Eaton Realty Rentals Are Proudly Not For Irresponsible Tenants

Hot sauce is not meant for ice cream, and sandals aren’t meant for mountain hikes, just like Eaton rentals are not meant for irresponsible tenants. As one of Hillsborough County’s premier property management companies, we take our commitment to maintaining the homes of our landlords very seriously, and we work hard to keep our rentals clean and inviting for renters. One of the benefits of renting a home with Eaton Realty is knowing that you’ll be moving into a clean home in great condition.

We love our great tenants, and we love serving them. What we don’t love (and what we won’t stand for) are the irresponsible tenants. What separates a responsible tenant from an irresponsible one? Unlike the taste of water, an irresponsible tenant is very easy to define and possesses one of two main traits, which we’ll outline below.

House Cleaning? We Have High Standards

Cleaning a living space is a routine activity that’s almost as old as time itself - and it isn’t unique to humans. Many animals, from bees to male fish, and birds, will regularly clean their living spaces.

We’ve had tenants that have kept our rentals looking cleaner than a Mr. Clean commercial. We love those tenants but don’t demand an immaculate space 24/7. We aren’t going to fault you for a few specks of dust.

There’s a part of a Sesame Street song where Oscar admits that grouches never clean up – they only mess up. Apparently, we’ve had some grouches rent from us because it’s clear they weren’t familiar with the concept of thorough house cleaning.

We’ve had tenants leave food and stains in the refrigerator as if it might be considered a gift for the next tenant (it’s hardly the gift anyone wants to open a fridge to find). We’ve also had tenants leave smelly pet stains in the carpet and attempt to dispute photo evidence that those stains exist. Like Gil Grissom in CSI, we must reiterate that “The evidence never lies.”

Of course, we aren’t going to claim that any of this has happened without providing some proof. Below are some photos from past move-out inspections. Somehow these tenants were surprised they were charged a cleaning fee.

Occasionally, some tenants will try to dispute cleaning fees because they claim to have hired a “cleaning company” to do the cleaning for them. Below are photos from previous tenants that supposedly hired a “professional cleaning company.”

Not every violation of our cleaning policies is this bad or obvious. Smaller violations still require work on our end. Cleaning the insides of cabinets and drawers, emptying and cleaning out trash bins, wiping baseboards down, and repairing or replacing blinds all take time and effort for our team to remedy.

Certain tenants will try to make move-out repairs on their own to avoid paying a professional. This can be a good idea if you’re handy like Bob Vila. However, if you’re going to piece scraps together like MacGyver to conduct your repairs, then it’s better just to call a professional. Below is an example of a tenant that “repaired” the TV wall mount in the rental.

These tenants couldn’t even plead ignorance if they wanted to. Cleaning expectations are clearly set in our rental agreements. We walk through the agreement with the tenant, and they sign off on it.

Unlike a monster eclipse, our cleaning agreement also appears more than once in a lifetime for our tenants. They see it when they move in, but we also send over a vacating acknowledgment before move-out, where we re-iterate the importance of leaving the house “Hotel Clean.” The tenant again signs off on this acknowledgment, but that’s not all! We provide a cleaning checklist for reference and even recommend cleaning companies we know will do a good job following the checklist.

We’re not fortune tellers, but we’ve been doing this long enough to reasonably predict what will happen when we walk into a rental that will need a considerable amount of cleanup. We don’t like charging cleaning fees, and we don’t want to charge cleaning fees. However, it takes considerable work to get dried pasta sauce stains out of refrigerator shelves or hard water stains off of shower enclosure glass.

How much work goes into cleaning? Take the amount of time you think it would take to clean these items and then double it to get closer to the amount of time it will actually take. Naturally, we have to charge a cleaning fee for performing this kind of work, and we hold irresponsible tenants accountable for paying the fee.

So, we send over a notice of the charges, and the fun ensues (by fun, we mean the part that completely zaps all of our energy and is not fun at all). We then get disputes accompanied by threats. We have to draft and send a response letter reiterating our agreement and referencing the disparity between move-in and move-out conditions.

If the damages exceed the security deposit, the resident is given the opportunity to pay the outstanding amount. Unpaid amounts can be forwarded to collections, or the owner may pursue legal action to recover these funds.

We take great pride in maintaining pristine rentals for our landlords. We hope that you appreciate being able to sign a lease on a move-in-ready home and understand the importance of providing others with the same luxury.

Irresponsible Renters Never Take Responsibility For Pet Damage

Speaking of cleaning, one of the largest contributors to damaged rental properties is irresponsible pet owners. Eaton Realty is the worst nightmare of irresponsible pet owners that don’t take accountability for their pets.

We come after this group to pay for repair and cleaning costs like Liam Neeson came after the villains in Paris that took his daughter in Taken (we don’t use violence as Liam did, but we exert the same level of persistence).

Pet damage is usually most prevalent with carpets. We tend to find pee stains on carpets and torn or ripped carpets like the tears at the transition in the photo below.

Just as an FYI, your dog damaging property at the time of move-in is not a valid defense for avoiding repair costs. Your dog still damaged property, regardless of when the damage occurred. Sometimes the damage isn’t always visible either.

Carpets, once drenched in pet urine, can dry to the point where the stain is unnoticeable. A stain may not be visible on the surface, but the smell is unmistakable. We use advanced detection methods, including hydrosensor conduction tests and UV lights, to scan for areas of damage. When we detect urine and confirm with a sniff-test, we’ll pull back the carpet to reveal the stains on the backing.

We understand that a pet is not you and that sometimes accidents happen. But there’s a cost to replace/fix torn screen doors, pee on the carpet, or scratches on the hardwood floors. When you rent from Eaton, you agree to our pet policy, which is provided when you sign the lease agreement.

We’re not Veruca Salt. We’re not asking for the world. We just ask that you honor the policy and take accountability for any damage your pet may cause.

Do Not Rent From Eaton? Only If You’re An Irresponsible Tenant

If you fail to clean and don’t take responsibility for your pets, you will have an experience like Ariel, and you then maybe shouldn’t rent from Eaton Realty.

If, on the other hand, you’d like to live in a beautiful rental home and you intend to respect the property, you’ll have an experience more like TM or Phil.

We’re here to simplify the rental process, so we go to great lengths to communicate expectations and make every effort to ensure you understand the steps required to receive your full security deposit back.

If you’re a responsible tenant, we’d love to help you find the perfect Eaton rental you can call home. You can search our available homes for rent or contact us to speak to a rental realtor about finding an Eaton rental and scheduling showings.

We look forward to hearing from you!