. TexasLawHelp.org notes that a lease may include special charges that can be subtracted from a deposit. Read yours before you plan the move-out, because it tells you exactly what the landlord expects.

In my experience, the cleaning charges that show up on deduction lists are the predictable ones: an oven that was never cleaned, a refrigerator left with food in it, bathrooms with buildup, cabinets with crumbs, and belongings or trash left in closets, the garage or the yard. These are not wear and tear, and they are the easiest deductions to prevent.

Look for a few specific things when you read the lease: whether it lists a move-out cleaning standard or checklist, whether it requires professional carpet cleaning and a receipt, whether it sets any fixed charges for items like rekeying or trash removal, and how much notice you must give before moving out. Note them down, and plan the move-out around them.

The 30-day refund clock and your forwarding address

According to the Texas State Law Library's summary of the Property Code, the landlord must refund the deposit on or before the 30th day after the tenant surrenders the premises. The landlord is not obligated to return it until you give a written statement of your forwarding address, but failing to give one does not cause you to lose the right to the refund. If the landlord keeps any part of it, you are entitled to a written, itemized list of the deductions.

The practical steps are simple. Give your forwarding address in writing and keep a copy. Return the keys the way your lease requires and keep a record of when you did. Note the date you moved out. Those three things make the timeline clear if anything is later in question.

• Read your lease's move-out and notice requirements early
• Give the forwarding address in writing and keep a copy
• Return keys as the lease requires and record the date
• Expect a refund or an itemized list within 30 days of surrender

Photographs are your best protection

TexasLawHelp.org recommends that tenants photograph existing damage at move-in, make a written list of it and ask the landlord to sign the list if possible. That move-in record is what lets you show later that a stain or a crack was already there. If you never made one, it is not too late to protect yourself at move-out.

Once the home is empty and cleaned, photograph every room: floors, walls, the inside of the oven and refrigerator, cabinets, bathrooms, closets and the garage. Take them in daylight, with the date recorded. If your landlord does a walk-through, attend it if you can and ask for any concerns in writing on the spot.

The cleaning that protects a deposit

A move-out clean is a deep clean of an empty home, and the landlord's walk-through looks at exactly the places tenants skip. I describe the full room-by-room job and the walk-through in what a move-out clean takes before the keys change hands. For deposit purposes, these are the areas that most often turn into charges.

Carpet is its own question. Vacuuming is part of any move-out clean, but shampooing or steam cleaning is usually a separate trade. If your lease requires professional carpet cleaning, book it and keep the receipt.

• Oven inside and out, stovetop, drip pans and range hood
• Refrigerator and freezer emptied and wiped inside
• Inside every cabinet, drawer and closet
• Bathrooms descaled, grout and toilet bases cleaned
• Baseboards, blinds, fans, vents and window tracks
• Every item and bag of trash removed, including the garage and yard

If a deduction looks wrong

Start by reading the itemized list carefully and comparing it with your lease, your move-in record and your move-out photos. Many disagreements are resolved with a polite written response that points to the photos and the lease language. Keep your communication in writing.

If that does not work, get help. The Texas State Law Library notes that a tenant can recover three times the portion of the deposit wrongfully withheld in certain cases under the Property Code, but whether that applies depends on the facts. TexasLawHelp.org has information and forms for tenants, and a licensed attorney can tell you where you stand. My role is the part before any of that: leaving the home clean enough that the cleaning line on the list is empty.

Timing the clean around a move

Many leases end on the last day of a month, and many people in the Dallas area moving out are also moving into another home on the same days. The move-out clean has to happen after the movers have taken everything, and before you hand back the keys. That window is often a single day, sometimes less, so plan it the moment you know your dates.

If your move-out and move-in dates do not line up, storage or a staged move may be part of the plan; this guide on moving when closing dates do not line up walks through those options. Either way, schedule the clean for after the truck leaves and leave yourself time for a final walk with your camera.

Before you return the keys, walk the home one last time with your lease checklist and your camera. Check the oven, the refrigerator, every cabinet, every closet and the garage for anything forgotten. It is much easier to fix a missed shelf or remove a forgotten box that afternoon than to dispute a charge for it a month later.

How I help renters leave on good terms

When you reach out, tell me the address, the move-out date, the size of the home and the number of bathrooms, whether there were pets, and any areas you know need extra work. If your lease has a move-out checklist, send it, and I will clean to it. If you are also moving into a new place, I can clean that one before your furniture arrives. What drives the time and price for each home is explained in what affects the price of house cleaning.

I serve Garland, Mesquite, Richardson, Rowlett and the Dallas area. My company guarantees the quality of its work, so if your landlord's walk-through raises a cleaning item, tell me. The goal is simple: a home that matches your lease, photos that prove it, and a deposit that comes back.

Questions people ask me