Reasonably Clean and Tidy?

A common issue when tenants leave a property is how clean do they have to leave the property at the end of a tenancy? This can be an area of contention between the standards of a property owner or manager versus that of the outgoing tenants.

What does the law say?
The relevant section of the Residential Tenancies Act is Section 40 which states as follows:

Section 40(1)(e)(i): The tenant must leave the premises in a reasonably clean and reasonably tidy condition and remove or arrange for the removal of all rubbish upon termination of the tenancy.

What does the Tenancy Tribunal say about this?
What is reasonable to one person and to another is the grey area here and can often be where the disagreements begin. There have been a number of cases that have gone through the tenancy tribunal process with most outcomes siding with outgoing tenant in cases where professional cleaning has been carried out following the tenants' departure:

Mills v Kiwi Property Care Ltd:
Reasonably clean does not mean spotless or to a hotel standard.

Housing New Zealand v Holloway: 
Reasonably clean refers to a standard that an average, reasonable person would consider satisfactory, not to a commercially spotless level.

Richards v Scully:
The standard is not necessarily what a landlord considers suitable for a new tenant.

Ace Property Management Ltd v Owens:
Clarifies that landlords should expect to perform some additional cleaning, especially after long tenancies.

These suggest that property owners should anticipate some cleaning between tenancies may be required before the next tenancy commences as the outgoing tenants cannot be held liable for leaving the property in a state fit for an incoming tenancy as the two standards appear to differ.

What can be done?
Ensuring that a comprehensive ingoing inspection is conducted at the outset of a new tenancy, including photographs of the property can prove vital when negotiating with outgoing tenants if there are actual cleaning matters that they should be liable for. An outgoing inspection when the tenants vacate is also vital to capture the condition of the property at the end of the tenancy.

Other than this, property owners may need to accept that some additional cleaning may be required before a new tenant moves into the property, and this would be at their own cost. In a lot of cases there may have been some work or maintenance carried out at the property between tenancies or even a number of viewings, which would likely mean some level of cleaning might be needed anyway. It is also worthwhile ensuring a high standard of cleanliness at the outset in order to establish a good relationship with the tenants.

The Just Property process
Just Property conducts a thorough inspection prior to each new tenancy with the inspection given to the incoming tenant to check over within the first week of the tenancy before signing off on it. We also then conduct a final inspection at the end of each tenancy, and complete an outgoing report if we identify issues that need to be resolved.

We provide outgoing tenants a list of cleaning expectations when we acknowledge they are vacating a property, being mindful of what can be enforced.

In the majority of cases we are able to come to a reasonable agreement with the outgoing tenants if there are issues, usually as we have very good evidence of both the ingoing and outgoing condition of the property as well as clear expectations set around the cleaning needed to enable a smooth return of the bond to the vacating tenants.

If you need assistance with the outgoing process get in touch with the team to discuss how we might be able to assist: welcome@justproperty.co.nz