On a check-out in Apollo House, the clerk starts at the intercom panel, not the kitchen. Does the fob still work. Does the code still match what the concierge logged on your first day. That habit, carried over from the block’s years as a government office, catches more Croydon tenants than a dirty oven ever does.
We clean end of tenancy flats and houses right across Croydon town centre, CR0 1, from £156 for a studio, with a 48-hour re-clean guarantee against whatever the report says. Ring 0333 555 2076 and we will price it before the kettle boils.
Last updated July 2026. We cover the CR0 1 core and the CR0 2 fringe: Wellesley Road and the Flyover, Fairfield, Surrey Street and the Old Town, College Green, Cherry Orchard Road and the Park Hill estate. This page sits inside the borough directory at End of Tenancy Cleaning Croydon.
The fob count that catches people out
End of tenancy cleaning
from £156
For a studio, fixed by property size, agreed before we start.
Get your price0333 555 2076 · 8am to 7pm
Two of the town centre’s biggest blocks used to hold the Home Office, and that history is why the access records get checked at check-out.
- Apollo House and Lunar House
- 1960s government buildings on Wellesley Road, converted by Ho Bee Land under permitted development rights into 583 flats, reported at the time as the largest office-to-residential conversion of its kind in the country.
- Leon House
- The 21-storey block on the High Street just south of the Flyover went the same way a decade earlier: offices and a restaurant floor stripped out, 263 apartments built inside the original concrete frame.
None of that history shows up in the finish. It shows up in the small print of the check-out.
A tenant leaving Apollo House in June told us the flat itself was not the issue. Every surface passed. What nearly cost her the deposit was the fob log:
- The concierge system still listed her partner as an unregistered visitor from move-in day.
- The clerk flagged the mismatch before he had even opened a cupboard.
- We sorted it with a phone call and a screenshot of the original booking confirmation.
It is the kind of thing a rushed DIY clean never thinks to check.
Croydonization, and what it actually built
Croydon spent the 1960s and 1970s throwing up office towers at a pace that gave British planning a word of its own: Croydonization, shorthand for a skyline reshaped fast and high around a road-and-flyover system built for cars. It left three kinds of rental stock.
- The boom-era survivors
- No.1 Croydon, the black-glass octagon on Wellesley Road that everyone locally calls the 50p building, is the best-known survivor. Most of its neighbours from the same era have since gone one of two ways: torn down for something taller, or converted wholesale into flats, the way Apollo, Lunar and Leon House were.
- A second, newer wave
- Layered on top of that 1960s stock. Saffron Square, the 43-storey tower Berkeley Homes finished in 2016, and Ten Degrees, the 44-storey modular twin towers HTA built by East Croydon station in 2020, brought purpose-built rental blocks with concierge desks and service lifts rather than converted corridors. Morello, on Cherry Orchard Road, filled the gap between the two.
- Five minutes south or east
- Walk from any of them and the stock changes completely: the Old Town’s late-Victorian terraces around Surrey Street and Church Street, most split into flats decades ago, and the ex-council blocks on the Park Hill estate from the tail end of the tower-building years.
Croydonization is shorthand for a skyline reshaped fast and high around a road-and-flyover system built for cars.
Three property types, three different fault lines at check-out. We work all of them. We do not clean them the same way.
The tram that runs the timetable
Croydon Tramlink opened in 2000 and is still the only tram network left running in London. For a cleaning crew that matters more than it sounds.
- The route
- It cuts straight through the town centre on George Street and Church Street before fanning out to Wimbledon, Beckenham and New Addington.
- The stations
- East Croydon and West Croydon anchor the whole commuter pattern either side of it.
- Loading
- George Street and Church Street carry tram, bus and pedestrian traffic all at once, loading is restricted for most of the working day, and a van parked five minutes too long on the wrong stretch gets a ticket before the first bag of kit is out of the boot.
We plan Saffron Square, Ten Degrees and Old Town jobs around the tram timetable rather than against it:
- drop the crew near a stop
- walk the last stretch
- load out once the evening service thins
Book early enough and none of that touches you. Leave it to the day before and it becomes our problem to solve on the pavement.
What 1 May 2026 changed, and what it didn’t
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 went live on 1 May 2026. It changed the calendar and left the cleaning alone.
- Section 21
- No-fault evictions are gone.
- Existing tenancies
- Every assured shorthold tenancy still running has converted to a periodic tenancy.
- Notice
- A tenant can hand in two months’ notice whenever they like rather than waiting for a fixed term to expire.
- The cleaning
- It did not move an inch. The check-in benchmark still applies. The Tenant Fees Act still stops a landlord making professional cleaning a contractual condition.
What changed is the shape of the calendar. Croydon’s town-centre lets were already short and fast-turning, mostly one and two-year lets on the BTR towers and rolling professional lets in the office conversions.
A rolling notice period means move-outs land whenever rather than clustering around a renewal date. The practical result is duller than the headline: book earlier than you used to, because the slot you assumed would still be there sometimes isn’t.
Thames water and the chalk problem
Thames Water supplies the CR0 postcodes, and the water is firmly hard. It shows fastest on the surfaces that look most impressive when they are new.
- Source
- The chalk aquifer that sits under most of London and the South East
- Hardness
- Croydon’s supply comes back at around 297 parts per million of calcium carbonate
The same water hides differently in different blocks.
- Saffron Square and Ten Degrees
- Frameless glass shower screens are fitted as standard, and they scale up within weeks if nobody wipes them dry. A clerk checking a tower flat runs a thumbnail down the screen runner and along the tap base before looking at anything else in the room.
- The Park Hill estate
- With older painted pipework rather than exposed chrome, the hard-water film collects in the grout rather than on the glass, and it takes longer to notice and longer to shift once it has set.
One Ten Degrees tenant we cleaned for in spring had assumed a supermarket descaler spray would handle the screen the morning of check-out. It took the surface film off and left the base of the runner untouched, exactly where the clerk’s thumbnail went first.
We redid it properly with a soak rather than a spray, and the report came back clean.
The licence Fairfield landlords now need
Croydon Council’s cabinet approved a new selective licensing scheme covering 14 of the borough’s 28 wards, including Fairfield, the town-centre ward that takes in most of CR0 1.
- Start
- It commences on 1 September 2026 and runs five years.
- Reach
- Roughly 72.5% of the borough’s privately rented homes once it is live.
- Fees
- £800 for a standard selective licence and £1,250 for additional HMO licensing, on top of the mandatory HMO scheme that already covers larger shared houses borough-wide.
- Where it stands
- The scheme has been in force since 25 September 2026, when the council’s application portal opened, and landlords letting inside Fairfield without a licence are in breach.
None of this changes what we do at check-out. It changes what the landlord has to show the council, and increasingly what letting agents ask tenants about when a flat first goes on the market.
If you are unsure whether a CR0 1 or CR0 2 address falls inside the scheme, the council publishes the ward map at croydon.gov.uk landlord licensing.
The 57 things we go through, room by room
Every Croydon town-centre booking runs against the same 57-point checklist, tuned over a decade of local check-outs to what the borough’s clerks actually flag.
Kitchen
The oven is worked rather than wiped: racks soaked apart, door glass split where the door design allows so the grease film between the panes comes out, interior, fan, element and seals all done.
- Hob rings and knobs off and washed
- Extractor hood degreased and its filter soaked or swapped
- Every cupboard inside and out, including the deep corner units the office-conversion kitchens often carry
- Fridge and freezer once defrosted, integrated units in the BTR towers given the same treatment as a free-standing one
- Appliances pulled forward so the gap behind and under the fridge, dishwasher and washing machine gets done, then put back exactly where they were
- Sink, taps, drainer and plughole descaled against the chalk
- Tiles and grout scrubbed, not wiped
- Floor lifted where it comes up, hoovered and mopped
Bathroom
- Toilet inside, under the rim, base, cistern, hinges and behind the pedestal
- Frameless shower screen both sides, the tracks and the runner where the scale sets first
- Bath or shower tray, taps, overflow and plughole
- Mirror and cabinet, and behind them where they pull away from the wall
- Extractor grille pulled and brushed clean
- Floor into the corners, behind the pan and under the basin
Bedrooms and living areas
- Inside every wardrobe, drawer and built-in cupboard
- Skirting, door frames, handles and finger plates
- Light fittings, switches and thermostats
- Window sills and frames on the inside; the original timber frames on the Old Town terraces need a slower pass than a tower’s aluminium units
- Radiators behind, under and along the top
- Walls spot-wiped for scuffs, with a fair line drawn, because a decorator’s bill is not a cleaner’s job
- Carpets vacuumed both directions then, where the wear shows, shampooed
- Hard floors washed with the product the surface actually needs
Then everything else:
- sockets, intercoms and entry panels working and wiped
- internal doors both sides
- stairs and bannisters where the property has them
- cobwebs out of the ceiling corners
- a final photographed walk-through, room by room, before we hand back the keys
What it costs in Croydon town centre, tier by tier
The whole-property prices are fixed by bedroom count, kit included, with no separate charge for a booked service-lift slot.
| Property | Typical duration | Estimated cost |
|---|---|---|
| Studio flat (Apollo House, Lunar House, Saffron Square) | 3-4 hours, 1 cleaner | From £156 |
| 1-bed flat (Ten Degrees, Morello, Leon House) | 4-5 hours, 2 cleaners | From £207 |
| 2-bed flat or office-conversion apartment | 5-7 hours, 2 cleaners | From £243 |
| 3-bed Old Town terrace conversion | 6-8 hours, 2 cleaners | From £339 |
| 4-bed house (Lansdowne Road, Sydenham Road) | 8-10 hours, 2-3 cleaners | From £425 |
| By-the-hour, part job or short-let return | As booked | £30 per cleaner |
Run the numbers: a one-bed at £207 against an average CR0 1 deposit north of £1,700 is not really a close call. Most tenants only run them after a first check-out has already gone wrong.
Every booking carries the same guarantee regardless of which of the three property types it is. Monster Cleaning Ltd has been doing this since 2014, and we are on the books of 300+ letting agents across Croydon and the wider patch.
The 48-hour re-clean guarantee sits behind every figure above it. If the clerk flags anything inside 48 hours of us finishing, we come back and put it right at no extra charge, provided the flat is still empty and nobody has moved in.
Booking round a service lift and a flyover
- Ring 0333 555 2076. Tell us the postcode, the property type (tower, office conversion or terrace), the bedroom count and the check-out date.
- We confirm a fixed price on the call. Carpet or oven add-ons, service-lift booking, concierge handover or a key safe on an Old Town terrace all get sorted at the same time.
- Flat empty when we arrive. Furniture and personal belongings out, because a single piece left behind slows the whole job down and blurs the photo evidence.
- Photo proof at the end. Every room, before and after, sent with an itemised invoice for your deposit file.
- Anything flagged inside 48 hours, we come back and fix it free.
One practical note on access, and it depends on where you are:
- Saffron Square, Ten Degrees or Morello
- Tell us the service-lift slot when you book, because the concierge desk controls it and a crew turning up without one waits in the lobby instead of working.
- The Old Town side, near Surrey Street or Church Street
- Tell us how the tram and the Flyover traffic affect access on your street, because loading restrictions run for most of the working day there.
What people confuse with an end-of-tenancy clean
Three different jobs get muddled at this point, and it is worth booking the right one.
- Check-in inventory report
- The document a clerk writes on day one, describing every surface, usually with photographs. Your check-out is measured against it, which is why we clean to that standard rather than to a general idea of clean.
- End-of-tenancy clean
- Built to pass that inventory and get a deposit back, with the flat empty and the 48-hour guarantee attached, from £156 for a studio.
- Deep clean
- Resets a home you are keeping rather than leaving, with no letting-agent benchmark to hit, priced from £186: £26 per cleaner per hour for two cleaners and at least three hours, plus £30 for kit.
- Regular domestic clean
- Ongoing maintenance on a home you live in, from £23 an hour weekly or £24 fortnightly.
A Croydon move-out often pulls in more than the core clean.
- Carpet cleaning is the common add-on, particularly in the Old Town terraces where a shampoo clause is often written into the tenancy.
- Oven cleaning is an add-on to any end-of-tenancy job, from £31, and also stands alone, from £77, if that is the only thing flagged.
- Upholstery cleaning covers furnished lets.
- Window cleaning covers exterior glass on a tower flat.
- Floor cleaning covers specialist floor surfaces.
- Removals can be booked alongside the clean itself if the move and the check-out are happening on the same day.
Ring the office and we will tell you which of those actually apply to your flat.
Questions we get asked
What does an end of tenancy clean cost in Croydon town centre?
Fixed prices, not hourly guesswork. A studio is £156, a one-bed £207, a two-bed £243, a three-bed £339 and a four-bed £425. Carpet and oven add-ons are priced on top, and the 57-point checklist and 48-hour re-clean guarantee are included at every tier.
Do I need to be there on the day?
No. Most town-centre clients drop a key with the concierge in Saffron Square, Ten Degrees or Morello, or leave a key safe code for an Old Town terrace. We send a written report and photographs by email once the job is finished.
Are you insured, and who are you exactly?
Yes, with public liability cover. We are Monster Cleaning Ltd, trading since 2014. Email office@monstercleaning.com if you want the certificate sent ahead of the job.
How long before check-out should I book?
Two to four days’ notice is usually enough, but end-of-month check-outs bunch up across the town centre and those slots go first. If your move-out lands in the last few days of the month, ring a week ahead if you can.
Does the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 change anything for a Croydon move-out?
From 1 May 2026, Section 21 evictions are gone and existing tenancies run as periodic ones with two months’ notice available at any point. The cleaning standard you are checked against has not changed at all.
Is carpet cleaning compulsory in my tenancy?
Often, particularly in the Old Town terraces, where a professional hot-water extraction clause with a receipt is common. Check your agreement. If the clause is there and you skip it, the deduction is close to automatic.
What happens if the water hardness has already damaged fittings?
Fair wear against a landlord’s ageing fittings is not chargeable, but a scaled-up shower screen or tap that simply was not cleaned is. We soak and descale properly rather than spray and wipe, which is usually the difference between a pass and a flagged item.
Does the property need to be completely empty?
Fully empty is strongly preferred. Furniture left behind blocks access and makes the photo evidence incomplete. One piece for the next tenant can be worked around; more than that and the clean cannot be as thorough.
Will the new selective licensing scheme affect my check-out?
Not directly. It commenced on 25 September 2026 and covers 14 wards including Fairfield, requiring landlords to hold an £800 licence. It changes what your landlord must show the council, not what the check-out clean has to look like.
Do you work in the office-conversion blocks like Apollo House and Leon House?
Yes. Apollo House, Lunar House and Leon House are all on our regular rota, and we know the fob and concierge-log checks that catch tenants out in those buildings before the kitchen even gets inspected.
What if my landlord disputes the clean after a re-clean?
Escalate to the deposit scheme adjudication, mydeposits.co.uk or the equivalent scheme your deposit sits in. Our invoice, dated photo report and re-clean record are admissible evidence, and a complete paper trail rarely loses.
Can you book a service-lift slot in a tower?
Yes. Saffron Square, Ten Degrees and Morello all run service-lift booking through the concierge desk. Tell us your slot when you book, or we will call the concierge for you if it has not been arranged yet.
Do you cover the Old Town and the terraces around Surrey Street?
Yes, the whole stretch: Surrey Street, Church Street, Cromwell Road and the Lansdowne Road and Sydenham Road terraces on the eastern edge. The work is slower than a tower studio because of the original joinery, but the price band is the same.
How does parking and access work with the tram running through the centre?
George Street and Church Street carry tram, bus and pedestrian traffic for most of the day, so loading is restricted on the busiest stretches. Tell us your street when you book and we plan the crew’s access around the tram timetable rather than against it.