Broom clean means the unit goes back empty, swept, and free of debris: your belongings out, trash out, floors broomed or vacuumed — and nothing more. It is the lowest cleaning standard a lease can name, a floor rather than a finish, and well below what a “professionally cleaned” clause demands. Which of those two phrases your lease uses is what decides deposit disputes.
Where the phrase comes from — and why it’s so vague
In real-estate practice, broom clean — sometimes written “broom-swept condition” — asks for exactly four things: every belonging out, every trash bag out, floors swept or vacuumed, and no debris left behind. No stray hangers in a closet, no curtain rods leaned in a corner, no half-used bottles under the sink. What it does not ask for is just as concrete: nobody scrubs a shower, degreases an oven, or wipes the inside of a single cabinet to reach broom clean. It is the condition a unit is in one hour after the movers leave, if you spend that hour with a broom and a roll of trash bags.
You won’t find the phrase defined in Florida’s landlord–tenant statute — it lives in trade custom, which is exactly why two people can read the same sentence and picture two different apartments. That ambiguity is where deposit deductions come from. The fix costs nothing: before your final walkthrough, ask your landlord in writing what they expect the unit to look like at handoff. We’ve already walked the route in what landlords inspect after you move out — it is more predictable than most tenants think.
The three standards, with real prices
Every surrender clause resolves to one of three tiers, and the gap between them is money — either the money you spend cleaning, or the money withheld because you cleaned to the wrong tier.
- Broom clean. Costs you a broom, trash bags, and the last hour behind the movers. Empty, swept, debris-free — and you have met the words, if the words say nothing more.
- A move-out clean. The tier that “professionally cleaned” clauses point at. JAS publishes the price: move-out cleaning starts at $409 for a 1 BR · 1 bath and scales to $719 for a 4 BR · 3 bath — a 5–7 hour visit with a 2–3 person team working a 38-item checklist, with a full photo archive PDF, on our Miami-Dade rates. The refrigerator ($49), the oven ($49, or $89 bundled) and interior windows (from $10 per pane) are priced separately — worth knowing, because leases that demand professional cleaning tend to name the oven and fridge specifically.
- A deep clean. The tier renters sometimes book by mistake. A deep clean starts at $349 — cheaper on paper — but it is scoped for a lived-in home: a 4–6 hour visit, 42 items verified by photo, working around your furniture. The move-out clean is the empty-property version of the same idea: cabinet and drawer interiors, closets, the corners that only exist once the furniture is gone.
If you want the middle tier line by line, we’ve taken the full list apart in what’s included in a move-out cleaning.
Read the exact sentence before you spend a dollar
Pull out the lease and find the surrender clause — it usually lives under “surrender,” “vacating,” or “end of term.” If it says broom clean and nothing else, you can meet it yourself in an afternoon; the sequence is in our guide to cleaning for a full security deposit. If it says “professionally cleaned,” asks for receipts, or names the carpets and appliances, the broom won’t do — that lease is asking for the tier that comes with paperwork. On eligible completed visits, a JAS move-out clean produces its own: a CleanCheck photo report with a one-tap forward to your landlord, as published on the service page. The deposit decision always rests with your landlord — but a documented handoff turns an argument about memories into an argument about photographs.
Questions about your place specifically? No need to finish the article — call, text, WhatsApp, or email us and we’ll take it from here.
The Miami wrinkle
Here the calendar squeezes harder than the contract. As the move-out cleaning page notes, booking needs at least 24–48 hours of lead time and end-of-month dates fill first, because most leases turn over then. And in a Brickell or Miami Beach tower, the association hands you a fixed freight-elevator window — the gap between the last box and the walkthrough can be hours, not days. If your lease demands more than a broom, book when your move date is set, not the week of the handoff.
FAQ
Is “broom clean” the same as “move-in ready”?
No. Broom clean is the exit floor — empty, swept, free of debris. “Move-in ready” is marketing language aimed at the next tenant, and it usually implies the landlord had the unit cleaned after you left. What you owe on the way out is whatever your lease names, and broom clean is the least it can name.
My lease just says broom clean. Can I skip the professional cleaning?
If the surrender clause says broom clean and nothing more, sweeping out an empty unit meets the words. Confirm it in writing before the walkthrough — a two-line message asking what the landlord expects at handoff — and photograph the empty, swept unit. The deposit decision itself always rests with your landlord, which is why that written confirmation is worth more than any amount of extra scrubbing.
The lease says “professionally cleaned, with receipts.” What counts as a receipt?
A dated invoice from a cleaning company naming the address and the service performed. On eligible completed visits, a JAS move-out clean also produces a CleanCheck photo report with a one-tap forward to your landlord — documentation of what the unit actually looked like, not just proof that someone was paid.