Moving Out and Mini Blinds

During move out season, I spend a lot of my time educating tenants on their rights. One topic that comes up often is mini blinds. Broken, damaged, or exceedingly greasy mini blinds are a costly line item that your landlord can take out of your security deposit.

However, with the right information, you can measure and replace them yourself for less or craft a compelling argument against the charge. Let’s dive in.

Corded Mini Blinds are an interesting topic when it comes to move out season. (We will talk about the cordless ones later). Many older rental properties still have corded blinds installed. However, the manufacture and distribution of these blinds was discontinued in December 2018.

Corded mini blinds presented a danger to children, with over 16,000 reported injuries between 1990 and 2015. The Window Covering Manufacturer's Association adopted cordless blinds as their standard in December 2018, when they published ANSI A100.1-2018 Standard for Safety of Window Covering Products . Corded blinds have not been manufactured since at least 2018, as the Association also discontinued the manufacturing and distribution of corded blinds in the American market.

If there are corded blinds in your rental property, take note: at the time of this publication, they are at least 5 years old. The average life span of mini blinds are listed as 2-4 years, according to this article published by Sunburst Shutters & Window Fashions. (Sunburst represents an excellent primary source of information about window coverings: they are a Wisconsin based manufacturer with over 45 years of service to the industry).

With blinds that exceed the maximum estimated lifespan of the product, replacement of these blinds constitutes regular wear and tear, not damage.

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