Move-in and move-out cleaning: what landlords actually check
Moving is stressful enough without scrubbing the oven at midnight before your lease ends. We do a lot of move-in and move-out cleans across Brooklyn, and we’ve worked with enough property managers to know what they actually inspect. This is the checklist we run on every job, and what tends to come up.
Kitchen
The kitchen is where the security deposit lives or dies. NYC property managers look at:
- Inside the oven and broiler. Grease and burnt residue.
- Stovetop, including under removable burners and inside the drip pans
- Top of the range hood and the filter
- Inside the microwave, including the turntable
- Inside the refrigerator and freezer, including drawers and door seals
- Behind and underneath the refrigerator
- Cabinets, inside and out
- Sink, faucet, and behind the faucet base
- Countertops, including caulk lines
Bathroom
- Inside and behind the toilet, including the base
- Tub and shower, including grout lines and silicone
- Sink, faucet, mirror
- Inside the medicine cabinet
- Exhaust fan grill
- Floor including behind the toilet base
Bedrooms and living areas
- All baseboards
- All windowsills and inside window tracks
- Inside closets, including shelves
- Ceiling fans and light fixtures
- Doors, door frames, switch plates
- Floors, including under any furniture left behind
What property managers in Brooklyn flag
In our experience, the things landlords charge for most often are:
- Oven and stove grease
- Refrigerator interior, especially shelves and door seals
- Bathroom grout discoloration
- Dust on baseboards and behind appliances
- Streaks or splatter on bathroom mirrors and tile
- Anything stuck to the inside of the medicine cabinet
These are the spots a quick personal cleanup almost always misses, and they’re the first things a building manager looks at because they take five seconds to check.
Timing
For move-outs, schedule the clean for the day after the movers are out, before the walkthrough. Empty rooms clean faster and more thoroughly than half-empty ones. For move-ins, same logic in reverse: book before the moving truck arrives, not after.
If your lease ends on a Friday and your walkthrough is Monday, you have time. If both are the same day, that’s tight but doable. Let us know early so we can plan around it.
