If you asked a bunch of landlords and property management agents in both Chelsea SW3 and SW10 what the most common reason is for not giving former tenants back their deposit money, then you’ll probably get the answer “cleaning”. The condition that tenants left the rental property in is often nowhere near what it ought to be – which highlights just how important the whole topic of moving out cleaning is. Most landlords could tell you a few stories.

Hygiene Horror Stories

If you get a landlord talking about their rental property in Chelsea and telling stories about it, unfortunately, the stories that you are most likely to hear aren’t along the lines of: “Yes, we had fantastic tenants in our flat on Kings Road, and when they left, they left everything properly clean, and they’d got the carpets steam cleaned and everything.” Instead, you’re likely to hear horror stories: the tales about terrible tenants with equally terrible standards of hygiene who left the property in a foul condition.

Honestly, if you hear some of these stories, you have to wonder about the mental state of the tenants and whether they knew how to use a broom or vacuum cleaner at all, to say nothing of the deep cleaning required when moving out. Here are a few tales that I’ve encountered over the years:

• The tenants who left behind rotting food in the fridge and several bags of rubbish and old clothes… but who took the sofa that was part of the furnishings.
• The ones who weren’t supposed to have a dog but obviously did, as indicated by the dog poop left in the carpet.
• The ones who decided to add an extra electrical wire to the house so the shed outside had electricity – and I’m not talking about running out an extension cord with a multibox but a full-on illegally welded on job.
• The students who had a ritual of punching at least one hole in every bedroom wall.
• The ones who sprayed obscene graffiti on the living room wall.
• The ones who let mould grow everywhere – and it wasn’t because of poor ventilation, home design, rising damp, or anything like that.
• Entire rooms full of old rubbish, broken appliances and the like
• Gardens full of dead cars

To be fair and give the other side of the story, a few renters will also have stories about bad or overly demanding Chelsea landlords. You hear about the ones that charge premium rates for “homes” that have poor ventilation and insulation. Such ventilation never gets around to fixing the leak in the roof but still get snotty about the resulting mouldy carpet under the leak; the ones who never cleaned up after the previous terrible tenants and expected the new renters to pay out for moving in cleaning, and the ones who refused to give the deposit money back because one of the plants in the garden had died.

Things Landlords Need To Know

The first thing that landlords need to know is what is and isn’t reasonable to expect from tenants in the area of end of tenancy cleaning. It is reasonable to expect tenants to leave your rental property in good condition inside and out. However, it’s not reasonable to expect tenants to reverse the laws of entropy somehow and leave you with a property that is in better condition than before they went in or even in exactly the same condition. But you can ask them to keep and leave the place clean.

It’s a law of nature that things wear out and deteriorate over time, including things in your rental property (even in Chelsea, furniture can age, believe it or not, lol). This means carpets will become threadbare, the wallpaper will fade and possibly even peel away, the paint will become chipped, and appliances will break down. This is known as ordinary wear and tear, and you can’t refuse to give a tenant’s deposit back just because these inevitable things have happened. The same applies to plants in the garden. Sure, you can expect tenants to keep the lawns mowed, the weeds pulled, and the hedges trimmed, but plants do die from mysterious causes now and then, and it may not be the tenants’ fault.

Expecting tenants to take ridiculous measures to keep the rental property in good order is also unreasonable. For example, you can’t require that your tenants must take their shoes off indoors to protect your carpets – although you can require them to get the carpets professionally cleaned as part of the moving out cleaning. Nor can you insist they always keep the curtains pulled so the wallpaper doesn’t fade.

In the UK, it’s also illegal for landlords to require tenants to get a professional cleaning company to do the end of tenancy cleaning for them. Sure, many tenants hire professional end of tenancy cleaners to save themselves the hassle and to be more certain of getting their deposit money back, but this isn’t compulsory. It is OK to do your own deep cleaning, as long as you’re certain that you can do it right.

It’s also reasonable to have a final walk-through inspection with your tenants when they hand the keys over. This way, if they have accidentally overlooked something and not cleaned it – easy to do during the hassles and stress of moving out – then you can notify them of the problem and give them a chance to deal with it. Most of them will wipe out that one drawer that was overlooked or whatever it is.

The Perils Of Old Fridge Syndrome

One common trap that landlords can fall into is what I’ll call Old Fridge Syndrome. In Old Fridge Syndrome, a landlord might buy themselves a nice new American-style fridge with double doors, a brushed aluminium finish and an ice dispenser (very trendy in Chelsea, I must admit). This means they have to decide to do with the old fridge, which may still be in working order. It seems so simple. Why not just put the old fridge in the rental property as one of the fixtures?

The problem with this is that it is an old fridge, subject to all the wear and tear and breakdowns that happen to old fridges. What’s more, if you’ve put the fridge in the rental property, it’s still your responsibility to fix it if it breaks down. In fact, if it breaks down and can’t be repaired, you are now obligated to replace it because your tenants rented a place with a fridge included as one of the fixtures. It will be on the contract and everything, so you can’t insist that your tenants go out and buy a new fridge with their own money… unless you renegotiate the whole deal and lower the rent because you’re now not providing them with something. You’re also responsible for getting rid of the broken old fridge and taking it to the nearest whiteware recycling centre.

If you want to put your old fridge in a rental property, go ahead. You can expect the tenants to keep it clean and not scribble notes all over the outside. When they move out, you can expect they’ll leave an empty fridge that’s been wiped out thoroughly. You can expect them not to kick it about, wrench the doors off it or smash the trays. However, especially in the case of long-term tenants, you can’t expect the fridge to look like it’s just come off the showroom floor. There may be scratches. Seals around the door will perish over time.

Of course, if the tenants took a blowtorch to the fridge or tried to light a fire inside it, you can demand that they replace your fridge – but that’s quite another story, probably one to add to the collection of terrible tenants.…

If you own rental property, you probably decided to do so as an investment. This means that any time that your rental property sits vacant is a time when it’s not earning money for you. So it just makes plain old sense to ensure that your vacant rental property is as clean and tidy as possible so that you can attract the right sort of tenants to sign on the dotted line and live in that rental of yours.

If you had the right sort of tenant the last time, then they would have left the place perfectly tidy. If you’re really lucky, they hired a team of professional end of tenancy cleaners to get everything just right. If this is the case, there’s little or nothing that you need to do to clean in between tenants. However, not all tenants are as nice as this. Some leave the place – your investment property! – in a real mess. You definitely don’t want to leave your rental in bad condition after the sloppy tenants move out, at least if you want to attract decent tenants who will take care of the place. So what do you do?

Why A Clean Rental Home Is Important For Landlords

First impressions count. What the property looks like when a bunch of prospective tenants come in will give them an idea of what your standards are and how they are expected to take care of the place. Don’t fall into the trap of letting tenants move in or inspect the property before it’s as tidy as you’d like it to be. This will send out the message, “I don’t care what you do with this place – I just want my rent money.” This is not the message that you want to send. Sure, you want your rental to earn money, but you also ideally want long-term tenants who feel at home in the rental property and stay there (paying you!) for as long as possible. You probably won’t attract this type of tenant if they walk into a dump.

Good tenants of the sort you really want to be in a long-term professional relationship with are going to snap up a nice clean property if it feels like home – and they’ll do it quickly. To ensure that your property keeps on earning you money and doesn’t sit vacant for too long, the more quickly that you can get it clean, the better.

Time To Freshen Things Up?

You could do things the easy way with a minimum of hassle. This is simply a case of calling in a professional end of tenancy cleaning company (if the previous tenants haven’t done this already) to get the place up to standard, then getting ready to take the viewers through the house. However, you might want to take the chance between clients to freshen the place up a bit. After all, even though good tenants can call in the cleaning company (or do a fantastic job of doing their own cleaning), there’s nothing much they can do about peeling paint, curtains and other fabric that has been faded by the sun, threadbare carpets and shabby wallpaper. These are classic examples of wear and tear – and it’s your responsibility to deal with it, not theirs.

The space in between tenants is an ideal time for landlords not just to ensure that the place is properly clean but also to carry out any repairs and maintenance that need to be done. Here’s a list of things that it’s good to check (and deal with if you need to). Check these even if your tenants haven’t let you know about them (which they may have thought of as “complaining,” so don’t get too annoyed at them if they haven’t told you).

• Dripping taps and leaky pipes
• Clogged gutters
• Loose roofing iron or tiles
• Wonky doors and windows (including
• Problems with damp

Even so, there’s a good chance that your rental property won’t need these maintenance jobs done. However, you might like to take a bit of time to check for wear and tear. After all, if a rental property looks a bit shabby (threadbare carpets, tatty curtains, etc.), then you aren’t likely to attract tenants who will stay there for a while and really feel at home. Let’s face it: if you live in a house that has peeling paint and tatty carpets, but you can’t replace them yourself, this serves as a reminder that “This is not your home,” and your tenants may not stay as long, as they’ll always be feeling less settled with these permanent reminders. This job might not be as terrible as you think – here are a few things that experienced landlords have found to be helpful:

• If the curtains are still in good condition, you might want to get them professionally cleaned. However, if they’re well past their best, then you may want to replace them. Choose something in a neutral colour so that your tenants can add their temporary decorations as they choose.
• If it’s time for a re-paint, either because the existing paint is getting a bit flaky and shabby (or because the previous tenants were hoodlums who added graffiti), then choose something that (a) doesn’t date easily, (b) is easy to match if you need to paint again in future and (c) is easy to clean. This usually means white, although other colours are possible.
• If you didn’t ask the previous tenants to clean the carpets deep, get this done. This is usually best done by a professional company (it saves you time as well). If you are letting the place furnished, then don’t forget to get any upholstered furniture done at the same time. This helps remove any weird odours.
• If you have to replace the carpets, then pick a colour and pattern that doesn’t show dirt very easily – this will save you and your tenants a lot of effort and hassle.
• Touch up bathroom grout and tiles. Your previous tenant could or should have dealt with the worst of this, but it might be time to put in new tiles and/or grout.

Clean, Clean And Clean Again!

You will probably need to do something in the cleaning department even if your previous tenants were lovely and called in the professional end of tenancy cleaning company to do the job. This is because even if the place was in perfect condition, dust and spiders still happen, and you don’t really want the place to look neglected when the next batch of tenants come to inspect the property. In fact, it’s often best to give the place a quick tidy to remove this type of surface dirt before someone comes to have a look through.

Don’t forget to clean in odd places that your old tenants may have accidentally overlooked – and that you forgot to check during the inspection when they handed the keys back to you. Behind the heavy white goods (fridge, freezer, washing machine, dishwasher, etc.) is a very common place to be forgotten! Don’t forget to check inside any white goods – even if your previous tenants gave them a good clean before they left, these may start to smell a bit odd and even grow mould if they’re left unused in between tenants.

Of course, if you had not-quite-so-good tenants who left the place in a mess or even not quite as good as they should have (rubbish in the bins, odds and ends in the cupboards, etc.), then the place will need deep cleaning. This isn’t hard – just call in a good end of tenancy cleaning company and use some of the deposit money (which you will have been entitled to hold onto because of the bad cleaning) to cover the cost.…

Every day is a good day to clean your house! Seriously, cleaning the house should not be such a complicated task. First, consider the size of your home and the things that need high maintenance. Depending on how massive your house is and how quickly it gets dirty, you can develop a cleaning procedure that works best for you. This way, you can plan the cleaning of the rooms according to your convenience, and you do not need to look for a perfect day on which you will perform your entire cleaning process. 

For example, you can divide the cleaning process according to the number of available rooms. Pay more attention to cleaning your bathrooms and bedrooms. Then the living room. Create a checklist for cleaning the room, and make it a habit to follow the same routine every time you clean it. That should be done weekly or daily, as the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom get dirty quickly. It is enough for other parts of your house to clean once a month thoroughly. That ensures you do not have to spend all day cleaning your house. 

It may sound annoying to some, but believe me, it’s much easier and faster than spending a day or two cleanings. Wiping the kitchen counter top as soon as you finish cooking will save you the trouble of returning to a pile of waste. Every home is different, as are the checklist and cleaning routines. You may need to take some time to develop your cleaning routine, but everything else will be quick and easy once that is done. You can also get reliable household cleaners to clean your house from time to time thoroughly. 

I can understand that cleaning is only a cup of tea for some. But for me, this is nothing but meditation. It gives me such mental clarity and relieves me of stress. I’m a cleaner. I love collecting cleaning tools and trying to create my DIY cleaning solutions. Even if you don’t like cleaning your home, you need to do it sometimes to keep your house habitable. If you are starting, here is a portion of the essential instruments used to clean your home: 

Broom: Yes! But seriously, a broom is something you should have at home because the most basic cleaning starts there. A broom is a necessary cleaning tool for indoor or outdoor cleaning. There are different brooms, such as short, long, hard or soft. Take the standard for now. 

Trash: To collect dust and debris, you must have a trash can after using a broom. The garbage is useful when you pour something on the floor and want to get rid of it quickly. 

Mop: However, if you rely only on a broom, cleaning with it will keep the house clean for a short time. You will need to wipe the floor to collect the dust from it. So buy a mop. 

Bucket: You know that the bucket and the mop go together like bread and butter. One is only useful with the other. Remember to add a bucket to your shopping list. 

Sponge: Now, I can go on and on about sponges because there is an excellent variety of them for different purposes. But I will stick to the topic and tell you to take a sponge for your cleaning needs. It can also help clean windows you can’t reach. 

A squeegee: Keep the squeegee close to you for a clean and mould-free bath and shower glass. Use it to wipe the glass once everything is ready. 

Vacuum cleaner: This is a slightly expensive member of the list, but it is worth it. Helps you clean your house at a much faster rate. 

Useful tips: 

• Bring all the tools and products needed in the room you will clean – all of them. This way, you do not waste time and energy to find a dust towel because you forgot it. If you keep most of your tools and products in a localised space and organise them in an easy-to-carry bag, you don’t have to spend all day looking for things or walking back and forth to pick up something else. 
• Clean an entire room from one end of the house to the other. I start from the back of the house and make my way to the front door (I worked professionally as a cleaner), which means you don’t walk on wet floors and carry dirt with you from dirty to clean rooms. Work in the room clockwise to clean everything while walking and not miss anything. You can divide the cleaning routine into three passages in the room. The first is to take things that do not belong in space and separate them where they belong. You can put them in a basket and out of the room to redistribute later. Then perform the cleaning part. The latter is sweeping and wiping or cleaning the floor. 

Clean in time 

Clean regularly. If you see squeezed toothpaste in the sink, clean it. If the bin is complete, remove it. Wash dishes before bed every night. Wipe the worktops after washing the dishes. If you use something, put it back in its place. If it is empty, throw it away. Finish all your laundry on the same day. Make your bed every morning. Put dirty laundry in a basket, not on the floor. That keeps the house looking good between weekly cleanings and reduces the energy needed to perform weekly cleanings. 

Clever tricks 

Break down your responsibilities into smaller tasks. Instead of randomly cleaning areas and cleaning old items on a larger and more frightening scale, focus on smaller parts of the cleaning. You can handle cleaning areas such as the bathroom or kitchen. 

Clean rooms you don’t use often. Most of the time, rarely used rooms have tons of garbage that need disposal. I suggest cleaning the room little by little instead of doing it all at once. You will be able to handle the task. 

Constant vigilance! Remaining small parts of your home prevents the considerable accumulation of dirt you will be afraid of in the future. It may seem an inconvenience initially, but once you master it, you will realise the benefits of developing this habit. 

Have an excellent time. Play tunes, watch a movie or TV series while cleaning, and do everything that will make cleaning less unpleasant and a more fun exercise! …

You know, when you get that notice to move out, you have limited time to do everything stipulated in your tenancy agreement. Sometimes we forget things. Life is too complicated for all of us.

And then you get this call or email. Checking out of the Chelsea property in 2 days. The inventory clerk arrives at 9 am.

Whaaaat? Seriously? Panic sets in. What to do first, where do I get cleaners at such short notice? How about a moving company? I have a ton of stuff.

Hey, relax. Have you heard of Completely Emergency Cleaners? We operate in Chelsea SW3 and SW10 postcodes. As a matter in fact, we have been gathering experience individually for more than 50 combined years. Your situation, which you think is the worst thing to happen to you, is what we deal with every single deal. And that’s OK. This is our main cleaning service, and we love helping tenants like you.

Booking your appointment couldn’t be easier. A quick message from our website and a sales agent will give you a call within 1 hour. You go together through the details of each cleaning task, and we reserve your slot on your chosen day. It is important to get every single detail of the upcoming end of tenancy clean right. No cutting corners and nothing is left to chance or the inventory clerk’s incompetence. Here is the kicker. They are always very pedantic with great attention to detail. Missing something during a walkthrough is close to impossible.

Is Oven Cleaning Included?

Yes! Our end of tenancy service includes oven cleaning to bring it back to its former glory and make sure everything is in working order. We understand the importance of getting this right, especially when a deposit is on the line. We use non-toxic, environmentally friendly products to ensure that your property looks and smells great. Plus, all our work is completed quickly and efficiently, so you can get on with your move without any stress or hassle.

What is Included in Your Professional End of Tenancy Cleaning Service?

With Completely Emergency Cleaners, you can trust that your end of tenancy cleaning needs are taken care of. Our professional cleaners will make sure every corner is spotless and all surfaces gleam with a deep clean. From carpets and curtains to windows and walls, we’ll take care of everything to ensure your property looks its best when you move out. We use only eco-friendly products to ensure the safety of everyone in the home, as well as the environment.

Let us take care of every single aspect of your end-of-tenancy cleaning needs; contact us now for a hassle-free experience! Whether you need help with just one particular task or want us to provide a comprehensive cleaning service, we can do it all: pick up the phone and get in touch with our team now to book an appointment!

Meticulousness is a must. Moving out of your old home and preparing for a fresh start requires an effective cleaning plan that covers every nook and cranny. A thorough end of tenancy clean requires more than just a vacuum sweep, with many smaller areas to consider.

Remember, it’s all in the details – the finer points often make the difference between good and great. Make sure to use high quality materials when tackling specific tasks, use subtle touches like scent sprays to give The place an extra oomph and pay special attention to door handles and light switches which remain largely untouched.

Standard Residential Checklist

Here is our comprehensive rental vacate checklist:

KITCHEN: Clean every surface including cupboards, drawers and fridge/freezer inside;Clean switch plates; Sanitize appliances such as microwave, oven, dishwasher etc.; Remove food waste from sink; Mop floors; Vacuum carpet

BATHROOMS: Wipe surfaces like countertops, shower doors, walls, mirrors, toilet bowl inside and outside;Sanitize bathtub; Replace towels with new ones if necessary; Dispose of trash bins ；Mop floors

LIVING ROOM & BEDROOM : Dust windowsills and frames；Return furniture back to original place; Vacuum carpets & rugs；Clean hardwood floor or tile floor ;Polish timber furniture ;Vacuum mattresses

GARDEN: Cut grass ；Sweep paths ；Clear up garden debris。

Let us take care of every single aspect of your end-of-tenancy cleaning needs; contact us now for a hassle-free experience! Whether you need help with just one particular task or want us to provide a comprehensive cleaning service, we can do it all: pick up the phone and get in touch with our team now to book an appointment!…