Yo! We just had our pre-inspection for clearing our house! It was THEE easiest part of this PCS thus far. Thank goodness for something being painless because I needed a break...
I have no idea if the inspector guy was the same man who inspected our house when we moved in *nearly* three years ago, but something about him was familiar. He was really nice. The kind of older dude you'd like to invite over for a bbq & a beer. Anyway, he greeted me, walked into the kitchen and began explaining what they expect of cleaning.
It was the basics, as with any other house we've rented; on or off post, in the US or Germany.
*All appliances provided in home must be in the home for final inspection (Seriously? Do people actually lose their stove, or sell the landlord's dishwasher because times are hard?)
*All keys (and they have a count number from our initial move-in inspection) must be turned in at final inspection.
*He explained that we can leave cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink for the next tenant, but he did not go into an explanation about what kind of supplies or how many of them. I plan to leave zero.
*Nothing (except said cleaning supplies under the sink) can be in the home at final inspection. No trash, no luggage, no travel paperwork, etc,. Get it all out and into your car or hotel room before inspection time.
*The basement room (we live in stairwell housing) must be debris free and broom swept.
*They are not focused on the stairwell area since it's shared between us and five other families.
*Nail holes must be filled; no nails or thumbtacks or anything left on walls.
*Fridge must be left on; wiped clean inside and out.
*Stove must be clean inside and out, as well as behind it and under it. The hood vents must be clean (he said they can be ran through the dishwasher for easy cleaning).
*All light bulbs throughout home must work.
*The dishwasher must be cycled once while empty before inspection.
*Basically, the rest of the house must be clean as it normally should be. Floors mopped, sinks wiped, counters wiped, tubs scrubbed, toilets free of streaks, etc,. Ya know, the same stuff most of us do daily anyway. I asked if the window screens must be cleaned. He said "No, but you can do it if you want to." I think I'll pass, bro...
After he ran through all of that common knowledge jazz, we walked room to room. He asked if there was anything he should know about in each room, and my answer was an honest no, except for the hall bathroom:
If you are reading this and have lived in Germany (or any humid place), you know that bathrooms can be a pain in the ass, especially if they're not properly vented. The bottom of one of my bathroom walls has been shedding paint over the past three years. It's cracked and peeling, and at some point I just scraped off the ugly flaky bits with a metal spackle spatula.
DPW here (the housing maintenance people) DO NOT recommend painting over the bathroom walls with the free paint that is supplied at "Self Help" office.
In fact, recently the man at "Self Help" told me if I did use the supplied paint in the bathrooms, that I'd incur extra charges because the bathrooms are painted with a gloss paint that they do not provide upon request unlike the flat paint throughout the rest of the home. Well...no one told me this until after I already used the free flat paint on my hallway bathroom walls about a year ago.
Oops.
The thing is this: Flat paint is not a primer for gloss paint. When gloss paint goes over flat paint, it will bubble and peel over time because it never had something proper to adhere to in the first place.
In fairness, mine started peeling well before I attempted to fix it with the wrong paint.
So when the inspector and myself went into the hallway bathroom, I honestly pointed out that I scraped the walls where it was peeling and had painted in there once before. He didn't seem to care, stating that painters will be coming in after we vacate anyway.
Alrighty then.
He did mention at that point that we will not have to pay for the paint job (nor have to do it ourselves before final inspection) because we've lived in the house over two years.
Next order of business:
When we moved in and did our first inspection, I noticed broken pieces inside of my fridge. The middle drawer was cracked. A crack ran along the plastic piece where the glass sits above the bottom crisper drawers. The entire fridge was dingy with stains.
When I pointed it out to the first walk though inspector, he waved his hand at me, explaining its not a big deal and never marked it down on our inspection sheet.
Needless to say, I was nervous about it during this walk through. I asked the guy today about it, showed him, and his answer was "Wear and tear. This appliance is old anyway. Klein issue."
Another alrighty then.
I have to brag for a moment:
The inspector asked how many kids we have in the home, to which I replied "Four."
He says "Wow, your house is SUPER clean. I've seen terrible, dirty homes and the people had no kids."
"Well, I did mop this morning, so-"
"No, it is cleaner than just mopping. I can tell you're a neat freak. You won't have issues moving out."
Is it weird that I take "Neat freak" as a compliment?
So he signs the sheet, stating zero charges expected and no work orders to be place before final inspection. "Alles gut." I follow with my signature, and that was that. The whole ordeal took five minutes; less time than it took me to write this post!
Whew.
I guess being an organized cleaning juggernaut on a daily basis pays off with another army PCS. But if you are anything like myself and worry about what's expected of you or what they'll say during your pre-inspection for final clearing of your house regardless of your cleaning habits, now you know.
MY Pre-inspection TIPS:
*Before your pre-inspection, clean up your house if it already isn't. It's easier for the inspector to see the flaws and faults if your floors are swept and counters cleared of random junk. If he misses something during pre-inspection that was hiding under your dirtiness, you may have hidden charges during your final inspection. Better to know what needs attention before your final inspection.
*Be honest about issues that your inspector may not be able to see or doesn't check. You may find that they won't care too much about what's been nagging at you. Broken fridge pieces, anyone? Klein issue!
*If you have problems with your appliances or if they aren't working properly or are broken, place a work order and get them fixed, asap. A dead washing machine during final inspection can fall back on you. And trust me when I say that my shitty washing machine is marked on my inventory sheet as being worth $700+ bucks. It's definitely not worth that amount anymore, but to housing, it is.
Yay! Another thing done for our 2017 PCS!
I'm so stoked that we're just shy of a month away from heading out of here to start a new chapter. My next blog post will most likely be about German movers. Depends on what happens between now and then.
And I'm off to go look at houses online for sale in Kansas, again. Daily habits.
Happy PCS-ing, y'all.
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