A lease can say it, and plenty of Miami leases do. But two different clauses get read as one: a standard — the unit comes back professionally cleaned — and a document requirement, a paid invoice from a cleaning company. The first one is about condition. The second one is about who did the work.
We are a cleaning company, not a law firm. Whether that clause binds you, and what your landlord may withhold, belong to your lease and to a qualified attorney. Ours is the other half: what the wording means in practice, what is actually verifiable, and what a Miami building layers on top of it.
Two clauses that read alike and ask for different things
A standard clause describes a result. Under it, what gets inspected at handoff is how the unit looks, not who cleaned it, and the argument — if there is one — is about the condition documented at move-in and at move-out. That ground is covered separately in what actually decides a cleaning deduction.
A document clause asks for a piece of paper on top of the result: an invoice carrying the company name, the service address, the date and the scope. It is one more deliverable, with the same deadline as the keys. If your lease uses that wording, decide early which clause you have, because they need different things from you — and only one of them can be satisfied by a weekend of your own work.
“Professionally cleaned” is not a checklist — so go get one
Here is the uncomfortable part: we cannot point you at a published standard the phrase refers to. It carries no grading scale and no pass mark to show a landlord. In practice it ends up meaning whatever the person walking the unit with you inspects — so arguing about the words goes nowhere and turning them into a list goes somewhere.
Ask for the inspection checklist before you schedule anything. Sometimes one exists: in Doral, corporate leases often come with a formal inspection checklist we can clean against. When none exists, use a published one: the JAS move-out clean is a 38-item checklist with a photo archive, and the room-by-room detail lives in what to clean to get your deposit back.
And find out what is not on it early rather than at the door. The move-out page publishes it flatly: refrigerator, oven, and window services are quoted separately. The published lines are empty refrigerator $65, inside oven $65, the oven + refrigerator bundle $115, interior windows from $10 per pane, and trash/junk removal by separate quote. A clause reading “including appliances” is asking for two of those lines, not for an extra adjective.
“‘Professionally cleaned’ is whatever the checklist says. So ask for the checklist before you schedule anything.”
What a landlord can actually verify
Three things: an itemized invoice, dated photographs, and the walkthrough. The invoice is what a document clause is asking for, and it falls out of the normal process — nothing is charged at booking, and after each completed visit we issue an invoice for the service delivered. That paper is the receipt.
Photos are the other half, and the half that speaks to condition. The move-out visit runs 5–7 hours with a 2–3 person team, covers 38 items plus a full photo archive PDF, leaves a CleanCheck Report after on eligible completed visits, and that report has a one-tap forward to landlord. An invoice proves who and when; photographs prove how it was left. The deposit decision itself, though, always rests with your landlord.
In a Miami building, the rules may answer this for you
Even when the lease leaves it open, the building may not. In Brickell and Miami Beach high-rises, most condo associations require a reserved freight elevator and a firm move-out window. That turns the clean into something you schedule rather than improvise: there is a gap between your movers leaving and your final walkthrough, and that gap is what you get.
If your building also wants a certificate of insurance on file before a vendor works on site, that is the association’s rule rather than your landlord’s — but it still decides who may carry a mop through the lobby. JAS carries $2,000,000 general liability coverage with every cleaner background-checked; the certificate is requested by email to bookings@jascleaning.com with “COI” in the subject line and the entity name, and most are returned within 2 business hours.
The calendar decides too
Booking needs at least 24–48 hours of lead time, and end-of-month dates fill first because most leases turn over then. If your clause requires a professional clean and you hand back the keys on the 31st, you are competing for that date with every other lease ending the same week. Book as soon as your move date and walkthrough are set; if plans shift, you can reschedule.
Why the day of the clean matters more here
A unit cleaned two weeks before the inspection is not a unit cleaned that day. Near the water, salt leaves a film on slider tracks and hardware; humidity sits in grout and on sills; and pollen falls here twelve months a year rather than for one season. From June through November, in hurricane season, windows stay shut for stretches and the fine grit that worked in through the tracks shows up whole on an empty floor. That is why the clean belongs in the gap between the movers and the final walkthrough, not the week before.
What complying costs
A move-out clean starts at $450, and that starting price applies to a vacant property in normal condition: the final price depends on size, scope, condition, access, parking, and additional services. The full table by home size is published on the service page. You see your exact quote in the booking flow before you confirm, nothing is charged at booking, and cancellation is free up to 24 hours before and $25 inside 24 hours.
If the lease is not signed yet
Ask three things. First, which standard: ask for the inspection checklist to be attached to the lease. Second, which document: if an invoice is required, ask what scope it has to cover — is the oven in? are the windows? Third, what the move-in condition record is, because a clean returns a unit to a condition; it does not return it to new.
And one distinction worth holding from the start: cleaning is not repair, and it is not remediation either. The Terms reserve the right to refuse service in cases of unsafe conditions (mold, infestation, biohazard). If that turns up at handoff, a cleaning clause is not what you are dealing with.
Quick answers
Can I clean it myself instead of hiring a company?
It depends which clause you have. If the lease names a standard — the unit comes back professionally cleaned — what gets judged is the condition at handoff, and your own work either meets it or does not. If the lease asks for a paid invoice from a cleaning company, your own work produces no invoice. Read which one you signed. Whether that clause binds you is a question for a qualified attorney, not for us.
Does a cleaning receipt guarantee I get my deposit back?
No. An invoice proves who cleaned, on what date, at what address, and for what scope. It does not show condition — dated photographs do. Eligible completed visits include a CleanCheck photo report you can forward at handoff, and the move-out visit ships 38 items plus a full photo archive PDF. The deposit decision itself always rests with your landlord.
My lease says “professionally cleaned including the appliances.” What does that add?
Appliance interiors are separate published lines, so that wording is asking for one or two of them: empty refrigerator $65, inside oven $65, the oven + refrigerator bundle $115, interior windows from $10 per pane, trash and junk removal by separate quote. Add the ones your clause names when you book, not at the door — range-priced work, occupied properties and extreme residue require review.
How late can I book a 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.
Does the unit have to be empty first?
Empty is best, and the starting price assumes it: it applies to a vacant property in normal condition. A furnished unit is cleaned around the furniture, empty cabinet, drawer, closet and shelf interiors are included when reachable, and anything blocked by furniture is priced separately.
The short version
A lease can set a cleaning standard or demand a company invoice, and those are not the same thing. “Professionally cleaned” only becomes concrete once it is attached to a list, so the checklist you will be inspected against is the operational fact. What is verifiable is an itemized invoice and dated photographs. And in Miami, the freight elevator, the building’s insurance paperwork and the end-of-month calendar can settle the logistics before your lease does. Whether the clause binds you is a question for an attorney.
This guide is part of the JAS operating playbook. It is not legal advice: JAS is a cleaning company, and what your lease obliges you to do belongs to a qualified attorney.