When you live in a house and treat it as if it were your own, you are expected to take care of regular maintenance. Like mowing lawns and trimming hedges, part of regular maintenance involves cleaning gutters. If the lease says “regular outdoor maintenance” or “landscape care”, there is a valid argument that the tenant should clean the gutters. Ultimately, if you enjoy the home you're renting, you want to promote a good relationship with the landlord, so you may end up having to clean them or split the cost of rain gutter protectors.
However, if you have specific tree species in your garden near the house that shed flowers and leaves during the summer, inspecting and cleaning your gutters then and later in the colder months will save you from worrying about both fire hazards and water damage to the property. Although tenants have a responsibility to keep the rented property in good condition, take care of the garden, and address minor repair issues, cleaning and maintaining gutters is often a landlord's obligation. However, if gutter maintenance isn't detailed in the lease, you may not think it's your job to clean them. Any required cleaning that requires specialized equipment, such as steam cleaning carpets or bathrooms due to lack of care or intentional damage, can be taken from the rental deposit or security deposit.
As a landlord, I fully agree with you Kaylee, that it is the owner's responsibility to clean the gutters. Many landlords don't want the responsibility of sending a tenant up a ladder to take care of the dangerous task of cleaning gutters. But what happens if they aren't clean and damage occurs? Who is responsible for the sewers? We are going to raise both sides of the discussion in today's blog. Otherwise, the general rule is that gutter cleaning should be done once every 12 months, better - in late autumn, when nearby trees have already lost their leaves.
It is too easy to forget or postpone the provision for routine gutter and downspout inspection and cleaning. If you notice your gutters starting to leak or overflow, it's a sign that they need cleaning (or professional inspection).
