An end of tenancy clean is judged differently from any other clean. It is checked against the inventory taken when you moved in, point by point, by a person whose job is to notice what is missed. That is why a property can look tidy and still fail: the shine on the worktops is not what is being marked, the inside of the oven is.
This checklist walks through what a check-out actually looks at, room by room, so you know what “clean” means in this context before the keys go back.
Start with the kitchen
The kitchen is where most deposit disputes begin, because it hides the most.
- Oven interior. Racks, door glass (including between the panes where you can reach), and the walls of the oven. Baked-on grease is the single most common fail.
- Hob and extractor. Burners, the surface around them, and the extractor filters, which trap a surprising amount of grease.
- Behind and under appliances. Pull out the fridge, washing machine and dishwasher where you can, and clean the floor and walls behind them.
- Cupboards and drawers. Empty, wiped inside and out, handles included.
- Sink and taps. Descaled. In hard-water areas like London, limescale on taps and around the plughole is obvious to anyone looking.
- Worktops, splashbacks and tiles. Grease and grime off, grout included.
Bathrooms: descale everything
Bathrooms are the second place a check-out slows down.
- Limescale on taps, shower screens, tiles and around the base of the toilet. This is the detail that separates a real clean from a quick one.
- Grout and sealant scrubbed, mould treated where it has taken hold in the corners.
- Toilet cleaned inside, under the rim and behind the base.
- Extractor fan and vents dusted, mirror and glass polished.
- Plugholes and drains cleared of hair and residue.
Living spaces and bedrooms
- Skirting boards, door tops and frames. Dust settles here and a check-out report will note it.
- Light switches, sockets and fittings wiped.
- Windows cleaned internally, with sills and frames done.
- Wardrobes and built-in storage emptied and wiped inside.
- Walls checked for marks; cobwebs removed from corners and ceilings.
- Carpets vacuumed thoroughly, and professionally cleaned where the inventory or tenancy agreement asks for it.
The bits everyone forgets
- Tops of doors and picture rails.
- Radiators, including behind them.
- The inside of the letterbox and any porch or hallway.
- Bins cleaned out, not just emptied.
- Any outdoor space, balcony or shared area named in your agreement.
Does a professional clean guarantee my deposit?
No honest cleaner can promise your full deposit back, because the deposit covers the whole check-out, not only cleaning. Damage, missing items and wear are assessed separately. What a professional clean does is remove cleaning from the list of things an agent can charge you for, which is often the largest and most avoidable deduction.
If you book a professional end of tenancy clean, ask whether it comes with a re-clean guarantee. At Green Cleaners, if a letting agent queries the clean within 48 hours, we return and put right the points raised, at no extra cost. That is the practical protection: not a promise about the deposit, but a promise about the clean itself.
Doing it yourself versus booking it in
You can absolutely do an end of tenancy clean yourself, and for a small, well-kept flat it may be the sensible choice. Be realistic about the time, though. A thorough job on a two-bedroom property, with the oven, the limescale and the inside of every cupboard, is most of a day for one person, longer if the property has been lived in hard.
The jobs that catch people out are the oven, the bathroom limescale and the inventory checks, which is exactly where deposits tend to be lost. If those are the parts you would rather not spend your last day in the property on, that is the moment a professional clean earns its cost.
The short version
Clean to the inventory, not to the eye. Start with the oven and the bathroom limescale, work high to low in every room, and do not forget the tops of doors and behind the appliances. If you are booking it in, choose a clean that comes with a re-clean if the agent queries it, so a missed corner is a phone call rather than a deduction.
If you would rather hand the whole thing over, our end of tenancy cleaning is cleaned to this standard across London and the home counties, and backed by the 48-hour re-clean.
