Guide for owners and managers
For landlords and property managers in Indio
A tenant has died in a unit, or there has been violence, and now it is your building and your problem. This page covers what you may and may not do, and when a cleanup company can start.
Answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Don't go in until it is released
While police or the coroner are working, the unit is theirs. Wait until an officer tells you it has been released, and write down the report number and the officer's name. If a seal or a notice has been left on the door, leave it alone and ring the number printed on it.
After the release, a unit that was a tenant's home still holds a tenant's belongings. Who may remove them is a legal question about the tenancy and the estate, not a cleaning question. Talk to the next of kin, and to your attorney if in doubt.
If no relative can be found, the Riverside County Public Administrator investigates and administers the estates of people who die with nobody able to act for them, and protects their property meanwhile. The office is on 951-443-2300.
Don't send your own staff
It is tempting to ask the maintenance crew to handle it. Don't. Cal/OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard covers any work with occupational exposure to blood or other infectious material. It obliges the employer to have a written exposure control plan, to provide protective equipment and to make hepatitis B vaccination available. Few property businesses are set up for that.
Separately, California law requires anyone who removes blood and body fluids from the scene of a death or serious injury as a business to be registered with the Department of Public Health. Hiring a registered company keeps you clear of both problems.
The units next door
After an unattended death, odor travels through shared walls, corridors and ductwork. Tell the cleanup company about any shared air handling and about the units above, below and beside. Ask whether those tenants need to do anything, and let them know when the work will happen, so that people in protective suits on the walkway alarm nobody.
Paying, and renting it again
The company's customer is whoever hires it, usually the owner. Whether a landlord policy responds is for your insurer to say. After a violent crime, CalVCB can repay cleanup to any individual who paid for it, an owner included, provided the company is state-registered. Who pays has the conditions.
On disclosure, Civil Code section 1710.2 says an owner or agent need not tell a prospective renter or buyer about a death on the property that happened more than three years earlier. The same section gives no cover to anyone who misrepresents the facts when asked directly about deaths there. For a more recent death, take advice before you advertise the unit.
Questions from owners and managers
Can the cost come out of the deposit, or be charged to the estate?
That is a legal question that turns on the lease and the facts. Keep the itemized invoice, the photographs and the police report number, and put it to your attorney.
How quickly can the unit be turned around?
The cleaning is often shorter than the wait for the release and for decisions about belongings. Ask the company for its estimate once it has seen the unit.
Do I have to be on site?
Somebody who can open doors, shut off utilities if asked and approve a change of scope should be reachable, in person or by phone.
Ready when the home has been handed back
There is no rush to phone tonight. Once police or the coroner have released the property, a single call reaches a cleanup company that works in Indio and the neighboring desert cities.
One number, any hour
Describe the room or the vehicle in your own words. An independent cleanup company takes it from there, and hiring it stays your choice.
Call (760) 289-3572Answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Calls may be recorded. Read the referral disclosure and the privacy policy.