Skip to the page content
Biohazard CleanupSan Jose
Call (669) 274-0805

Guide for owners and managers

When it happens in a rental: a guide for landlords

A tenant has died in a unit, or there has been violence, or a unit has been found in a state nobody expected. You answer for the building, and you are also dealing with a family.

Call (669) 274-0805

Answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

A two-story stucco apartment building with exterior walkways, numbered doors and carports.

The first day

  1. 1

    Stay out until it is released

    If police or the Medical Examiner-Coroner are involved, the unit is theirs until they say otherwise. Ask the officer on scene for the report number and for the name of whoever can confirm the release.

  2. 2

    Lock the unit

    Once it is released, secure it. Keep maintenance staff out, and let nobody start carrying belongings away.

  3. 3

    Find out who speaks for the tenant

    After a death that is the next of kin or the person handling the estate. What a landlord may do with a tenant's belongings is a legal question; ask your attorney or your rental owners' association before touching anything.

  4. 4

    Phone your insurer

    Tell the property insurer what happened. Ask what the policy covers and what they want documented.

  5. 5

    Arrange the cleaning

    Call the number on this page, say that you manage the building, and describe the unit, the floor it is on and what lies below it.

Why your own staff should not do it

If you ask a maintenance worker or a janitor to clean up blood or body fluids, federal bloodborne pathogen rules apply to you as their employer. They call for a written exposure control plan, protective equipment, training and hepatitis B vaccination for workers who may be exposed (OSHA). Few small property businesses have that in place, which is reason enough to bring in a company that does.

There is a California reason as well. A company hired for this work has to be registered with the Department of Public Health as a trauma scene waste management practitioner. A general cleaning service usually is not. How to check the state list.

In an apartment building, look beyond the unit

  • The unit below, if fluids may have gone through the floor
  • Shared hallways, stairs and elevators that responders passed through
  • Shared ventilation, where odor has travelled
  • Neighbors, who need to hear that the matter is being handled, and nothing more

Money

Who pays

Usually the owner, through the property's insurance or directly, since the unit is the owner's asset. What can be recovered from a deposit or an estate depends on the lease and the law; that is one for your attorney.

After a crime in the unit

California's Victim Compensation Board reimburses whoever paid for the cleaning, or took on the bill, when the crime happened in a residence. The rule is not limited to the victim's family. The company has to be state-registered, and the board covers biohazard removal only. Who pays for cleanup.

Two things owners ask

Can the unit be re-let straight after cleaning?

Cleaning deals with the contamination. Repairs come next: flooring, drywall, paint. Ask the cleanup company for a written note of what it removed and treated, and keep it with the unit's records.

The tenant is alive and the unit is hoarded. Can I order a clear-out?

Not without the tenant's agreement or a legal process. Entry, and the removal of a tenant's belongings, are governed by the lease and by landlord-tenant law. Speak to your attorney first. The hoarding page then explains how the work is done.

Call (669) 274-0805