Rental law question. Can you help?

I am a landlord in Pennsylvania (don't hate me please!). I pay a cleaning company $35.00 per hour to clean my units. Usually a tenant always says something like, "The apartment is cleaner now than when I moved in." An hour to clean a shower is not unreasonable. Why is she threatening to take you to court, did the charges go over the amount of your security deposit? My cleaning company has easily spent 10 hours + cleaning a single apartment. Also, it is legal in Pennsylvania to attach wages for damages. Do you have proof of the apartment condition when you moved in, in the form of dated pictures or a move in form signed by the landlord? If not, you have no case. If she is smart, she probably took dated pictures of the condition of the apartment when you moved out.

Rates charged must be reasonable. Don't know what reasonable rates are for housecleaning in your area.

You should have cleaned the apartment thoroughly, then requested a walk-through with the landlord.

The hours charged for fridge and shower and apartment do seem excessive if you cleaned them before you moved out. I've had tenants who obviously NEVER cleaned them during their entire tenancy and it took excessive amounts of my time to get them clean. Tenants who don't clean annoy LLs, who would rather not spend their time cleaning some one else's dirt, or arranging for (and paying) service to do so.

I can tell you that having a service come usually costs me $100-150 for six rooms and takes 4 man hours (2 cleaners for an hour), but I'm not in PA.

As a landlord...I usually take the cleaning fee out of the security deposit. But I take it from your question that the landlord is sending you a bill??? You have a couple options, I suppose. You can pay her what you feel is a fair price and then take the risk she will take you to court. However, as a landlord I would figure it this way. Is it really worth my time and trouble to send a bill to someone for $250 for a cleaning fee and then they send me, lets say, $125. Is it worth my time and trouble to file papers and go to court for $125? Personally I would let it go and chalk it up to experience. You might want to consult a lawyer if you feel it is necessary and take all lease paperwork you were given when you rented the apartment and let them decide what is fair. Our you could just pay the bill and keep that in the back of your mind the next time you rent and have everything spelled out.

Do you have any documentation on how clean you left the place? Any pictures? Generally the law assumes that there's reasonable cleaning to be done whenever someone leaves, and over that would be taken from your deposit. If you can show that you left it in reasonable condition, then you would have a case; you could try to persuade her not to go to court by showing her this documentation, but she could still try just to make you cave in for the nuisance factor. If you told her that you CAN'T go to court due to your job, then she might be using that against you.

I either do it clean my rentals my self or hire a company, $25 an hour is not out of line. It is hard to know what you consider clean vs. what the next tenant will consider clean. Clean isn't enough, it has to be spotless.

$25 per hour is NOT out of line for her services. She can take you to court, and she will prevail.

Pay her the money requested and be done with it. It's not worth fighting over.

Her times a a bit to much!

Ways to avoid these problems:

As a landlord I take pictures of all my units.

I do a work through with you upon moving in and out.

We both sign it.

My cleaning service charges me in Arizona $65.00 to clean a 2x2 unit.

Carpet cleaning can run $65.00 to ? depending upon stains.

Her times are out out there and she must be able to prove it.

Ask her to prove it.

Doing it herself was a bad move for her.