Asking Your Landlord for Air Duct Cleaning

Air duct cleaning and maintenance is a grey area because there is no regulation on whether it must perform regularly and who should pay. We will try to help our readers to figure out if the landlord or tenant is responsible for cleaning air ducts.

Statistics show that people spend around 90% of their time indoors, be it home, school, office or other building space. Mold, dirt, dust, insects and other biological contaminants are the common cause of indoor air pollution, thus needed to be addressed by tenants or landlords. They are living particles, and they develop in spaces with high humidity and warmth. HVAC systems and ducts can contaminate with mold; in some cases, inhabitants will not see it because of many invisible holes and ways in the system. Usually, a professional inspection is required to measure the level of dirt and debris.

EPA recommends to clean air ducts if one of the following happens:

• There are visible (or invisible) molds in the HVAC system; many parts of the system may not be visible, so ask a professional company to inspect your system before deciding to clean it or not.
• Dust is entering the home/office area from air ducts
• Dirt and debris levels are visibly high; these particles release into the air
• There are insects in the system; infested with vermin

We advise our customers not to ignore HVAC system maintenance. We recommend to regularly monitor your filters, holes, and accessible parts of the ventilation system to observe the dirt level.

Air Duct Cleaning is accustomed to helping landlords and tenants schedule air duct cleaning appointments. We can make sure the right person is invoiced so that no tenant or landlord ever feels financially liable for a service unless it’s agreed upon beforehand. Don’t worry about your landlord trying to get out of paying afterwards. If your landlord agrees to pay upfront, the bill will be in his or her name.