Brightlingsea homes, street by street
A lot of the rented housing in Brightlingsea went up in the late Victorian years, when the town grew from 2,585 people in 1861 to 4,501 by 1901 and new streets filled the slope between the High Street, the waterfront and the railway station. We clean those terraces, and the newer flats and estates around them, at a fixed price by bedrooms: £176 for a studio, £227 for one bedroom, £263 for two, £359 for three and £445 for four.
Last updated October 2026.
The old centre is a conservation area, designated by Tendring District Council in June 1975 and extended in 1985 and 1987. It takes in the High Street, Hurst Green, Queen Street, Victoria Place, the whole of New Street and Sydney Street, and Waterside down to the jetties. Most of the houses there are two storeys, in red brick, render or timber, and many stand right on the back edge of the pavement.
Some streets are worth knowing by name. On the north side of Francis Street, a row dated 1882 was built as three groups of four houses and one of five; all of them were weatherboarded at first, and the fronts are now rendered in different colours, with one or two still keeping their small-pane sashes. Queen Street is mostly two-storey Victorian houses in red brick with white painted details, and the council’s appraisal notes that a good share of the sash windows survive. For a cleaner, small panes mean a lot of glazing bars and putty lines to wipe, and a front door on the pavement means the step, the sill and the letterbox all collect road dust.
The waterfront is the newest layer. The former James and Stone shipyard at the south-west corner of the old town has been turned into flats with a marina, and the council’s appraisal marks the southern parts of the conservation area as land at risk of flooding. If your flat there has a balcony or wide windows over the water, mention it when you book: glass takes longer than the floor area suggests.
Most of the 20th-century growth went north of the old town, around the main road that comes in past All Saints’ Church. The later estates there have fewer period details to clean round. A family house on one of them still has a garden door, a utility corner and often a garage, and the inventory lists each one.
End of tenancy prices in Brightlingsea
The price is set by the number of bedrooms, whatever the age of the house. Sashes, bay windows and a second bathroom do not change it.
| Property | Price |
|---|---|
| Studio flat | £176 |
| One-bedroom flat or cottage | £227 |
| Two-bedroom terrace or flat | £263 |
| Three-bedroom house | £359 |
| Four-bedroom house | £445 |
| Five bedrooms or more | quoted from the room count |
| A room in a shared house, or part of a home | £30 per cleaner per hour |
The deposit is still a real sum here. The ONS put the average private rent across the district at £1,053 a month in August 2026, up 4.1% in a year; flats and maisonettes averaged £884 and terraced houses £1,061. With the deposit capped at five weeks’ rent, a tenant on that terraced-house average has about £1,224 held until the check-out report is agreed.
If we have to pay to park near your street, that cost is added to the quote at what it costs us. The calculator at the top of the page gives your own figure.
Hard water from the Tendring supply
Brightlingsea’s water comes from Affinity Water. The Tendring peninsula had its own company for more than a century, Tendring Hundred Water, which became part of Affinity in 2012. Affinity says the water it supplies is classed as hard or very hard, and that about 60% of it is groundwater drawn from chalky limestone.
In practice that means white crust round the taps, on the shower screen and in the kettle, and a grey film on the tiles that a quick wipe will not shift. Clerks run a finger along those surfaces. Descaling is part of every clean we do here, on taps, shower heads, screens, tiles and the sink.
The clean, room by room
The cleaners work to our 57-point checklist. In outline:
- Kitchen: the inside and outside of every cupboard and drawer, worktops, splashback, hob and extractor hood, sink and taps descaled, the fridge and freezer, and behind the cooker if it slides out.
- Bathroom: bath, basin, toilet, screen and tiles descaled, grout scrubbed, mirror polished and the extractor fan cover wiped.
- Bedrooms and living rooms: skirting, door frames, sockets and switches, radiators, the inside of built-in wardrobes, window sills and every pane from the inside, glazing bars included.
- Stairs, landings and floors: vacuumed and mopped, with the stair spindles dusted.
The oven is an add-on: £31 for a single or a single wide oven, and £62 for a double or a 90cm range cooker. Our oven cleaning page has the details if you only need that.
Carpets added to the clean cost £29 a bedroom, £36 a living room, £47 for a through lounge, £35 a flight of stairs, £20 a hallway and £8 a landing. Check your tenancy agreement for a carpet clause before you book. The carpet cleaning page covers the service on its own.
Deposit rules for Tendring tenants
The Tenant Fees Act caps a deposit at five weeks’ rent when the yearly rent is under £50,000. The government’s guidance for tenants says a landlord or agent cannot make you pay for a professional clean when you leave. They can ask for the home to be cleaned to a professional standard, and you are expected to hand it back in the condition shown on the check-in inventory, allowing for fair wear and tear. In a period terrace, wear and tear covers the old floorboards and faded paint; it does not cover grease on the extractor or scale on the taps.
Tendring District Council issues HMO licences under the national rules, for homes shared by five or more people from two or more households. The licence is the landlord’s business and does not change what the clerk checks at the end.
Wear and tear covers the old floorboards and faded paint; it does not cover grease on the extractor or scale on the taps.
Booking a Brightlingsea clean
Booking takes three steps
- Your postcode and the property. The form gives the price.
- A date that suits you. Seven days a week.
- We confirm it with you by phone or WhatsApp.
0333 555 2076 · 8am to 7pm
Brightlingsea is almost surrounded by the Colne estuary, the creek and salt marsh, and only one road links it to the rest of Essex. The railway that once ran here from Wivenhoe closed in 1964. We plan the van’s arrival around that road, so tell us the street, whether there is parking outside and which floor the flat is on.
Book through the calculator or call 0333 555 2076, 8am to 7pm, seven days a week. Our cleaners are vetted at an in-person interview, insured and trained on the checklist. We have been cleaning since 2014, more than 300 letting agents work with us, tenants have won back £1.2m in deposits, and we are rated 4.7 on Google.
If the agent or clerk finds something we missed and tells us within 48 hours, we come back and clean it again at no charge. The same team covers Colchester, Clacton-on-Sea and the rest of Essex.
Brightlingsea end of tenancy FAQs
I rent one of the 1882 houses on Francis Street. Do the small-pane sashes cost extra?
No. The price goes by bedrooms, so a two-bed is £263. The panes, bars and sills are cleaned from the inside as part of it.
My flat is at the old shipyard by the marina. What does a one-bed cost with the oven?
The clean is £227, and a single oven adds £31. Tell us about the balcony doors when you book.
We share a house off Victoria Place and I am moving out first. What should I book?
Your room plus your share of the kitchen and bathroom, by the hour at £30 per cleaner. The last person out can book the whole house at the fixed price.
Will the limescale on the shower screen come off?
Brightlingsea water is hard, so we descale screens, taps and tiles on every job. Scale that has built up over several years can take a second treatment, which is part of the same clean.
How do I pay?
A 50% deposit holds your date, and the rest is due once the clean is done.
