Usually yes. If your lease says the unit comes back clean and it came back dirty, cleaning is one of the costs that get billed against the deposit. What is actually arguable is the amount, the itemization, and whether the place was worse than the day you got it — and all three are settled by documents, not by memory.
We are a cleaning company, not a law firm: what your lease allows, and what Florida law requires of your landlord, belong to your lease and to a qualified attorney. Ours is the other half — which lines a deduction lands on here in Miami-Dade, what a clean changes, what it cannot, and the order to do it in.
Three documents frame the dispute — not the walkthrough conversation
A cleaning charge is a charge for the gap between two conditions: how you received the unit and how you handed it back. Three papers help establish that gap — the lease and the standard it names (“clean”, “professionally cleaned”, a checklist), your photos from the day you got the keys, and dated photos from the day you left. When only one end is documented, the other side has an evidentiary advantage; that does not decide the outcome, which also depends on the lease, other evidence, and applicable law.
Some leases here already carry that checklist. Our move-out cleaning in Miami page says it of Doral: corporate leases often come with a formal inspection checklist we can clean against. If yours exists, that is the standard — ask for it in writing.
Cleaning, wear, and repair are three different bills
We can only speak with authority about the first. Cleaning removes what sits on top: grease film, hard-water scale, dried soap, marks that lift. It does not put back what is gone — a torn screen, a chipped tile edge, a burn ring on a countertop, paint scrubbed thin. Those are repair lines, not cleaning lines, and nobody should charge you as though a clean could make them disappear.
One more boundary is published: areas behind or beneath appliances are cleaned only when safely accessible without moving installed or heavy appliances. If a deduction reads “under the range”, that was a line to agree on beforehand.
In Miami the argument lands on four lines
The published scope covers an empty property from kitchen through common areas, and in the same breath says what it does not: refrigerator, oven, and window services are quoted separately. That is exactly where deductions concentrate. The prices below belong to the service page, the canonical source.
- The refrigerator, inside — empty refrigerator $65 — a separate line, not part of a base move-out clean
- The oven, inside — inside oven $65, or $115 for the oven + refrigerator bundle
- Windows, and the tracks under them — interior windows from $10 per pane — window services are quoted separately
- Whatever got left behind — trash/junk removal by separate quote — the mattress, the paint cans, the patio chairs
Those are four lines a base clean does not include, so decide them when you book. Refrigerator or oven interiors cost $65 each, or $115 together; interior windows start at $10 per pane, and junk or furniture removal requires a separate quote. What the landlord’s vendor charges later is a number we cannot estimate for you.
The room-by-room walk through what is included lives in what to clean to get your full deposit back. This page stays on the charge.
Why a unit here looks neglected sooner than you left it
Two or three weeks can pass between your last clean and the final walkthrough, and here those weeks show. Salt air films slider glass, tracks and balcony railings. Humidity turns grout and shower glass into surfaces you work, not wipe. The A/C runs twelve months, so vents never get an off-season, and pollen settles back onto screens within days.
Hurricane season, June through November, adds its own: windows stay shut for stretches and fine grit works into those same tracks; balconies get cleared and hosed, and the water dries on the railing. None of that is arguable at a walkthrough — which is why the clean is scheduled against the handoff date, not the moving date.
The building is part of it too
In Brickell and Miami Beach high-rises, most condo associations require a reserved freight elevator and a firm move-out window, so the clean goes into the gap between your movers leaving and your final walkthrough. Rentals in Kendall and Westchester add a garage, a patio slider and far more baseboard than a condo with the same bedroom count; older Coral Gables houses need extra time on original tile and wood. Building rules change when a clean can happen, not what it covers.
The sequence that defuses the argument
Last box out first. Then the clean: if your movers finish in the morning, schedule the clean for after the last box is out and before your final walkthrough. Then the photos, with the unit empty. Then the handoff. Swapping two of those steps is the usual reason a good clean never reaches anybody’s file.
Proof outweighs recollection
A move-out visit is 38 items plus a full photo archive PDF, a 2–3 person team across a 5–7 hour visit, a CleanCheck Report after and a one-tap forward to landlord. The service page puts it plainly: eligible completed visits include a CleanCheck photo report you can forward at handoff; the deposit decision itself always rests with your landlord. The archive changes what the decision is made against, not who makes it.
What it costs to take the guessing out
Move-out cleaning starts at $450, and that starting price applies to a vacant property in normal condition; the final one depends on size, scope, condition, access, parking, and additional services. The full table by bedrooms and baths is on the service page and explained in how much a move-out clean costs. You see the estimate before you confirm.
Quick answers
Can they charge for cleaning if I already left it clean?
A charge and a justified charge are two different things, which is why the itemized list and your own dated photos matter more than anyone’s recollection. What your lease permits is a question for your lease and, if disputed, for an attorney — we are cleaners, not lawyers.
Is wear and tear the same thing as dirt?
Not in the physical sense a cleaner can act on. Dirt sits on a surface and comes off it; wear is the surface itself — a worn finish, a chipped edge, a torn screen. A clean takes the first away, never the second.
Should I clean it myself or book it?
Either can satisfy a lease. A booked visit adds scope you can point at — 38 items on a vacant property — and a dated photo archive; doing it yourself costs hours you may not have between the movers and the walkthrough. The refrigerator and the oven are what people underestimate: $65 each, $115 as a bundle.
The lease names the landlord’s own cleaning vendor. Now what?
Ask before you book anything, so you do not pay twice for the same work. If the lease reserves the clean for a named vendor, what you still control is the condition record: photograph the unit empty before the keys go back.
How late can I book the move-out clean?
Booking needs at least 24–48 hours of lead time, and end-of-month dates fill first because most leases turn over then. Book as soon as your move date and walkthrough are set — if plans shift, you can reschedule your visit.
The short version
Yes, cleaning can come out of the deposit when the lease calls for it and the unit did not come back that way. What is arguable is the amount and the itemization, and that is won with documents. In Miami the charge lands on the refrigerator, the oven, the windows and whatever got left behind — the same four lines quoted separately. None of this is legal advice.
This guide is part of the JAS operating playbook — written to answer in public the question the rest of the industry prefers to answer on a phone call.