Blackheath Village end of tenancy cleaning, the easy way

End of tenancy cleaning in Blackheath Village, SE3, priced from £156 and built around the one thing that decides a deposit here: the listed and period materials your inventory clerk photographed at check-in. Georgian fronts on The Paragon, Victorian conversions off Lee Road, Eric Lyons Span houses on the Cator Estate, a thin band of newer flats on Brigade Street. We have cleaned these to inventory spec since 2014, work to a 57-point checklist that London letting agents recognise, and back the job with a 48-hour re-clean guarantee. Phone 0333 555 2076 for a fixed quote.

Last updated May 2026. SE3 across Blackheath Village, Blackheath Park, the Cator Estate and the Belmont slope, with cross-over into SE10 and SE13. Borough hub: end of tenancy cleaning Lewisham.

Reading a Blackheath flat as a materials list

Most of the Village sits inside the Blackheath conservation area, and a fair slice of it is Grade II listed. That matters for a clean because the check-in inventory does not say “kitchen, good order”. It names the timber sash, the stripped pine, the cast-iron insert, the original brass. Each of those is a different material, and each fails a clean for a different reason. The cleaner who only does new-builds treats the whole flat as one surface and loses you money on three of them.

So we read a Blackheath flat the way the clerk does, as a list of substrates rather than a list of rooms. Brass tarnishes and pits if you put an acidic descaler near it. Limestone hearths stain and etch on contact with the same product that is fine on a modern worktop. Stripped and waxed pine lifts and clouds under heat, which is why a steam mop is banned on it. Span parquet streaks the moment a wet microfibre drags grit across the grain. Knowing which cloth and which solution goes where is the whole job in SE3.

The four building types here each carry their own traps. The Paragon, South Row and Montpelier Row were all in place by 1800, so you get cornicing, fanlights and timber shutters that a supermarket spray will streak or strip. The Victorian and Edwardian conversions above the Tranquil Vale and Montpelier Vale shops have deep sash reveals where dust settles for years. The Cator Estate’s Span terraces, designed by Eric Lyons from 1957, have floor-to-ceiling timber-framed glazing and parquet. The Brigade Street and Kidbrooke-fringe flats are the only stock that behaves like a normal modern clean.

Knowing which cloth and which solution goes where is the whole job in SE3.

The words an inventory uses, and what they mean

Inventories in SE3 are written in a vocabulary that trips tenants up at check-out. People lose deductions arguing about a “clean” the clerk never meant. Here is the language we see on Village reports, in plain terms.

Check-in inventory

The photographed schedule taken before you moved in, listing every feature and its condition. It is the baseline the check-out is judged against, which is why a listed flat is held to a higher line than a plain one.

Schedule of condition

The written half of that report, where “good clean order” beside a brass tap means the brass has to come back polished, not just rinsed.

Betterment

The rule that a landlord cannot charge you to leave the flat cleaner or newer than you found it. Useful: if a sash reveal was already mouldy at check-in, that is not yours to wear.

Fair wear and tear

Reasonable ageing from normal living, which you are not liable for. A faded carpet is wear; a greasy oven is not, because dirt is never wear.

Substrate

The actual material under a surface, brass, limestone, waxed pine, painted lime plaster. In a period flat the substrate, not the room, sets the cleaning method.

Deposit-back clean

A clean done to inventory standard so the check-out photos match the check-in photos, which is a different job from a deep clean and a long way from a regular one.

That last distinction is where money leaks. A deep clean resets a home you are staying in. A deposit-back clean is aimed squarely at the report. We do the second by default in Blackheath, because the second is what the clerk grades.

Where an SE3 clerk points the camera

Over twelve years here we have stood through plenty of check-outs. The inspection follows a path, and the camera lands on the same places almost every time. These are the shots that cost deposits in Blackheath Village, roughly in the order a clerk works through a flat.

1. Oven door glass, the inner pane and the channel between the panes where grease runs down and bakes on.
2. The extractor grease filter, lifted out and turned over. A clogged filter is an instant flag.
3. Fridge and freezer seals. Mould in the rubber gasket gets photographed before the clerk has taken their coat off.
4. Limescale on taps, shower heads and around the base of the loo. SE3 water is hard, so this is a Blackheath speciality.
5. Original brass and chrome. The schedule wanted it polished, and a clerk can tell a rinse from a polish at a glance.
6. Grout in shower corners and along bath seals, where discolouration reads as neglect.
7. Mould on sash reveals, especially in kitchens and bathrooms of the Victorian conversions.
8. Dust sitting on cornicing, ceiling roses and picture rails, the high detail nobody cleans between tenancies.
9. Soot and ash in a decorative fireplace that has been used, or just left.
10. Behind and under the cooker, fridge and washing machine. Clerks pull appliances out.
11. The 10mm gap on top of the wall units, where dust, grease and flour collect unseen.
12. Sash pulleys, window catches and the runs of the box frames.

None of that is exotic. It is just thorough, and a clerk on a listed flat is paid to be thorough. We photograph every one of those points before and after, so when a query lands the evidence is already sitting in the file.

The hard water is the part out-of-area cleaners underestimate. South-east London runs hard, and on a flat that has had four years of showers the limescale on a chrome head or a Victorian basin tap is not a wipe-off job. It needs a proper descaler and time to work, then a polish, and on original brass it needs a descaler that will not strip the lacquer. Get that wrong and you either leave scale the clerk photographs or you dull the metal the schedule said was bright. Either way it is a line on the report.

What the clean covers, room by room

The 57-point checklist is the same document SE3 agents, including John Payne and Winkworth, mark their clerks against. It is long, so here is what it actually means in each room rather than the full tick-sheet.

Kitchen

• Oven stripped by hand inside, door glass split where the panes come apart, racks, trays and grill pan degreased.
• Hob, burner caps, splashback and the cast-iron supports on older gas hobs.
• Extractor hood, grease filter degreased or swapped where it lifts out, vent cover wiped.
• Fridge and freezer defrosted, shelves and drawers out and washed, seals done.
• Dishwasher filter, spray arms and door seal; washing machine drawer, seal and filter.
• Cupboards inside and out, and the tops of the wall units.
• Worktops and sink descaled, taps de-limed, stainless polished, original brass mixers brought back without acid.
• Kickboards, plinths and tile grout where it has gone grey.

Bathroom

• Bath, shower tray, screen glass and seals, with limescale taken off rather than masked.
• Shower head descaled, hose checked, screen left clear.
• Grout scrubbed, mould spots treated with a biocide, not just bleached over.
• Basin, taps, waste and overflow de-limed; Edwardian brassware handled with the right product.
• WC bowl, rim, seat, cistern and the pipework behind it.
• Extractor cover off and cleaned, mirror and glass shelves left streak-free.
• Floor washed, grout done, chrome rails and radiator covers polished.

Bedrooms and living rooms

• Skirting, frames, architraves and picture rails. Deep period mouldings take longer and the quote allows for it.
• Switches, sockets, thermostats; light fittings and pendant shades, taken down and washed where it is safe.
• Sash reveals, cills and frames, inside and between the panes where they open to it.
• Sash pulleys, catches and locks de-dusted.
• Cast-iron fireplace surrounds, tiled or limestone hearths and the inserts, each with the product that suits it.
• Internal doors both faces, handles and finger plates.
• Radiators top, behind with a long brush, valves and pipework.
• Built-in wardrobes, alcove shelving and the cupboard under the stairs.
• Floors: stripped pine dry-passed then lightly damp-mopped with a sealer-safe cleaner, engineered boards damp-mopped, carpets hoovered.
• Span parquet gets a dry microfibre pass first, then a light damp with pH-neutral cleaner. Never a steam mop.

Hall, stairs and the rest

• Cobwebs down, cornicing and ceiling roses dusted, the high stuff that fails on the listed flats.
• Internal glass, balcony and French doors, frames and tracks.
• Staircase treads, risers, balustrades and the handrail.
• Letterbox, the inside of the front door, the communal landing inside your demise.
• Balcony tiles or patio threshold where the let includes them.
• Keys, fobs and manuals set back tidy.

The deposit arithmetic on a Village tenancy

Blackheath rents sit well above the borough. Lewisham’s average private rent hit £1,805 a month in January 2026, up 3.2% on the year, on ONS local housing data. The Village is a long way past that. Two-bed flats on Tranquil Vale, Royal Parade and Blackheath Grove tend to be marketed at £2,100–£2,800 a month; three and four-bed period houses on Lloyd’s Place, Eliot Vale and The Paragon reach £4,500–£6,000.

Run the deposit maths off those rents and it gets serious quickly. With the usual five-week cap, a Village tenant has roughly £2,400 to £6,900 sitting in protection at check-out. That is the pot a clerk is being paid to pick over. A single cleaning deduction on a flat like that is rarely under £120, and a string of them runs into four figures fast.

This is the gap we work in. A clean that matches the check-in photos is the cheapest insurance going against that deduction, and across the firm it is why our work holds a 97% first-time pass rate and why we have helped tenants recover £1.2m in deposits that would otherwise have gone on cleaning. The 57-point checklist is the method; the 48-hour re-clean guarantee is the backstop if a clerk still queries something.

Where it goes wrong is usually not the obvious dirt. People scrub the worktops and the floor, the things they can see, then lose the deposit on the extractor filter, the top of the wall units and the inside of the oven door, the three places nobody looks until a clerk does. A landlord on a Village flat will often quote a professional clean against those, and a deposit scheme adjudicator tends to side with photographs over a tenant’s word that the flat “was clean”. So the argument you cannot win is the one about a surface you never reached. The point of the checklist is that there is no such surface left.

Licensing and the new tenancy law in SE3

Two things shape how your handover is policed in Blackheath: who has to be licensed, and the new tenancy law that came in this spring. Both leave the deposit rules where they were, which is the part tenants most need to hear.

On licensing, Blackheath is the odd one out. Lewisham’s selective licensing scheme runs from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2029 and covers 16 of the borough’s 18 wards. Only Blackheath and Telegraph Hill are left out, because they did not meet the legal test for it. So a standard let in the Village usually needs no selective licence. The council’s selective licensing guidance and map set out exactly where the line falls.

What does still bite in SE3 is the borough-wide additional HMO licensing scheme, which covers any property let to three or more people from two or more households, and the HMO Article 4 Direction that has applied across the whole borough since 19 January 2024. Turning a Blackheath family house into a small HMO now needs planning permission, which keeps the Village a family-house and professional-flat market rather than a student one. That is partly why clerks here grade to a higher line than they do in Catford or New Cross.

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 took Royal Assent in October 2025, and the main reforms went live on 1 May 2026. Section 21 no-fault eviction is gone, assured shorthold tenancies have rolled onto a periodic footing, and a Private Rented Sector ombudsman is being phased in over the next couple of years. Deposit handling itself has not moved: your money still sits in TDS, DPS or mydeposits, and a landlord still has to prove any deduction with evidence. That evidence is the check-out report and the inventory photos. A clean that stands up to those photos is what protects the deposit.

What it costs in Blackheath Village

These are our standard Village rates. Every price includes VAT, the 57-point checklist, the 48-hour guarantee and all materials and kit. Carpet shampooing and specialist upholstery are the only things not in by default; we add those at cost.

The grander houses around The Paragon, Lloyd’s Place and Eliot Vale, often 2,000 sq ft and up with original features over three or four floors, get quoted on a short site visit. Those usually land between £480 and £720, depending on the fireplace count, how many sashes there are and the state of the kitchen.

One honest note on the cheaper end. A studio off Bennett Park with a modern kitchen is a four-hour job. A “studio” that is really a converted first floor of a Paragon house, with a marble hearth and a full set of box sashes, is not, and we will say so on the phone rather than turn up underpriced and rushed.

Extras people add to a Village move-out

Plenty of Village tenancies need a bit more than the standard clean, usually because of the fireplaces, the floors or a refit the landlord ran before re-letting. The common add-ons:

• Professional oven cleaning for the double ovens, ranges and the AGAs you find on the Cator Estate.
• Carpet cleaning by hot-water extraction, with stain treatment.
• Upholstery cleaning for sofas, mattresses and armchairs left in a part-furnished let.
• Window cleaning, sash and reach-and-wash, for the flats where the inventory photographed the glass.
• Hard-floor cleaning for stripped pine, parquet and tile that needs more than a mop.
• After-builders cleans on Village flats refurbished before re-letting.
• Removals, from a single item up to a full three-bed.

Book any of these with the end of tenancy and we do them in the one visit, which saves a second day of access and a second clerk attendance.

Booking a clean around Tranquil Vale

Booking is short. Tell us the address, the bedroom count, whether it is furnished or empty, your check-out date and whether you want carpets done. We quote on the spot for a standard SE3 flat and hold the date with no deposit. For a larger period house we will do a free fifteen-minute look first, because a Paragon house and a Brigade Street flat are not the same job.

We work seven days a week in Blackheath, bank holidays included, with no weekend surcharge. A lot of Village check-outs fall on a Saturday so the agent can show the next tenant on the Sunday, and that is fine. On the day a uniformed team turns up with the vacuums, the ladders and the lot, and most two-bed flats are finished same day.

If the clerk flags a cleaning point inside 48 hours, we come back and re-clean it at no charge. Empty flat with the power off? We carry water in 25-litre drums and cordless kit, so an empty property is no problem as long as you tell us when you book. You do not need to be there; most people leave keys with us or the agent, and the before-and-after photos mean you get the full record either way.

One thing worth saying about deciding what to book. People sometimes ask for a “deep clean” to save money, then fail the check-out, because a deep clean is not graded against an inventory and a deposit-back clean is. If a clerk is coming, book the end of tenancy. If you are staying and just want the flat reset, the deep clean is the right call. The difference is the 57-point sign-off and the 48-hour guarantee, neither of which comes with a regular or deep clean.

To get going, call 0333 555 2076 or email [email protected], and if you send the check-in inventory across we will tell you where your specific flat is likely to get flagged before we quote.

Streets and blocks we cover

We cover the whole of SE3 and the SE10 and SE13 edges that share its housing. If your street is not on the list, we very likely still reach you, so call to check.

• Tranquil Vale and Montpelier Vale, the high street and the flats above the shops.
• Royal Parade, Collins Street and Blackheath Grove.
• Lee Road, Pond Road, Lawn Terrace and Bennett Park.
• The Paragon, South Row, Montpelier Row and Blackheath Park.
• Eliot Place, Eliot Vale, Lloyd’s Place and Dartmouth Hill.
• The Cator Estate: Foxes Dale, The Hall, The Priory, The Keep, Hurren Close and Morden Road.
• Granville Park, Dacre Park and Independents Road.
• Brigade Street, All Saints Drive and Cresswell Park.
• Belmont Hill, Belmont Park and Belmont Grove on the Belmont slope.
• The Kidbrooke Village fringe and the Greenwich side around Vanbrugh Park and Westcombe Park Road.

Moving a bit further out, we run the same team and the same guarantee across the neighbouring areas: End of tenancy cleaning Greenwich, Lewisham Central, Lee, Kidbrooke, Hither Green, Brockley and New Cross, all sitting under the Lewisham borough hub.

Blackheath Village questions

How much does end of tenancy cleaning cost in Blackheath Village?

Studios from £156, one-beds from £207, two-beds from £243, three-beds from £339 and four-beds from £425. Period houses on The Paragon, Lloyd’s Place or Eliot Vale are quoted on a site visit and usually land between £480 and £720. Every price includes VAT, materials and the 48-hour re-clean guarantee.

Do you clean period features like sash windows and original fireplaces?

Yes, and with the right product for each one. Sash reveals, cills, pulleys and the glass between the panes where it opens are on the checklist. Cast-iron surrounds and limestone or tiled hearths are wiped with substrate-appropriate cleaners, so no acid near limestone and no abrasive pad on polished brass.

Is carpet cleaning included?

Vacuuming is included. Hot-water-extraction shampooing is an add-on at £36 per bedroom, £43 per living room, or £115 for a whole two-bed flat. Book it with the end of tenancy and we do both in the one visit.

What is the 48-hour guarantee?

If your check-out clerk flags a cleaning issue within 48 hours of our visit, we return and re-clean the flagged items at no cost. We have run this 48-hour re-clean guarantee since 2014 and have helped tenants recover £1.2m in deposits that would otherwise have gone on cleaning deductions.

Do you clean at weekends in Blackheath Village?

Yes, Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays at no surcharge. A lot of Village check-outs are set for a Saturday because the agent wants to show the flat to the next tenant on the Sunday, which suits us fine.

Will my letting agent accept your clean?

Almost certainly. We are on the books of 300+ letting agents, including most SE3 firms, and the 57-point checklist is a standard inventory-spec document. Our work holds a 97% first-time pass rate, and if a clerk does query anything the 48-hour guarantee covers the re-work.

How long does a clean take?

Three to four hours for a studio, five to seven for a two-bed, seven to nine for a three-bed and eight to ten for a four-bed. A period house with several fireplaces, a full set of sashes and ornate cornicing takes longer, and the quote accounts for that.

Do you handle Span houses on the Cator Estate?

Regularly. Eric Lyons’ Span terraces on Foxes Dale, The Hall, The Priory and The Keep have their own detailing, the timber-framed glazed walls, the parquet, the exposed brick, that the wrong product wrecks. We use pH-neutral cleaner on the parquet, never a steam mop, and a streak-free glass cleaner on the full-height glazing.

Is oven cleaning included?

Yes, a single oven is in as standard at no extra cost. Double ovens and 90cm ranges add £20 to £40 because they take longer. The AGAs on the Cator Estate and a handful of Paragon houses are £130.

Can you clean an empty flat with no utilities?

Yes. We bring our own water in 25-litre drums and cordless kit where the power is off, so an empty property is no problem. Just tell us when you book so we arrive set up for it.

Do I need to be there?

No. Most people leave keys with us or with the agent. We photograph everything before and after, so you have the full job record even if you are already moved out.

What about mould on sash reveals in the Victorian conversions?

Common, where original single-glazed sashes meet modern showering and cooking. We treat the mould with a biocide and re-seal where it is needed. If it has gone into the timber we flag it, so you can argue fair wear and tear with the agent rather than wear the deduction yourself.

Does the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 change how my deposit is handled?

No. Deposit protection is unchanged, so your landlord still holds the money in TDS, DPS or mydeposits and still has to evidence any deduction. The Act ended Section 21 and is phasing in a Private Rented Sector ombudsman, but a clean that stands up to the inventory photos remains the best protection for the deposit.

Do you cover Blackheath Standard and Westcombe Park too?

Yes, along with Vanbrugh Park, Stratheden Road, Humber Road and the whole Royal Borough of Greenwich side of the heath. Same team, same pricing and the same 48-hour guarantee.