Every landlord will have experienced this at some point. Your tenant skedaddles under mysterious circumstances, leaving the keys in your office in the manner of a criminal getting out of Dodge.
Initially, you think nothing of it. After all, some people simply give off a suspicious vibe. But then you enter the flat they’ve left behind and you understand why they were acting so skittish.
The hallway is rancid, the living room is drenched in stains and footprints, the bedroom is wall-to-wall with junk and bric-a-brac, and the bathroom contains more mildew than a Mr Muscle advert.
Fixing this ain’t gonna be cheap, and it ain’t gonna be pretty.
But fear not – we’ve assembled this list of exceptional cleaning tips to make clearing up after your former tenant a little more palatable. Give it a read and get enlightened.
- Carpet cleaning
Even the messiest looking carpet can be salvaged with the appropriate level of TLC. Whether it’s sodden with red wine stains, plastered with dry and mashed-in food, or covered with matted cat fur, there’s always a solution to make the carpeting of your property close to new.
But when that mess is aggressively bad, it’s time to call in the professionals.
Companies like Chem-Dry Huddersfield specialise in advanced carpet and upholstery cleaning and are able to make even the most stubborn stains disappear with their industrial practices.
So, see if a deep clean can sort out your carpets before you bin them.
- Skip Hire
A tenant who skips town quickly usually has little interest in taking their earthly belongings with them, leaving you with the unenviable task of ditching their furniture, clothing, or bric-a-brac.
First up, contact your local charity shop to see if they’d like to take any of the leftovers off your hands. But if they genuinely look ready to fall apart, then you’ll have to bin them and hire a skip for more substantial items.
A website like Skip Hire Services can provide you with excellent and reliable information on where to buy a skip, as well as which size of skip is perfect for your needs.
And remember that re-use is king. So if your tenant left behind a few trinkets and treasures that are actually worth keeping, hold onto them and use them to make your property look appealing to a new prospective tenant.
- Document safety
If your tenant left in a hurry then they may have left personal documents such as bank statements, identity cards, bills or other personal pieces of ephemera behind.
And if that is the case, you’ll have to be sure to dispose of these properly using a high-quality shredder.
Do that and you’ll be doing right by your former tenant. With identity theft on the rise, you have no other option.
That’s our list. What property clearing tips can you share? Let us know in the comments below.
Image via Unsplash
