For landlords and property managers
An apartment or rental house needs to be safe and fit to rent again, and the tenant's family may still be grieving. Both things matter.
Phones staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
In the first days
- Wait for the police and coroner to release the unit before anyone enters to clean or inspect.
- Get the case number. Your insurer will ask for it.
- Talk to the tenant's family or the estate before belongings are moved or thrown out.
- Close off shared ventilation, if you can, when odor is reaching other units.
Fit to live in
Washington's landlord-tenant law requires the landlord to keep a rental fit for human habitation during the tenancy (RCW 59.18.060).
Your maintenance staff
If your employees could be exposed to blood or bodily fluids, the state's bloodborne pathogens rule applies to you. Without the training and equipment it requires, don't send them in.
Repairs afterward
Washington requires contractors who remodel or repair buildings to be registered with L&I, bonded and insured. Check the cleanup company and any rebuild contractor with L&I's contractor lookup.
Drug contamination is separate
If a health officer has posted the property as contaminated by illegal drug manufacturing, cleanup is regulated separately. The Department of Health certifies drug lab cleanup contractors.
What to ask the cleanup company
Will you give me a written scope and photos for my insurer and my records?
Which materials will you remove, and what will need to be rebuilt by someone else?
Can you check neighboring units and shared walls or ducts?
Can you work with the tenant's family on personal belongings?
Yakima and the valley around it
Nobody in the family has to clean this
An independent cleanup company can take it from here once the police and the coroner are done. Asking questions on the phone commits you to nothing.
When you are ready to talk
Say what happened, where it is and who owns the property. The company explains what it would do. You decide whether to go ahead.
Call (509) 555-0106Phones staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Calls may be recorded. Read the referral disclosure and the privacy policy.