What end of lease cleaning actually includes

End of lease cleaning is not a deeper version of your usual tidy-up. It is an attempt to return the property to the condition recorded when you moved in.

Your agent assesses it against that same document at the exit inspection, which is a comparison rather than a judgement about how clean the place looks.

A home can look clean and still fail. A benchtop you have wiped every week for two years can still be marked down against a photograph taken before you had keys.

Ask your agent for the entry condition report before you book anything. It tells you what was already marked as damaged or worn. Those items are not yours to restore, and knowing which they are saves both money and argument.

Read the lease itself at the same time. Some leases name specific requirements, such as professional carpet cleaning or a receipt for pest treatment. Those clauses decide what your clean has to include, and no cleaner can guess them for you.

Every property is different, but the scope of an end of lease clean is fairly standard across Australia. A full service usually covers the following.

• Kitchen: inside and outside all cupboards and drawers, benchtops, splashback, sink and taps, rangehood filter, and the oven inside and out.

• Bathrooms: shower screen, tiles and grout, toilet, vanity, mirrors, exhaust fan cover, and any mould on ceilings or seals.

• Bedrooms and living areas: wardrobes inside, skirting boards, light switches, power points, door frames, and cobwebs.

• Floors: vacuumed and mopped throughout, including edges and corners rather than the middle of the room.

• Windows: interior glass, tracks, sills and flyscreens where they can be reached safely.

• Laundry: tub, cupboards, and behind the machines where they can be moved.

Notice how much of that list is somewhere nobody looks during a tenancy. That is the difference between a clean home and a clean handover, and it is most of what you are paying for.

It is rarely the floors or the benchtops. It is the oven, the rangehood filter, the shower screen, window tracks and the inside of cupboards.

Those five have something in common. Each takes real time, each is easy to leave until last, and each gets skipped when somebody is cleaning their own place the night before handover.

The oven is the most common of all. Baked-on carbon does not come off with a spray and a wipe. It needs a caustic or steam treatment and an hour of dwell time, which is why it is quoted as its own line on most jobs.

Window tracks come a close second. Agents open windows during an inspection, and a track full of grit photographs badly in a way a clean floor never does.

Shower screens are the third. Soap scum that has built up over a tenancy needs an acid-based product and patience, not effort. Scrubbing harder marks the glass and makes the problem permanent.

Most leases that mention carpet require professional steam cleaning with a receipt. That is a different service from the clean itself, using different equipment, and it is priced separately almost everywhere.

Exterior windows above ground level are the same story. Reaching them safely needs poles or a platform, so they are quoted on the building rather than bundled into a flat rate.

Check the wording in your lease rather than assuming either is included. Then get both quoted up front, on the same booking, so the property is finished in one visit.

If you are comparing quotes, our pricing page lists what sits inside the base rate and what is charged as an extra. Compare those two lists, not the headline number.

End of lease cleaning is priced on the property rather than by the hour, because the scope is fixed by the inspection rather than by your budget.

Three things move a quote more than size does: whether the oven has been maintained, whether there are pets, and whether the property has been left furnished.

Furniture is the one people forget. A cleaner cannot clean inside a wardrobe with boxes in it, and anything left behind becomes an item on the exit report rather than a cleaning problem.

Most agents will send the entry condition report on request, and most tenants never ask. This is the whole message.

Subject: Entry condition report — [your address]

Hi [agent],

My lease at [address] ends on [date] and I am arranging the
end of lease clean. Could you please send through:

  1. The entry condition report from the start of the tenancy
  2. Any specific cleaning requirements under the lease
     (carpets, pest treatment, or similar)
  3. The date and time of the final inspection

Thanks,
[your name]

Send it three to four weeks out. It gives you time to book a cleaner for the day you want, and it puts the requirements in writing before anybody is judging anything.

Point three matters more than it looks. An inspection time you agreed to is much easier to move than one you were told about.

Handover week goes badly when everything is left to it. This sequence spreads the load and puts each job where it is cheapest to do.

1. Three to four weeks out: request the entry condition report and read the lease.

2. Three weeks out: book the clean and the carpets for the day after the move, and confirm both in writing.

3. Two weeks out: arrange any repairs you are responsible for. Tradespeople are the thing that runs late.

4. One week out: dispose of anything not coming with you. Council hard rubbish takes days to arrive.

5. Moving day: empty the property completely, including the garage, the shed and the letterbox.

6. The day after: the clean happens on an empty property, carpets last.

7. Before the inspection: walk through and photograph every room, including inside the oven.

The last step is the one people skip and the one that settles disputes. Photographs with a timestamp, taken before you hand back the keys, are the only evidence that the property left your hands clean.

A two-bedroom unit usually takes four to six hours with two cleaners. A four-bedroom house is closer to a full day. Add an hour if the oven has not been touched in a while.

Book the clean for after the removalists have gone and before the final inspection. An empty property cleans faster and finishes better, because nothing has to be worked around or moved twice.

Leave at least a day between the clean and the inspection where you can. It gives you room to have anything fixed without moving the handover date.

The busiest days are the last three of each month, when most leases end. Booking a fortnight ahead is the difference between choosing your day and taking whatever is left.

A one-bedroom unit in good condition is a realistic weekend for two motivated people. Beyond that, the arithmetic usually stops working.

The equipment is the first hurdle. An oven treatment, a grout brush, a squeegee, a decent vacuum and the products together cost more than the gap between doing it yourself and having it done.

The second is the guarantee. A professional end of lease cleaning service returns to fix anything the agent flags. Nobody offers you that on your own labour, and a second attempt lands in the same week you are unpacking.

If you do take it on, start with the oven on day one and let it sit. Everything else in the property is faster than it is.

Ask for the specific items in writing. "Not clean enough" is not actionable, and it is not a basis for withholding bond either.

A reputable cleaner will return to address anything genuinely missed against the agreed scope. Ours will, within 72 hours of the inspection, at no charge.

What no cleaner can fix is pre-existing damage or ordinary wear. Scratched floorboards, faded paint and worn carpet are not cleaning problems, and your entry condition report is the evidence.

If a deduction is proposed for something you believe is fair wear, your state tenancy authority handles the dispute. Photographs taken on the day, before you hand back the keys, decide most of them.

Do not agree to a deduction on the phone to get the matter closed. Ask for the amount and the reason in writing first. An agent who cannot put a figure on paper usually reconsiders it, and you have lost nothing by asking.

Book end of lease cleaning early, keep the paperwork, and photograph the finished property. Those three habits settle almost every bond argument before it starts.