Is it legal for my landlord to charge me for cleaning my room after I leave?
<p>I have recently left my room in a student residence in Austria but my landlord said I have to pay for a cleaning rate from my deposit.</p>

<p>Let me give you some insight:</p>

<ul>
<li>The building is in a very bad state, hallways are dark, mostly illuminated only by emergency lights, the kitchen is very dirty, there are no trash bins there. Supposedly there is a cleaning lady that comes once a week, but I never noticed the difference nor have I ever seen her.</li>
<li>I moved out of my room two months ago to an apartment, and, except for one occasion, I never came back to my room.</li>
</ul>

<p>The day before handing in the keys I broomed most of the floor and cleaned the bathroom superficially, took my remaining stuff and left.</p>

<p>Next day, when I met with him, we went to see the apartment and he found some spots I haven't cleaned in depth (some dry toothpaste stain in the sink, and some dust in the back of the toilet and below the desk). He told me to clean it and that he would come back in an hour.</p>

<p>As I didn’t have the time, I refused. In consequence, he said he would call a cleaning lady to clean it urgently because the tenant is coming in two hours to inhabit the room. He said he would discount this from my deposit.</p>

<p>By law, in Austria, is it my responsibility to clean the room in depth before handing it over? To my knowledge, the security deposit is to cover any repair costs of things I could have damaged or broken. It’s the landlord's responsibility to clean the room before a new tenant arrives. Which also sets an alarm for me because that would mean that no professionals cleaned my room before I arrived.</p>

<p>If it’s legal to charge me for this, can I request an invoice’s copy to make sure he is charging me the correct price instead of a made up price to keep my money?</p>

<h2>Yes</h2>

<p>While I can’t speak directly to Austrian law in all the jurisdictions I know about the answer is yes.</p>

<p>A tenant must leave the premises is a neat, clean and undamaged manner, if they don’t, the landlord is entitled to recover their costs for making it so. The only thing the tenant is not responsible for is “fair wear and tear” - degradation that is attributable to stuff being used.</p>

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