Hi all

For the first time, I am renting my fully furnished house for short term. (2 months). He wants to pay weekly; stable income (30 yrs w same employer) but terrible credit from recent divorce. Putting him on W-To Week.

GF is moving to the area in May and he needs a stop gap until then.

Since this house is furnished, I want to charge a cleaning fee of $100 on top of the deposit, for laundering etc which you would not normally have in a rental.

I do NOT want tenant to think that for $100 he can just walk away and not clean at all (like a hotel).

How should I word this? Or, should I call it something other than a cleaning fee...like an administrative fee?

Thanks!

PS, I've been renting this house to the same fellow MTM for 4 years and they finally closed his office and he moved. So have not faced this before.

Generally, courts do not like cleaning FEEs. They recognize that tenants have to clean up THEIR dirt and that if they want to, they have a right to do the cleaning themselves to avoid deduction from SD.

CA law makes it clear that landlord may charge for he cleaning of the premises upon termination of the tenancy necessary to return the unit to the same level of cleanliness it was in at the inception of the tenancy. That makes it fair to both LL and tenant. Tenant doesn't have to pay for someone else's dirt and landlord gets his unit clean.

I personally solve the problem by offering to have a crew chosen by me clean at tenants' expense. My chosen crew does an outstanding job, so the apartment is absolutely clean at the inception of the new tenancy, and for a flat amount, departing tenant gets relieved of any additional responsibility.

Its not different from a cleaning FEE except that tenant gets a choice, although most of my tenants readily agree, happy to be relieved of residual responsibility.