Exit cleaning is a one-off service designed to deep clean rented spaces at lease termination. Also known as ‘bond cleaning’ in some parts of the world, exit cleaning is normally the domain of commercial properties. There are some instances in which residential properties are subject to exit cleaning as well.
Do you lease a commercial office building or warehouse? Is your current lease on the verge of expiring? If there is any possibility that exit cleaning is in your organization’s future, it is important that decision makers start thinking about how they will manage it. The sooner the better. Waiting until a month before lease termination to come up with a cleaning plan is really waiting too long.
Here are some important things to know about exit cleaning at lease termination:
It Could Impact You Financially
It is understood that tenants will leave properties in good condition when they move out. If properties are left dirty and damaged, financial penalties are likely. What does this say about cleaning? It suggests that how well you clean could impact you financially.
Carefully consider the terms of your lease. What does the document say about your exit cleaning responsibilities? We are guessing you don’t want to be left with a hefty bill when you could have spent less money on professional cleaning services.
Carpets Are a Major Area of Concern
Next, be aware that carpets are a major area of concern in office buildings, medical buildings, etc. Commercial landlords are no different from their residential counterparts in that they do not want to replace carpets more often than necessary. But they are also sticklers for stains and other types of carpet damage.
Carpet cleaning is a standard deep cleaning task. Fortunately, commercial cleaning services utilize specialized equipment and chemicals to address even the most stubborn stains. That is good because a stained carpet could mean an expensive bill from the landlord.
There Will Be Hard to Reach Areas
There are always hard to reach areas that still need to be addressed by exit cleaning. Here is the thing: some of those areas cannot even be seen until everything is packed up and moved out. Do you have a strategy for addressing them?
Another thing to consider is the length of time that has passed since your last deep cleaning. The longer that amount of time is, the more challenging cleaning those hard-to-reach areas is probably going to be.
Hard to reach areas include spaces behind fixtures, spaces above cabinets, closet storage spaces, cabinet interiors, and so forth. There is always the temptation to ignore them, but doing so could cost you.
Consistency Goes a Long Way
Believe it or not, consistency goes a long way in exit cleaning. If your cleaning team applies the same standards to every space within the property, a landlord is less likely to nitpick. But if one room is exceptionally clean while another is only marginally so, it will be easier for the landlord to find things wrong with the latter space.
We generally advise coming up with a set of standards that can be consistently applied to every room in the building. The standards should be set as high as possible to insure the lowest risk of leaving the landlord unsatisfied.
Exit cleaning is not necessarily the easiest thing to pull off. If you are looking at lease termination in the near future, it might be worth the financial effort to hire a commercial cleaning service. Letting the pros do it might ultimately cost you less in the long run.
