Home Spring Cleans for Tenants

Spring on the Sunshine Coast Qld is a wonderful time of the year. It’s starting to warm up again. Even though winter is not all that cold anyway. As people start to open up their homes more and the days are getting longer, it’s the perfect time to get on top of a few home maintenance things that can get overlooked during the slightly cooler months.

As I do routine inspections of our rental properties we manage there are a few things that sometimes get overlooked.

HERE ARE MY TOP 5 THINGS TENANTS OVERLOOK

WEEDS

Here on the Sunshine Coast weeds get out of control fast.  Sun, humidity, rain, plus great soil is the perfect environment for weeds. Weeds need to be consistently kept on top of. They are the sort of thing that needs to be maintained at least every 4 weeks. The good news is when you do it often, it becomes faster and easier.

Weeds are in the gardens but they are also in lawns too. It’s on the lawns I see them most. It’s common for tenants to just “mow” them. Ha. But more needs to be done. The easiest thing is to get a broad leaf weed killer. This will allow you to spray the lawn and like magic it will only kill the weeds and not the lawn. When you do this the first time it will take about 7 days to see the results & after 14 days you will probably have to do it a second time as you’ll be able to tell what has been missed. Then in the next 4 weeks keep on top of it and it will be much easier & faster.

Yes when you rent a home you are also responsible for maintaining the weeds too.

Yates sells a selective concentrate you can get from Bunnings, that you can see here.

I buy my broad leaf weed killer in bulk. As I find over time it’s a considerable saving. You can see what I buy here. The group I is a selective herbicide. It’s important to wear protective gear like a mask, long pants & shirt then shower afterward.

TIP: Mowing the lawn & mowing the weeds is not maintaining the weeds. They are still there. They need to be removed.

Home-Spring-Cleans

DUST

I see this all the time. Dust on fans, dust on window sills, dust on blinds. Sure some dust is fine. But dust is not a healthy environment to live in. It’s easy to over see dust on window sills & blinds, but it’s there. Fans are easier to see but for some reason sometimes tenants just leave the dust there. Ha. Getting rid of dust is super easy and fast. Ideally you need to do this at least every 12 weeks. Just give your fans, blinds, window sills a quick wipe over with a micro fibre duster like the one you can see here at Bunnings. 

You can read more about the effects of dust in this government web site.

AIR CON FILTERS

Air con filters are dust magnets. They hide behind the air con cover in the split system unit and I can promise you I bet they are full of dust because they are super busy stopping dust from blowing onto you.  There are many concerns when these secret filters get too dirty, firstly it’s unhealthy for you and your family.  It will also put a strain on the air conditioning unit and could make it fail prematurely.  The filters just pop out, super easily, wash them in the kitchen sink and pop back in when dry. While you are up there you will also notice around the filters, dust would have collected on the edges of the air conditioning unit too, so just give them a quick wipe out while you are there.

MOULD

This is a big one. It’s so humid here on the Sunshine Coast Qld that mould is everywhere. The tenant and the landlord are both responsible for mould but it starts with the tenant. Tenants are responsible for keeping the property ventilated, wiping and removing mould when it appears. Tenants are also responsible for reporting mould that seems to keep reappearing. If that’s happening then it becomes the landlord’s responsibility to investigate why this is occurring.

You can read more information about mould in a previous article I’ve written here.

So where do I mainly see mould? Bathrooms & showers. These wet areas need to be ventilated all the time. Mould will appear, when it does you need to wipe it. But wipe it with what? Well spray and wipe is not good enough as it does not kill the mould spores. Shelleys sells a product called Rapid Mould Killer which you can see here. I have seen black mould areas look like they have been repainted white once rubbed with this product. Go for it I know you’ll love it.

It’s very common for me to see mould on the shower tiles. The other surprising place is on gutters and eaves. As a tenant, you are also responsible for this too. You can handle this with a broom and some of Shelleys Rapid Mould Killer, or a high-pressure cleaner which most people seem to own these days.

PESTS & WEBS

If you are renting a home and you have spiders, or ants or cockroaches. It’s your responsibility to manage them. Not the landlords. Well if you have just moved in that’s another story. The main thing I see is spider webs & spider eggs. So sure at least every 12 weeks it makes sense that you need to sweep out the home of any spider webs, spiders & spider eggs before a few spiders turn into thousands. I use a few things for this. At the time of writing for $5 you can get an extendable spider web broom from here. Go on spoil yourself, you deserve it. This will remove the webs and the eggs. But before you do that & send spiders running I suggest you manage them first with this product. It does inside and outside of the home.

So there you have it the top 5 most common things I see when doing routine inspections, Spring is a great time to get on top of all this.

YOU MAY ALSO FIND THESE OTHER ARTICLES I HAVE WRITTEN HELPFUL TOO

Who is Responsible for Mould in a Rental Property in Qld?

Tips to Prepare for a Rental Routine Inspection

Does the Tenant or Landlord Pay for Pest Control?