Questions and answers

We can't promise that, and anyone who does is guessing. Your landlord decides what to return, and a court settles disputes. What we control is the clean and the record of it. A properly cleaned apartment with dated photos of every room gives you something concrete to point to if a cleaning charge shows up.

14 days after you move out. In that time the landlord has to return the deposit or give you an itemized statement of anything kept and why. If they miss the 14 days, New York law says they lose the right to keep any part of it. Ordinary wear and tear can’t be deducted, and in a dispute the landlord has to show a deduction was reasonable.

Source: New York General Obligations Law § 7-108. Rent-controlled apartments and some senior housing follow different rules. This is general information, not legal advice.

New York deposit rules

In New York, a security deposit can be as much as a full month’s rent. When part of it comes back as a ‘cleaning’ deduction, the conversation turns on one question: what did the apartment look like when you left?

If the only answer is your memory against someone else’s, nobody is in a great spot. A clean done to a written standard, and a dated record of every room, is a better answer.

See the example report

In New York, yes, if you gave at least two weeks’ notice. You can ask your landlord to inspect no earlier than two weeks and no later than one week before your lease ends. They have to give you at least 48 hours’ written notice, you can be there, and afterwards they owe you an itemized list of anything they plan to deduct. You then get the chance to fix it before you leave. If you get a list, paste it into your request and the crew will start there.

Chicago is next. If your apartment is covered by the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, your landlord has 45 days after you move out to return the deposit plus any interest owed. If they’re deducting for damage, they have to send an itemized statement within 30 days. The ordinance doesn’t cover owner-occupied buildings with six or fewer units. Join the Chicago list on our Rules page and we’ll email you when crews are confirmed there.

Chicago rules and the list

No. It’s general information in fill-in-the-blanks form, like what you’d find in a self-help book. We don’t review your lease, we don’t tell you what to do in your situation, and we don’t contact your landlord for you. For advice on a dispute, talk to a tenant lawyer or a local tenants’ rights group.

Act as a law firm: we explain public rules and hand you a template, and decisions about your deposit, and any dispute, belong to you or your lawyer. Negotiate: we don’t contact your landlord or management on your behalf. Predict your deposit: we control the clean and the record, and what your landlord returns isn’t ours to promise. Repairs, patching and paint belong on someone else’s card.

Your price and a copy of your request land in your inbox right away. Within 1 business day we email the cleaning company’s name, your arrival window and the final price, and one click in that email locks the date with the crew.

On clean day the crew cleans, then shoots the shot list; you don’t need to be home. Your report arrives within 24 hours, followed by your invoice, and your re-clean window stays open for 7 days.

An independent cleaning company we’ve vetted. Before a company gets any job, we check its business registration, get its insurance certificate straight from its broker, call two recent clients and pay for a trial clean that we inspect ourselves. Your confirmation email names the company before you say yes. Expect two cleaners for about four to six hours, depending on size.

No. Most people leave a key with the doorman or super, or use a lockbox. We need access during your arrival window, working lights and hot water. If you’d like to be there at the end, you’re welcome to.

Tell us in the form, or upload a few photos. If it needs extra time (heavy grease, smoke residue, a lot of pet hair), we’ll send you a new price before you say yes. We don’t change prices on the day.

Repairs, patching and painting. Carpet or upholstery shampooing. Mold, pests and biohazards. Hauling furniture, junk or bulk trash. Outside windows. Post-renovation dust. Moving help. Trash from the clean itself gets bagged and left where your building wants it.

• Legal advice or representation
• Contacting or negotiating with your landlord
• Repairs, patching or painting
• Carpet or upholstery shampooing
• Mold, pest or biohazard work
• Hauling junk, furniture or bulk trash
• Exterior windows
• Post-renovation dust
• Moving help
• Any promise about your deposit outcome

Yes, supplies and equipment come with the crew. If you need fragrance-free products, add it to your notes.

Yes, at the same prices as move-outs. A move-in clean includes a move-in record of your new place.

The crew shoots through our capture page, which uploads each photo straight to us. We record the time each file reached our server and save a digital fingerprint (a SHA-256 hash) of the original. If a photo is ever questioned, we can produce the original file and show that its fingerprint matches. We keep originals for 24 months unless you ask us to delete them sooner. How much weight a landlord or a court gives the report is up to them.

How fingerprints work

Photos of every room, organized by the job card, with a check for each item we cleaned. Anything we couldn’t fix is flagged in red with a photo and a note. It also has your landlord’s deadline, worked out from your move-out date, a one-page summary of New York’s deposit rules with links to the law, and a request letter template you fill in yourself. You get a PDF and a private link within 24 hours of the clean, or $25 comes off your invoice.

See the example report

It’s a dated photo file of your new apartment before your things arrive, built from photos you take with our guided checklist. In New York you can also ask your landlord for a move-in inspection and a signed condition agreement; anything listed in that agreement can’t be deducted from your deposit later. The record helps you spot what to list. It’s free with a move-out clean (use it within 60 days), or $39 on its own.

How the move-in record works

After the clean. There’s no card field anywhere on our site. Once the crew finishes and your report is delivered, we email an invoice you can pay by card. Splitting with roommates? We can send up to four separate payment links.

Yes. New York charges sales tax on one-time cleaning, and our New York prices already include it. The number in the calculator is the number on your invoice, unless you add something and say yes to it.

Yes. It’s free to cancel or reschedule until 48 hours before your arrival window. Inside 48 hours, reply to your crew confirmation email and we’ll do what we can. While we’re launching, we don’t charge late-cancellation fees.

Open the contact form

Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens to start. The Bronx and Staten Island depend on whether a crew is free on your date. Enter your ZIP and we’ll tell you straight. Chicago is next on the list.