What a manager or inspector actually checks
Every major Los Angeles property management company (Equity, Greystar, Essex, plus most local Valley owners) uses some version of the same punch list. The list is written to protect the property owner, not the tenant, and every item on it comes with a dollar figure. The dollar figure is what gets deducted from the security deposit if the item fails.
There are three tiers of checks. Tier one is condition (is anything broken, stained, or damaged). Tier two is cleanliness (is every surface clean to a rentable standard). Tier three is completeness (has everything been removed from cabinets, closets, drawers, and outside storage). This guide is about tier two and tier three, which is what a move out clean actually addresses. Tier one damage is a separate conversation with your landlord.
What follows is the room by room checklist, in the order a walkthrough usually happens.
Kitchen
The kitchen is where inspections start and where most deposit deductions happen. Grease, food residue, and dust behind appliances add up quickly on a walkthrough score sheet.
- Inside the oven including the racks, the door glass, and the drip pan
- Behind and under the refrigerator, plus inside if the appliance stays with the unit
- Inside the microwave, the vent, and the turntable
- Inside every cabinet and drawer, top and bottom and back wall, hardware included
- Top of the cabinets and the space above the refrigerator (a common miss)
- Range hood filter, or the recirculating filter if there is one
- Backsplash and grout, especially behind the range and around the sink
- Sink, faucet, disposal splash, and inside the drain rim
- Dishwasher exterior, plus the door gasket and the filter at the bottom
- All appliance exteriors including handles and touchpads
The two items managers flag most often here are inside the oven and top of the cabinets. Both look fine from the doorway. Both fail an inspection that involves opening a door or looking up.
Bathrooms
Bathrooms are scored on soft failure, which means the manager runs a hand along a surface and looks for buildup, grime, or hair. A wipe alone is rarely enough. Grout and hardware need to be scrubbed.
- Tub, shower walls, and shower floor scrubbed, not wiped
- Tile grout scrubbed, including the vertical grout lines that build up soap film
- Shower door tracks, hinges, and glass, including the mineral spotting
- Toilet cleaned inside, outside, at the base, behind the tank, and under the seat hinges
- Sink, vanity top, faucet, and the drain rim
- Inside every vanity drawer and cabinet, including the caddy or organizers if any stay
- Mirror, medicine cabinet inside and out
- Exhaust fan grille (dust is a fire code item in many buildings)
- Trash can, if the unit stays with one
- Floor mopped, including behind the toilet and inside the door swing
The two failures we see most often in bathrooms: shower grout that has never been scrubbed, and behind the toilet where a mop never quite reaches.
Living areas, bedrooms, and closets
Every room needs a full reset, not just a vacuum. Managers score closet interiors separately, so a clean living room with a messy closet still loses points.
- Every closet emptied, wiped inside (walls, shelves, and hanging rod), and floor swept
- Ceiling fans wiped on top and bottom of the blades, plus the pull chain
- Every light fixture and glass shade dusted (the shades often have dead insects)
- Baseboards wiped, including behind where furniture stood
- Door frames, doors, and door tops
- Every window sill and casing
- Every light switch, outlet cover, and thermostat
- Every vent cover (supply and return) dusted or wiped
- Smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector wiped (they collect greasy dust)
Walls, doors, trim, and light fixtures
Walls are the biggest source of surprise deductions. Most tenants think of walls as a paint problem, but managers score them as a cleaning problem first. Scuffs, fingerprints, and dust are cleaning items. Actual dents and gouges are the paint or drywall bill, and that is separate.
- Wall spot clean around the light switches, doorknobs, and thermostat (fingerprint zones)
- Wall spot clean at kick height in the kitchen and hallway (shoe scuffs)
- Wall spot clean behind couches, beds, and dressers (dust marks)
- All door faces on both sides
- Both sides of every door frame
- Ceiling fixtures and pendant lights, glass and metal both
Use a magic eraser sparingly. It can remove paint if the wall was painted with a flat finish. If you are not sure, test on a low visibility spot first.
Floors
Floors are the last item on the punch list because everything has to be finished above them first. Doing floors before ceiling fans and baseboards is why people redo their floors twice.
- Vacuum carpets edge to edge, including under where every piece of furniture stood
- Steam clean or shampoo carpets if the lease requires it (most Los Angeles leases do)
- Mop hard floors, including edges and corners and inside every door swing
- Under the appliances that stay with the unit
- Every stair tread and riser, if the unit has stairs
Carpet cleaning is one of the most common deposit fights. Read your lease. If it says "professionally cleaned," a receipt from a professional carpet cleaner (not just a rental machine) is what the manager wants to see.
Windows, tracks, and blinds
Window tracks and blinds are quiet deposit killers. They look fine at a glance, and they fail an inspection every time.
- Every window pane, interior side, streak free
- Every window frame and interior sill
- Every window track vacuumed and wiped (this is where fifteen years of dust live)
- Sliding door tracks (same story, worse)
- Every blind slat wiped on both sides
- Curtain rods and hardware wiped
- Window screens rinsed if the unit came with them, or noted as missing if not
Balcony, patio, garage, and exterior
Anything with a door counts as part of the unit. Balconies, patios, garages, and storage lockers are all inspected.
- Balcony or patio floor swept and hosed, railings wiped
- Every plant, planter, and BBQ removed unless the lease says they stay
- Garage floor swept, oil spots addressed if any
- Storage locker emptied and swept
- Mailbox emptied and forwarded
- Every key returned, including mailbox, laundry room, and gate
The mistakes we see most often
After running move out cleans across every Valley city for several years, these are the failures that come up on almost every walkthrough that fails.
- Leaving items in cabinets, drawers, or the fridge. A single forgotten condiment costs the same as ten. Empty everything, wipe every interior.
- Skipping the top of the refrigerator and cabinets. If you cannot see it standing, do not skip it. Managers open doors and look up.
- Wiping the shower instead of scrubbing it. A wipe leaves the soap film. Grout needs a scrub brush, not a sponge.
- Missing behind the toilet. Move the toilet paper holder if it is on that wall. Get all the way to the base.
- Vacuuming instead of cleaning inside closets. Closets get their own line on the punch list. Empty them, wipe the shelves and walls, sweep the floor.
- Not steam cleaning carpets when the lease requires it. Read the lease. Most Los Angeles leases have this clause. Renting a machine is not the same as hiring a company that gives you a receipt.
- Leaving screws, nails, or picture hooks in the walls. Remove everything. Do not fill the holes yourself unless you know how to touch up paint to match; a bad patch is worse than a clean hole.
- Handing the keys back before the walkthrough is complete. Once you hand the keys back, you cannot fix anything the walkthrough finds. Do the clean, then do the walkthrough, then hand the keys back.
Do it yourself, or hire someone to do it
A full move out clean on a standard two bedroom apartment usually takes one person around ten to fourteen hours if they know what they are doing, and much longer if it is a first time. A team of two professionals can do it in three to five hours because they have the right supplies, the right sequence, and the right muscle memory. The cost of a professional clean is almost always less than the deposit deduction for a failed inspection.
If you decide to do it yourself, use this checklist. Work top to bottom, back to front, and save floors for last. Rent a good vacuum. Buy a real grout brush. Give yourself two days, not one.
If you decide to hire it out, we do move out cleans across the San Fernando Valley from our base in Reseda. Text us your unit's size and your move date and we send a written estimate the same day. If the property manager flags anything after the walkthrough, we come back to fix it within seven days at no charge. That is the guarantee that comes with every visit.