Landlord turnover cleanouts in Denver

The short answer

Turnover cleanouts price by volume, because what a tenant leaves behind is never itemisable. A quarter truck is $241, a half is $431, three-quarters is $587, a full truck is $732. Bagged material is separate: 10 Bags of Debris is $132, 20 Bags is $259, 30 Bags is $385.

Most Denver one-bedroom turnovers land at a quarter to a half truck. A single-family rental in Green Valley Ranch, Montbello or Westwood with a garage and a basement runs higher. Carpet — Removal (per room) is $71 if the flooring is going too, and the minimum for a visit is $75.

The Denver calendar is the whole problem

This metro compresses moving into the warm months. Between the last hard freeze and the first real snow, essentially every lease that is going to turn over turns over, and the student cycle around the University of Denver and the Auraria campus concentrates a further chunk into the end of summer.

What that means for a landlord is that the turnaround window in July is days, and every trade you need — cleaner, painter, carpet, handyman — is booked by the same people you are competing with. The cleanout gates all of them. Nobody paints around a sofa.

So the practical advice is mundane and it works: book the haul for the day after the keys come back, before you know what is left. Volume can be adjusted; a slot in the third week of July cannot be conjured.

What gets left behind, by building type

• Pre-war brick walk-ups. Capitol Hill, Cheesman Park, Uptown, Baker. Small units, three flights, no elevator. What stays is what would not go down the stairs: a sofa, a mattress, a desk, a bookcase that has already been taken apart once.
• Garden complexes. Aurora along Havana and Mississippi, Lakewood along Alameda, Westminster, Thornton. Exterior stairs and a long walk to the parking court. Expect a patio set as well, usually hail-damaged.
• Single-family rentals. Green Valley Ranch, Montbello, Westwood, parts of Aurora. These are the big ones, because they have a garage, sometimes a basement, and both will have been used.
• ADUs and basement units. Increasingly common across the older neighborhoods. Small, but with a private entrance down an exterior stair that furniture does not enjoy.

What a turnover actually costs

Real combinations: a two-bed cleared with the living room carpet lifted is $431 + $71 = $502. A garden-apartment turnover of bagged contents plus the sofa nobody could get down the exterior stairs is $259 + $126 = $385. A single-family rental where the fridge also has to go is $587 + $164 = $751.

Abandoned property has its own rules

If a tenant has left property behind rather than simply moved out, Colorado landlord-tenant law sets out how you must handle it, including notice and timing. That is a legal question for your attorney or your property manager, not for a hauling company, and getting it wrong is expensive in a way that a cleanout is not.

What we can do is document. Photographs of the unit as found and an itemized written record of what was removed, which is the evidence you will want if there is a deposit dispute or a claim later. Ask for it when you book and it comes as standard on the job.

HOAs and buildings will shape the day

If the rental is in Central Park, Green Valley Ranch, Highlands Ranch or a newer Douglas or Arapahoe County subdivision, there is an HOA layer over whatever the city does. Standard constraints: nothing staged on the driveway, nothing visible from the street, nothing beside the community bins. Violations arrive fast because neighbors report faster than cities do.

If it is a mid-rise in RiNo, LoHi, the Golden Triangle or Union Station, management wants a certificate of insurance naming the property before releasing the dock or the freight elevator, and the dock has to be reserved. Send us the requirements and we will get the certificate over ahead of the date.

In the older alley neighborhoods the practical constraint is winter: a plow berm across the alley mouth means loading from the street instead, which is slower. Worth flagging.

How to run turnovers efficiently

• Book before the walkthrough, not after. You can adjust the volume on the day. You cannot invent a slot in peak season.
• Bundle the flooring decision. If the carpet is going, have it come out on the same visit at $71 a room rather than as a separate trip.
• Flag the excluded items. Mattresses, appliances, electronics, tires and paint are what municipal collection will not take, and they are precisely what gets left in a rental. All have published prices.
• Ask for the written record. Photographs and an itemized list protect you in a deposit dispute.
• Repeat work is easier if it is predictable. If you run several units, the published price list means you can budget a turnover before anyone walks the unit.

Frequently asked questions