Most apartment communities will take money from your deposit for your final cleaning, carpet cleaning, and to paint, but these final fees can be avoided, and it’s more simple than you probably realize.
First, most apartment communities will charge you for carpet cleaning when you move out. You usually have the option to clean the carpet yourself, and if you’d like to get your full carpet cleaning deposit back, then you can rent a steam cleaner to clean your own carpets. This may save you between $25 – $75 on your deposit.
Second, most apartment communities will charge you to paint the apartment. This is something that can be avoided in a variety of ways. The first way to avoid painting charges is to outlast the time period where you’d have to pay. For instance, most communities will not charge you for painting if you’ve lived in the apartment for more than 2 years, saving you the cost of painting it back, provided that the paint’s condition on your walls is still within the normal wear and tear guidelines. If you haven’t lived in the apartment for the full 2 years, you will have to pay the prorated amount of the painting charges unless you opt to paint yourself. If you choose to paint yourself, you could save approximately $75 – $300 on your painting deposit.
Third, if you leave your apartment clean, this doesn’t mean that you can avoid your final cleaning bill. Most apartment communities hire an outside cleaning crew to come in and wipe down everything. This is typically around $100 or sometimes more. If you would like to save this money from your deposit, you can opt to clean the apartment yourself. The only catch is that you need to clean as well as a professional crew would. In other words, your apartment needs to be as clean as it was when you initially moved in. This really isn’t that difficult, and may sound harder than it actually is. In many cases your apartment manager may see how hard you’re working to save your deposit and just give it back to you anyways.
Apartment communities only care about saving money and if you can help them save money by not hiring outside vendors, then they will have no problem giving you back your full deposit. This should be kept in mind when you’re vacating your apartment.