Landlord turnover cleanouts in Tampa

The short answer

Turnover cleanouts are volume jobs and they are priced on the published ladder: quarter truck $241, three-eighths $338, half $431, five-eighths $513, three-quarters $587, seven-eighths $661, full truck $732. Minimum visit $75.

What a typical Tampa unit needs:

• Studio or small one-bedroom: quarter to three-eighths truck, $241 to $338.
• Standard one-bedroom: half truck, $431.
• Two-bedroom: five-eighths to three-quarters, $513 to $587.
• Three-bedroom or a badly abandoned unit: full truck at $732, sometimes more than one.

If it is only a few items — the classic abandoned queen mattress at $103 and a sofa at $126, which is $103 + $126 = $229 — itemize instead and stay under the quarter-truck price.

Do the legal step first

Before anything leaves the unit: Florida has a defined process for handling personal property a tenant leaves behind, and it involves notice requirements and timelines that are not optional.

We are not your attorney and this is not legal advice. What we will say plainly is that disposing of a former tenant's belongings without following the process is a genuinely expensive mistake, and it is the single most common way a routine turnover becomes a dispute.

Check the current requirements or ask your attorney or property manager. Document what is in the unit with photographs and a written inventory before you touch anything, including timestamps. Then schedule the removal for after the notice period has run.

The photographs also settle deposit arguments, which is worth the ten minutes on its own.

Speed is the actual product

The economics of a turnover are simple: vacancy costs more than removal. A unit that sits full for a week while you find a hauler is a week of lost rent, and in this market that is usually several times the cost of the truck.

Which is why the published price matters more to a landlord than to a homeowner. You can budget a turnover before the tenant has even left, build the removal into your make-ready schedule alongside paint and cleaning, and book against a known number rather than waiting on an estimator's appointment window.

Sequence that works: notice period runs, removal on day one of make-ready, then cleaning, then paint, then photographs. Removal first, because everything else is easier in an empty unit.

The Tampa turnover calendar

Three predictable crunches, and if you own units in the wrong part of the metro you will meet all three.

Late July and August. Lease turnover plus the University of South Florida and University of Tampa refilling. Anything near Fowler Avenue, in Temple Terrace, New Tampa or downtown is under pressure for about three weeks.

April. Seasonal residents head north and seasonal rentals turn over across Clearwater, St. Pete Beach, Palm Harbor, Dunedin and the south Hillsborough communities. This is the single busiest furniture month of the year in the Bay area.

The ten days after a storm. Not a lease event, but it produces the same demand spike, particularly for ground-floor units in South Tampa, Shore Acres, the beaches and low-lying Ruskin and Apollo Beach.

Book ahead in all three. Our prices do not change in any of them.

What tenants actually leave behind here

Consistent enough to plan for.

The mattress, always — twin $82, full $94, queen $103, king $114, box spring $92, set $143. Furniture too heavy or too worn to be worth moving: sofa $126, loveseat $119, dresser $126, bookshelf $72, desk $83. A television, because the new place has a better one: $62 under 42 inches, $68 for 42 to 65, $73 over 65. A TV stand at $96 that nobody has ever wanted.

Then the Tampa additions. The balcony or lanai set — patio table $89, patio chairs $30 each — which has been outdoors for three years and is finished. A window AC unit at $87 or $109 in older stock. A mini fridge at $115. And whatever is in the kitchen cupboards, which is a medium junk pile at $129 or a large at $208.

A representative abandoned one-bedroom: queen mattress and box spring set $143, sofa $126, TV stand $96, medium junk pile $129. That is $143 + $126 + $96 + $129 = $494, against a half truck at $431 — so buy the fraction and let it take the closets too.

Access when you own the building

Being the owner makes most of this easier, but there are still three things to arrange.

If it is a multi-family building you own, tell us about parking, the loading zone and whether there is an elevator. There is no floor charge.

If it is a condo you rent out, the association still applies. You will need a certificate of insurance naming them and a reserved service-elevator window, exactly as a resident would — and in downtown Tampa, downtown St. Pete and the beach towers that booking is often several days out. Start it before the tenant has finished moving.

If it is a single-family rental in an HOA community out in Wesley Chapel, Riverview or Apollo Beach, check what the association allows in the driveway and for how long. Nothing gets staged at the curb — everything leaves on the truck the same day.

The bed bug and hoarding versions

Two situations worth flagging at booking rather than discovering on the day.

Bed bugs. Tell us. Mattresses and upholstery get wrapped in the unit before they move into a shared corridor — that is what stops a one-unit problem becoming a building problem. The price is unchanged; a queen is still $103.

Heavily abandoned or hoarded units. These run multiple loads and should be scheduled as such: two full trucks is $732 + $732 = $1,464. If there is biohazard — waste, decomposition, needles, heavy infestation — that needs a licensed remediation firm before a junk truck is useful, and we will tell you so rather than wasting your day.

For anything in between, bagging what you can in advance helps: 10 bags $132, 20 bags $259, 30 bags $385.

Working with us repeatedly

If you run several units, the useful thing about published pricing is that it is the same every time. You can put a number in your make-ready budget, quote it to an owner if you manage for someone else, and know it will not move because it is August or because a storm just passed.

Quarter truck $241. Half $431. Full $732. Minimum visit $75. No stair charge, no mileage line, no same-day premium, no storm-week premium, no refrigerant fee on the mini fridge or the window unit.

Tell us the unit size, the rough density and any access constraints, and the right truck arrives on the day you scheduled it.

Frequently asked questions