Gillingham North ward sits squarely inside Medway Council’s 2025 Article 4 Direction, which means a small HMO conversion of a Britton Street terrace now needs full planning approval rather than the old permitted development right.
Monster Cleaning has been doing end of tenancy work on this side of the railway since 2014, on the late-Victorian terraced houses around Britton Street, Skinner Street and Park Avenue, the post-war LCC-style mid-rise blocks on the Hempstead Road fringe, and the modern infill behind Gillingham station. We cover ME7 north of the High Street in full. Phone 0333 555 2076 or email office@monstercleaning.com. One-bed split flat from £227.
Quick answer: end of tenancy cleaning in Gillingham North starts at £176 for a studio and £227 for a one-bed, fixed price, with the 48-hour re-clean guarantee and the 57-point agent-approved checklist included as standard.
Last updated April 2026. We cover ME7 1 north of the High Street, including the railway station fringe, Britton Street, Skinner Street, Park Avenue, and the Hempstead Road post-war blocks. The full Kent end of tenancy hub lists every Medway and Kent town we book.
We are a small London-headquartered firm running Medway routes since 2014. Two to four cleaners per job, all kit carried in, fixed price not hourly, work checked against a 57-point agent-approved checklist. The hard-water descaling step matters here more than in our London patch. So does the bathroom condensation, because Gillingham North inventory clerks have learned to read the underside of the window frame on those upper-floor splits.
Why Gillingham North deposits get deducted
Average private rent across Medway hit £1,234 a month in January 2026, up 6.0% on a year earlier, against a South East average of 3.6% (ONS Private Rent and House Prices, January 2026). One-bed rents climbed harder than the headline. The arithmetic of the deposit follows the rent.
Section 21 no-fault evictions were abolished a week ago under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and saw its headline reforms commence on 1 May 2026; rolling periodic tenancies have replaced the old fixed-term assured shorthold, so the deposit-return route is now the cleanest exit for a tenant moving on, and the inventory walk has got more thorough as a result.
Gillingham North housing stock is unusual for Medway because three eras sit on top of each other within a quarter mile of the railway station. The dominant archetype is the late-Victorian and Edwardian terraced house.
Britton Street, Skinner Street, Park Avenue, Marlborough Road, Saxton Street and the streets between Canterbury Street and the cutting are mostly two- and three-storey bay-fronted terraces from the 1880s to the 1910s, often split into upper and ground-floor flats during the 1970s and 80s. Many of these splits keep the original timber-frame windows, the single-glazed back kitchen, the picture rail along the through-room, and the wooden staircase up to a bathroom retrofitted into a former bedroom.
The second archetype is the post-war LCC-style mid-rise: low blocks of 1950s and 1960s flats sitting along the Hempstead Road fringe, single-glazed, communal stair access, walk-up to the third or fourth floor. The third is modern infill near the station, 2010-onward one- and two-bed apartments above the Canterbury Street parade. Each archetype hides a different failure mode.
Then there is the water. South East Water serves ME7 from the same chalk aquifers that run under Chatham, putting hardness in this town between 249 and 283 milligrams of calcium carbonate per litre, classified hard to very hard (South East Water hardness data).
At handover that means every chrome shower head, kettle, mixer tap base and washing-machine drawer carries a chalky film within a fortnight. We use a measured weak-acid soak with proper dwell time on every job, then a buff and a polish, and the products come with us.
Medway Council Article 4 and selective licensing
Medway Council made an Article 4 Direction in 2025 covering seven wards, and Gillingham North is one of them, alongside Gillingham South, Strood North and Frindsbury, Luton, Watling, Fort Pitt, and Chatham Central and Brompton.
The direction strips the permitted development right that let landlords convert a family house into a small HMO without planning permission; new house-shares now need full planning approval (Medway Council private rented sector licensing). A separate selective licensing consultation closed on 31 May 2026 and proposes that all private rentals across those wards must hold a council licence to be let.
For an end of tenancy job that means: if you are moving out of an HMO room or house-share on Skinner Street or Park Avenue, the licence holder has standing to deduct for shared-area condition. Stairwells, the communal hallway, shared bathrooms, bin stores, even the old front-door tile path get walked separately by the clerk. We price HMO common parts as standard rooms, no premium added.
The Britton Street upper-floor split and the local agent network
The dominant rental product north of the High Street is the upper-floor split flat in a Victorian terrace. Wards on the High Street, Mann on Canterbury Street, Your Move, Kent Residential and Medway Premier Homes between them manage most of the Britton Street, Skinner Street and Park Avenue stock, plus the post-war blocks on Hempstead Road and a portion of the modern infill near the station.
They use a small pool of inventory clerks who walk these flats in roughly the same order each time: front door and letter-box flap first (because the corridor below belongs to the freeholder), then up the staircase to the kitchen, then the bathroom, then the bedrooms, then the through-lounge, then back down.
The deduction lines repeat. Kitchen extractor over the gas hob. Bathroom window mould. Bay window underside in the front lounge. Tile grout in the back kitchen splashback. Picture rail dust line in the through-lounge.
Inspection deposits across Medway
If your deposit is held in a UK scheme, you can request free adjudication when a deduction is disputed. The three approved schemes are Tenancy Deposit Scheme, mydeposits, and the Deposit Protection Service.
The clean has to be photographed at handover for the dispute to be winnable, which is why we email a written check-out report with timestamped photos. For wider tenancy advice that goes beyond the clean itself, Shelter’s renting helpline is the first stop.
Streets and inspection patterns across Gillingham North
End of tenancy cleaning
from £176
For a studio, fixed by property size, agreed before we start.
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The streets and zones we book most often, in rough order of frequency:
- Britton Street and the Saxton Street side – 1880s and 1890s bay-fronted terraces, mostly two-storey, many split into upper and ground flats, original sash windows kept on the upper floors, single-glazed back kitchens overlooking small yards
- Park Avenue and Marlborough Road – early-1900s terraces, a sizeable run now in HMO use after the Article 4 Direction
- Skinner Street and the railway-cutting fringe – older two-up-two-down terraces from the late 1880s, a band of 1970s infill where war damage was filled in
- Hempstead Road post-war fringe – 1950s and 1960s LCC-style mid-rise blocks along the railway side, single-glazed older blocks, walk-up access, communal bin stores at ground level
- Modern infill behind the station – 2010-onward one and two-bed apartments above the Canterbury Street parade and the low-rise pockets either side of the platform approach
- Saxton Street, Wellesley Road and Stafford Street – mostly 1890s terraces with the through-lounge layout intact, smaller two-up-two-down stock east of the High Street
What inventory clerks tend to flag in those streets, in the order they cost us callouts. On a Britton Street upper-floor split flat the kitchen extractor over the gas hob is the most common single failure, with the bathroom window mould patch a close second. On Park Avenue terraces the bay window underside and the picture rail dust line in the through-room cost more callouts than anything else.
On the Hempstead Road post-war blocks the inside of your front door, the letter-box flap and the hallway just inside the door get walked by the clerk. On the modern infill above the shops the integrated dishwasher filter and the balcony slider runner are the standout failure points.
Different stock, different inspection lines. Same checklist; we adjust which steps get extra time on the day.
What is included in our Gillingham North end of tenancy clean
Kitchen
- Oven deep clean, racks soaked separately, inner door glass where possible (the line agents fail people on most often)
- Hob, gas or electric, including the bezel, trim and the side panel that gets splashed
- Extractor housing pulled off the wall on the upper-floor split flats where the unit is fitted over a gas hob, baffle filter degreased in the sink, casing wiped inside, bulb checked
- Inside, outside, top, behind and underneath every cupboard and drawer
- Fridge and freezer fully defrosted, washed inside and out, seals scrubbed
- Integrated dishwasher filter pulled, salt reservoir checked, body wiped (the modern infill has these)
- Washing machine drawer and door seal, the gasket where Medway water deposits a grey mark
- Sink, taps, waste, plug strainer descaled with a measured weak-acid soak
- Tile grout brushed, splashback polished, behind the kettle wiped
- Inside of all windows including the original upper-floor sash windows on Britton Street and Park Avenue terraces where the cords still work
- Floor mopped last, after dust settles, finished dry
Bathrooms
- Bath, shower tray, screen and tiles, with an acid descale on the shower head, screen runner, tap base, rinsed twice
- WC bowl, rim, hinge, base, behind, including the floor under the cistern
- Sink, taps, plug, overflow; chromework polished separately after descale
- Mirror, cabinet, shaver socket, extractor grille (a dust load that looks brown when you take it down)
- Bathroom window frame and the underside of the sash where condensation has pooled in winter and a black mould bloom has formed; a dedicated mould treatment, then a polish
- Towel rail and the radiator behind it; floor mopped, edges done by hand
Bedrooms and living areas
- Wardrobes inside and out, drawer runners, rails wiped
- Skirtings, picture rails, dado where present (the older Britton Street and Park Avenue terraces have them; the post-war Hempstead Road blocks generally do not)
- Window sills, frames and locks; bay window undersides on the front lounge of older terraces
- Carpet vacuumed in two directions; spot-treat marks (full carpet shampoo is an add-on)
- Hard floors mopped, edges hand-wiped (the modern infill behind the station has a lot of these)
- Switches, sockets, thermostat, doorbell button
- Internal doors both sides, hinges, handles, the flat upper edge nobody dusts
- Behind beds, sofas, freestanding furniture; mirrors and dust-ledge surfaces
Throughout
- All internal doors, frames, architraves, including the door tops
- Stairs, banister, spindles, under-stair cupboard – the wooden staircase up to the upper-floor split on Britton Street is on every clerk’s path
- Hallway and landing skirtings; loft hatch where reachable
- Front door and letter box flap on Hempstead Road post-war blocks
- Final walk-through with a torch in low light to catch what daylight hides
What it costs in Gillingham North
Pricing is fixed not hourly, with the 57-point checklist applied and the 48-hour re-clean guarantee included. No extra for upper-floor splits or post-war block walk-ups.
Studios start at £176. One-beds £227. Two-beds £263. Three-beds £359. Four-beds £445. Hourly bespoke runs at £30 per cleaner where a full end of tenancy is overkill (a top-up after a partial clean someone else has started, that kind of thing); a mid-tenancy reset is a deep clean, from £206, which covers two cleaners for at least three hours and the kit.
Add £29 per bedroom for carpet shampoo, £36 for the through-lounge of a Britton Street terrace, £94 for two bedrooms and a living room. Added to the clean a single oven is £31, and a double or a 90cm range cooker with the chrome trim treatment £62; booked standalone they are £97, £130 and £163. External upper-floor windows on the older Britton Street and Park Avenue stock get quoted on site because reach varies.
For comparison, the National Living Wage rose to £12.21 per hour in April 2025 and is moving to £12.71 from April 2026 (gov.uk minimum wage rates). Our £30 per hour bespoke rate covers two cleaners working in tandem with full kit, which is why it sits above a single-cleaner rate.
What your Gillingham North letting agent will actually check
The inspection list that drives most ME7 1 deposit deductions. Built from pass-fail patterns at Wards, Mann, Your Move, Kent Residential and Medway Premier Homes.
- Kitchen extractor over the gas hob: housing pulled, baffle filter degreased, casing wiped inside
- Oven interior: door glass clear both sides, side rails, top liner, fan grille
- Bathroom window frame and reveal: any mould bloom on the lower frame treated and polished
- Fridge seals and freezer: defrosted, drip tray empty, no residue under the salad drawer
- Bathroom sealant and grout: dedicated scale remover used, no grey line along the bath
- Shower screen and toilet: glass polished, runner descaled, rim descaled, behind the pan cleaned
- Window reveals and sills: dust line gone, original timber boxes brushed out where present
- Picture rails and cornice: dust line gone, both sides of the rail in 1890s through-lounges
- Bay window underside on the front lounge of older terraces
- Skirting boards and switches: top edge clean, no kitchen grease around the cooker switch
- Carpets and hard floors: vacuumed to the edge, mopped to skirting, no streak under window light
- Front door inside face and letter-box flap on Hempstead Road blocks
End of tenancy versus deep clean versus regular
| Service | When you need it | What you get | Price guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| End of tenancy | Moving out, deposit on the line | 57-point agent-approved checklist, 48-hour re-clean, agent-facing report on request | From £227 (1-bed) |
| Deep clean | Once-a-year reset, post-builders, post-illness, before parents visit | Top-to-bottom, similar coverage, no agent guarantee, no inventory framing | From £206, two cleaners for at least three hours, kit included |
| Regular weekly or fortnightly | Ongoing maintenance | Surface clean, kitchen and bathroom hit, hoover and mop floors, rotation tasks | From £23 per hour |
If you are not sure which one you need, ring the office. We will not push the higher-priced one if it isn’t right for the job.
Related services and neighbouring areas
Same teams, same patch, same vans. The most common add-ons:
- Standalone oven cleaning – the line item Gillingham North agents fail people on most often after the gas-hob extractor
- Carpet shampoo and stain treatment – useful on Britton Street terraces where the through-lounge wool carpet has absorbed years of dust off the picture rail
- Upholstery cleaning – landlord-supplied sofas in furnished Hempstead Road lets
- Hard floor restoration – engineered oak in the modern infill behind the station, original timber under the upper-floor splits on Park Avenue
- Window cleaning – external upper-floor reach on the older Britton Street and Saxton Street stock
Neighbouring towns and Gillingham wards we cover for end of tenancy:
- Gillingham end of tenancy – the wider town, focused on the High Street centre and Canterbury Street terraces
- Gillingham South end of tenancy – the Twydall and southern fringe with its different post-war housing stock
- Chatham end of tenancy – the wider Chatham town next door, Davis Estate, Walderslade, Luton
- Rochester end of tenancy – the cathedral city next along the river
- The full Kent end of tenancy hub with every town we cover
To date we have helped recover over £1.2m in deposits across our Kent and London books, working with 300+ letting agents. The 57-point checklist and the 48-hour re-clean guarantee are the headline numbers; the line that matters most to a tenant is the deposit cheque arriving on the Friday.
Frequently asked questions
How much does end of tenancy cleaning cost in Gillingham North?
From £176 for a studio, £227 for a one-bed split flat on Britton Street or above the Canterbury Street shops, £263 for a two-bed terrace or post-war flat, £359 for a three-bed terrace, and £445 for a four-bed. Carpet and double-oven add-ons are priced separately.
How long does the clean take?
A one-bed upper-floor split on Britton Street runs four to six hours with two cleaners. A two-bed Park Avenue terrace takes five to seven. A Hempstead Road two-bed flat with walk-up access usually runs five hours. Studios are a long morning. We work to the checklist, not to the clock.
Do you guarantee my deposit back?
We can’t guarantee the deposit because the inventory walks many lines we don’t touch (paint, wear and tear, the landlord’s furniture). What we guarantee is the cleaning side: if the inventory clerk flags any cleaning issue within 48 hours of our visit, we come back at no charge.
Are you insured?
Yes. Public liability cover. We are Monster Cleaning Ltd, trading since 2014. Insurance certificate available on request.
Do I need to be there?
No. Most of our Gillingham North clients drop a key with the letting agent on the High Street or use a key safe outside the front door. We send a written check-out report by email when we leave.
Do you bring all the cleaning products?
Yes. Everything from the weak-acid descalers we use on hard-water shower fittings to the dedicated mould treatment we use on bathroom window frames. You don’t need to leave anything behind.
Do you cover Britton Street upper-floor split flats?
Yes. The 1880s and 1890s bay-fronted terraces along Britton Street, Saxton Street and Wellesley Road that were split into upper and ground-floor flats in the 1970s and 80s are some of our most-booked addresses on this side of Gillingham. The kitchen extractor housing over the gas hob and the bathroom window frame are the two most common inspection failures, and we treat them both as standard.
Do you handle Hempstead Road post-war blocks with shared stairwells?
Yes. The shared stairwell isn’t usually your responsibility under the tenancy, so we don’t price it as part of the clean unless you ask. We do clean the inside of your front door, the letter-box flap, and the hallway just inside the door – clerks walk those.
What about hard water on chrome shower fittings?
Medway sits on chalk. Water hardness in ME7 is between 249 and 283 milligrams of calcium carbonate per litre, classified hard to very hard. Chrome shower heads, screen runners, mixer taps and kettle elements need a measured weak-acid soak with proper dwell time, then a polish. We carry all the kit. If your existing cleaner has been using a generic kitchen spray, the deposit will look chalky however hard they have scrubbed.
What about the bathroom window mould on the upper-floor splits?
That is one of the standout failure points on a Britton Street or Park Avenue upper-floor split flat. Winter condensation pools on the lower frame and a black mould bloom forms over a couple of seasons. We treat it with a dedicated mould remover, brush the seal and reveal, then polish. If the mould has gone deep into the timber the inventory clerk will call it landlord-side wear and tear, but most of what we see is surface bloom and lifts cleanly.
Does Medway Council’s Article 4 Direction apply to Gillingham North?
Yes. Gillingham North is one of the seven Medway wards covered by the 2025 Article 4 Direction, alongside Gillingham South, Strood North and Frindsbury, Luton, Watling, Fort Pitt, and Chatham Central and Brompton. The direction means new HMO conversions need full planning approval rather than the old permitted development right. The selective licensing consultation that closed on 31 May 2026 covered the same wards.
What’s the 48-hour re-clean guarantee?
If the letting agent or inventory clerk flags any cleaning issue within 48 hours of our visit, we send a team back at no extra charge. We have used it on roughly three jobs in every hundred since 2014.
How quickly can you book me in?
Usually 48 to 72 hours’ notice. Same-day is sometimes possible if a team is finishing a Chatham or Rochester job nearby; ring the office before 10am.
How do I tell Gillingham North apart from the wider Gillingham service area?
We run separate pages for the three Gillingham wards because the housing stock and the inspection patterns are different on each side. Gillingham North covers ME7 1 north of the High Street, the late-Victorian terraces around Britton Street, Park Avenue and Skinner Street, and the post-war Hempstead Road blocks. The wider Gillingham page covers the High Street centre and Canterbury Street terraces. Gillingham South covers Twydall and the southern fringe with its different post-war housing stock.
Ready to book?
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
Phone 0333 555 2076 or email office@monstercleaning.com. Tell us your move-out date, the postcode, and the bedroom count. We will come back with a fixed quote inside an hour during office hours. The 57-point agent-approved checklist and the 48-hour re-clean guarantee are included in the standard service. The only optional extras are carpet shampoo, double-oven, range cooker, and external upper-floor windows.
Monster Cleaning Ltd. Trading since 2014. HQ at 75 Shakespeare Avenue, Feltham, TW14 9HU. Customers rate us 4.7 out of 5 on Google. To date we have helped recover over £1.2m in deposits, working with 300+ letting agents across Kent and London.