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Landlord or Tenant: Who’s Responsible for Gutter Maintenance?

By January 7, 2019October 16th, 2023No Comments

When you rent a home, you enjoy many benefits. From more privacy to more space, for some, a rental property is better than an apartment. However, with these benefits come more responsibilities. In most rental situations, you’re responsible for regular upkeep like mopping floors and shoveling snow. Sometimes you’re also expected to maintain the yard by cutting the grass and trimming shrubs.

Landlord Or Tenant: Who's Responsible For Gutter Maintenance?

One type of maintenance that’s not always clear is gutter cleaning. When you rent or own a home with rain gutter shields, it becomes a non-issue. However, if gutter maintenance is not spelled out in the lease, you may not think it’s your job to clean them. But what happens if they’re not clean and damage occurs? Who is responsible for the gutters? We’ll pose both sides of the argument in today’s blog.

It’s the Tenant’s Responsibility

When you live in a home and treat it like your own, you’re expected to handle regular maintenance. Just like cutting the grass and trimming hedges, part of regular maintenance is cleaning the gutters. If the lease says, “regular exterior maintenance” or “landscaping care,” there is a valid argument that the tenant should be cleaning the gutters.

It’s the Landlord’s Job

One strong argument that it falls on the landlord’s shoulders is that the landlord repairs the roof and makes sure the home’s exterior is in good shape. Similarly, a landlord should keep the gutters clean as well, since the gutters are part of the roofing system. Many property owners don’t want the liability of sending a renter up on a ladder to handle the dangerous task of gutter cleaning.

How Can You Find Out?

If you’ve yet to sign a lease, make sure this responsibility is stipulated in the lease terms. Of course, if you’re already in a lease, contacting the landlord and asking is the best way to find out. As the renter, if you don’t feel it should be your responsibility, take the time to research reviews of gutter guard systems and be able to recommend a compromise. Ultimately, if you enjoy the home you’re renting, you want to promote a good relationship with the landlord, therefore you may end up having to clean them or split the cost of rain gutter shields.

If you’re a landlord and your tenant pushes back, try come up with a compromise. You might want to split a cleaning bill from a professional gutter cleaner or each do one cleaning a year. Of course, if this is an investment property and you’re planning to keep it, installing rain gutter shields is a good long-term investment.

Your Local Gutter Helmet® Installer Can Help

If you never want to worry about who has to clean your gutters again, contact Gutter Helmet and we’ll connect you to your local installer. You’ll find that when it comes to reviews of gutter guard systems, homeowners love Gutter Helmet. Contact us today at (800) 824-3772 to be connected to your local Gutter Helmet authorized installer.