Q: Can a landlord charge me any cleaning/repairs after 7 yrs as a tenant without a signed pre-inspection?
The day after I moved out she had workers show up at 7am for painting. Then she refinished the bathrooms, replaced flooring & replaced kitchen counters to get ready to sell. How can she charge me to clean when there was construction for 3 weeks after I left?
A:
Did you have a walk-through with her before you vacated? In what condition did you leave the premises? What about the carpet and the other rooms? Did they need cleaning? Did you know about the construction and left without doing the usual clean-up?
In any case, she can only charge for cleaning if she paid to have someone do it. So you should ask for substantiation of for any charges. And protest any charges on the ground that the construction would have made it pointless, and California law does not require the performance of a useless act.
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