End of Tenancy Cleaning

It comes down to the number of rooms and bathrooms, and how much has been left behind, so we would rather look at what you actually have than guess down the phone. The oven and the carpets both add to it. Bigger properties get more cleaners rather than a longer day. Tell us your check-out date when you get in touch and we will say what we can fit in and how long we think it will take.

The kitchen takes the longest: the oven stripped down, the hob and extractor degreased, and inside every cupboard, drawer and appliance. Bathrooms get descaled, the grout scrubbed and the sanitary ware polished. Bedrooms and living rooms get the wardrobes done inside, the skirtings, door tops, frames, switches and sockets wiped, and the light fittings dusted. Windows are cleaned inside with the sills and runners, then every floor is vacuumed and washed.

As empty as you can get it. We clean inside cupboards, wardrobes, drawers and appliances, and anything still in them has to be worked around, which slows the job down and leaves exactly the gaps an inspection tends to find. Fridges and freezers are best defrosted and switched off the night before, or they cannot be cleaned properly. If a few boxes are still waiting on a van, say so and we will start in the rooms that are clear.

No, and most people are not. Hand a key over, or leave one with the agent, and come back to it done, which is easier when you are in the middle of a move anyway. Everyone on the job is DBS checked, and you tell us where the key needs to end up afterwards. You get the photographs either way, so you can see the finished work without having to stand in it.

Not as a blanket charge. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, a landlord or agent in England cannot make you pay a set professional cleaning fee as a condition of the tenancy, and since June 2020 that has applied to every tenancy whenever it was signed. What they can require is that the property comes back to the same standard of cleanliness it was at check-in, fair wear and tear aside, and they can ask for a deposit deduction with evidence if it does not. That is why your check-in inventory matters so much.

Carpet cleaning is an add on rather than part of the standard clean, so ask for it when you book and we will bring the machine with us. Plenty of tenancy agreements ask for the carpets to be cleaned at the end of the term, so read yours before you decide. We use hot water extraction, which brings marks up out of the pile instead of brushing over them, and the carpet is groomed as we finish rather than left sodden.

Tell us as soon as the report lands. Send us the check-out report or the agent's photographs rather than a description, so we can see which room and which item has actually been listed, then call us and we will go through it with you and agree what wants doing again. Worth knowing before you worry: agents sometimes list things that are wear and tear rather than dirt, such as worn carpet or scuffed paint, and no clean will change those.

Book it for after the last of your things are out and before the check-out inspection, which for most people means the final day of the tenancy or the day before. Get the date in the diary a couple of weeks ahead if you can. Month ends are the busiest time in this trade, because that is when most tenancies finish, so leaving it until the last minute usually means taking whatever is left rather than the slot you wanted.

We cannot promise you what an adjudicator will decide, and anyone who does is guessing. What we can do is clean to the checklist your agent inspects against and hand you dated before and after photographs of each room, which is the kind of evidence that settles a query before it turns into a claim. Keep your check-in inventory as well, because that is the standard you are measured against, not somebody's idea of spotless.