End of tenancy cleaning checklist

Be honest with yourself about the time

A two-bedroom flat cleaned properly to the standard below is a long day's work for two people. Not an afternoon. A full day, with a ladder, a scraper, a decent degreaser and somebody willing to kneel down and do the oven door. That is the real reason a lot of people hand it over, and there is nothing wrong with doing it yourself if you have the time and the patience for it.

So here is the whole list, with nothing held back. It is the list our cleaners work through, in the order they work through it. If you are cleaning the place yourself, start at the top of each room and work down, and leave the floors until last.

One thing to know before you begin: under the Tenant Fees Act, a landlord cannot make a professional clean a condition of your tenancy. What you do have to do is hand the property back as clean as it was when you took it on, and the check-in inventory is what that gets measured against. Dig it out before you start. It tells you what standard you are aiming for.

Kitchen

The kitchen is where tenancy cleans are won or lost, and it is where the inventory clerk goes first. Grease is the slow part.

• Oven cleaned inside: roof, base, back and sides, racks, runners and the grill pan
• Oven door glass cleaned between the panes where the door comes apart, and the seal cleaned round the edge
• Hob, burners, pan supports, control knobs and the tray underneath the rings
• Extractor hood degreased inside and out, the metal mesh filter soaked, and the carbon filter checked and flagged if it needs replacing
• Microwave inside and out, including the turntable, the roller ring and the roof plate
• Fridge and freezer: shelves, salad drawers, door racks, the rubber door seals and the drip channel at the back
• Behind and underneath the fridge and the cooker where they pull forward safely
• Washing machine: drum, detergent drawer taken out and scrubbed, rubber door seal pulled back and cleaned inside the fold, and the filter cover at the base
• Tumble dryer fluff filter and the vent housing
• Dishwasher filter, spray arms, door edge and the seal
• Kettle and toaster emptied, descaled and wiped where the landlord supplies them
• Worktops, splashbacks and tiling degreased, grout lines included
• Inside every cupboard and drawer, plus drawer runners, hinges, handles and cupboard door edges
• Tops of the wall units and the top edge of the cupboard doors, the ledge nobody looks at until check-out
• Kickboards and the floor behind them where they lift out
• Sink, drainer grooves, taps, plughole and overflow descaled, including the limescale ring round the base of the tap
• Bin emptied and washed inside and out, lid, rim and the hinge
• Radiator front, top, sides and the wall behind it
• Skirting boards, light switches, sockets and the switch plates for the appliances
• Ceiling corners and the light fitting, cobwebs taken down
• Door both sides, frame, handle and the top edge of the door
• Window, sill, track and handle
• Floor vacuumed first, then mopped, with the edges and the corners done by hand

Bathrooms and en-suites

Limescale is the whole job in here, and it needs time to soak rather than pressure. Put the descaler on the taps and the shower head first and go and do something else while it works.

• Taps, spouts, shower head and hose descaled, including the holes in the rose
• Shower screen glass both sides, the aluminium track along the bottom, and the rubber seal and sweep strip
• Shower tray or bath, under the rim, round the overflow and along the sealant line
• Tiles and grout scrubbed, surface mould treated. Anything that has gone into the silicone gets flagged to you rather than scrubbed grey
• Toilet: bowl, under the rim, the waterline limescale, the cistern, the flush handle or button, the seat both sides, and the hinges and fixing caps at the back
• Behind and around the base of the toilet, and the pipework behind the pan
• Basin, pedestal, plughole, overflow and the underside of the basin
• Mirrors, mirror cabinets inside and out, shelves and the shaver socket
• Extractor fan cover taken off where it unclips, washed, and the grille vacuumed out
• Towel rail or radiator, including the back and the pipes
• Toilet roll holder, towel hooks, soap dish and any fittings on the wall
• Airing cupboard shelves and the floor of the cupboard where the bathroom holds one
• Skirting, light switch or pull cord, and the sockets
• Door both sides, frame, handle and the top edge
• Window, sill, track and the reveal
• Floor vacuumed and mopped, into the corners and round the back of the toilet base

Bedrooms

Marks that are invisible under a bulb come up under daylight, so do the edges and the high ledges in the morning if you can.

• Wardrobes inside, outside and on top, including the rail, the runners and the hanging rail brackets
• Chests of drawers emptied, vacuumed out and wiped inside and out, drawer fronts and handles included
• Mattress vacuumed on both sides and down the sides, and turned where it is safe for two people to turn it
• Bed frame, slats and headboard wiped, and the floor underneath the bed cleaned
• Built-in cupboards and the shelf above the door where there is one
• Skirting boards the full run, plus picture rails and coving
• Cobwebs from the ceiling line and the corners
• Light fitting, shade and pendant flex dusted
• Any blown bulb pointed out to you
• Light switches, dimmer plates, sockets, TV points and aerial sockets
• Radiator front, top, between the fins where a brush reaches, and the wall behind
• Mirrors and any glass
• Curtain pole, rings and finials, or the blind slat by slat and its headrail
• Door both sides, frame, architrave, handle and the top edge of the door
• Window glass, frame, hinges, handle, trickle vent, sill and the track
• Carpet vacuumed, including along the edges with a crevice tool
• Hard floor vacuumed and mopped

Living areas

Furnished lets take longer here than people expect. Everything gets lifted, including the sofa cushions.

• Sofas and armchairs vacuumed, cushions lifted and done underneath, down the sides and inside the frame
• Shelving, alcoves, media units and the backs and tops of built-in furniture
• Dining table, chairs including the underside of the seat, and the chair legs
• Skirting boards, dado and picture rails, coving and cornices
• Fireplace surround, hearth and the opening where it is a feature
• Light fittings, ceiling rose, wall lights and lamp shades
• Switches, sockets, thermostat, entry handset and the alarm panel casing
• Radiators and the wall behind them
• TV bracket, cable runs and trunking dusted
• Blinds slat by slat, curtains and poles dusted
• Loose cushion covers noted if they need laundering
• Internal glass, mirrors and glass doors
• Cobwebs from the ceiling corners and above the curtain pole
• Doors both sides, frames, handles and the tops of the doors
• Windows, sills, tracks and reveals
• Floors vacuumed and mopped right into the edges, and under anything that moves

Hallways and stairs

The agent sees the hall first, and it tends to get rushed because by then the kitchen has taken all day.

• Stair carpet vacuumed tread by tread, including the nosings and the corner of each tread against the riser
• Spindles, balustrade, handrail and newel posts wiped down
• Stair strings and the skirting that runs up the stairwell, both sides
• Under-stairs cupboard emptied, vacuumed and wiped, and the meter cupboard inside the door
• Front door inside and out, letterbox, knocker, spyhole, handle, lock face and the threshold strip
• Internal doors, frames, architrave and the tops of the doors
• Light switches, two-way switches, sockets, intercom handset and the alarm keypad
• Smoke alarm and heat detector casings dusted
• Cobwebs from the stairwell corners and the ceiling line where a pole reaches
• Coat hooks, shoe rack, radiator and radiator cover
• Hall floor vacuumed and mopped, mat lifted and the floor cleaned underneath it

Windows and doors

Worth setting out plainly, because glass is one of the things that gets argued about after a check-out. We clean all internal glass. Outside glass we do where we can reach it safely from inside or from the ground. Above that it needs reach-pole equipment we do not carry, and we will say so when we quote rather than leave you to find out.

• Window tracks and the drainage holes vacuumed out before they are wiped
• Outside sills where they are reachable from inside the window
• Patio and French door tracks, including the bottom runner where grit and leaves collect
• Sliding door rollers and the channel they run in
• Fly screens taken out, washed and refitted where they are fitted
• Blind headrails, brackets and pull cords dusted
• Cobwebs from the reveals and the outside of the frame within reach

Outside and other

The bits that sit at the edge of a tenancy clean. Some apply, some do not. We cross off what is not relevant to your property before we quote.

• Balcony or patio swept, railings and balcony glass wiped, and the drain gully checked and cleaned out
• Front step, porch and the area immediately outside the front door swept
• Communal landing and the outside face of the flat door wiped, where that falls to your flat
• Garage, outhouse or shed floor swept out, where it is part of the let and it is empty
• Bin and recycling bin washed out, inside, lid and rim
• Meter cupboards, consumer unit door and alarm box wiped
• Loft hatch and the frame wiped from the landing. We do not go into the loft
• Boiler casing and the cupboard it sits in
• Gardens, lawns, jet washing and anything that needs a ladder beyond a step ladder are not part of a tenancy clean, and we will tell you if we think you need someone else for it
• The property needs to be empty before we arrive. Anything left behind has to be gone first, including whatever is in the bins. We clean, we do not clear.

What happens if you hand it to us

If you hand the job to us, this page goes out attached to your quote. The list does not shrink on the day. We read it against your property first: no oven in a new-build with an integrated hob only, no carpets in a flat with engineered wood throughout, two bathrooms instead of one. What does not apply gets crossed off and you can see it crossed off. If something sits outside the list, say builders' dust through the whole flat or an oven that has not been touched in years, we quote that separately and agree it with you before the day rather than on it.

So the scope is agreed before anyone starts. That matters more than it sounds, because an end of tenancy argument is usually an argument about what was supposed to have been cleaned.

On the deposit, we will be straight with you. We cannot promise you an outcome, and neither can anyone else. The scheme's adjudicator decides, and cleaning is only one of the things they weigh up. What we can do is clean to this list, give you a dated receipt in the company name, and take dated photographs of the property as we leave it. That is the evidence of the condition you handed it back in, and it is the thing people wish they had when a claim turns up weeks later.

There is also a re-clean. If the landlord or the letting agent reports a cleaning issue within 72 hours of us finishing, we come back and re-clean the listed items at no charge, provided the property is still unoccupied and no works have been carried out since we left. Those conditions are not small print to catch you out. Once someone has moved in or a trade has been through, nobody can tell whose mess it is.

Agnes has been cleaning properties in and around Wembley since 2001. The list is the same for a flat as it is for a house. What changes is how long it takes and how many cleaners come. If you want us to take it off your hands, send through the address, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the date the keys go back.

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