The rented homes of St Albans
A lot of what is let in St Albans is Victorian and Edwardian brick housing between the old centre and the Thameslink station, and plenty of the people renting it work in London. We clean them at the end of a tenancy for a fixed price set by bedrooms: £176 for a studio, £263 for a two-bed and £359 for a three-bed house.
Last updated October 2026.
Renting is a smaller share of the market here than in London. At the 2021 census 16.3% of households in the St Albans district rented privately, against 13.6% in 2011. Rents, though, are London-level.
The ONS put the average at £1,931 a month in August 2026, half as much again as the £1,289 average for the East of England, with a one-bed flat at £1,271 and a detached house at £2,667. Under the Tenant Fees Act a deposit can be up to five weeks’ rent, so on an average St Albans let there is more than £2,200 riding on the check-out.
The station is why. St Albans City is on the Thameslink line into St Pancras, about 32km away, and it counted 6.669 million entries and exits in 2024/25. Some of the late Victorian suburbs on the edge of the old city were built for the same reason, for people travelling to work in London.
Bernards Heath and the hilltop cottages
Bernards Heath lies north of the city centre, between Sandridge Road and Sandpit Lane. It was once common land on the top of the hill the city is built on. Around 1880 Earl Spencer began selling off the land of Heath Farm, roads were cut, and speculative builders put up terraces of narrow-fronted workmen’s cottages; the first were lived in by 1882, and the area was nicknamed Sandridge New Town.
Boundary Road took its name from the new city boundary that ran just to the south of it. In 1991 the St Albans conservation area was extended to take in these streets: Boundary Road, Culver Road, Heath Road, Upper Heath Road, Warwick Road, Walton Street and Upper Culver Road.
The council describes them as red brick terraces, densely plotted, with narrow frontages and almost no front gardens. For the cleaner that means small rooms with a lot of edges, and front doors a step from the pavement, so the hall floor takes the street dirt. A two-bed cottage is a two-bed at £263, however small the rooms are.
The larger Victorian and Edwardian houses elsewhere in the city are a bigger job. Tall ceilings, picture rails, cornicing, cellar rooms and original tiled halls all take time, and a four-bed there is a full day for a team.
Front doors open straight onto the pavement, so the hall floor takes the street dirt.
St Albans end of tenancy prices
One fixed price per home, by bedrooms, wherever it is in St Albans:
| Property | Price |
|---|---|
| Studio | £176 |
| One-bedroom flat | £227 |
| Two-bedroom flat or cottage | £263 |
| Three-bedroom house | £359 |
| Four-bedroom house | £445 |
| Part job or unusual layout | £30 per cleaner per hour |
Five bedrooms and over are quoted from the room count. The price is for an empty home in normal end-of-tenancy condition, with the full checklist and descaling included.
The oven is not in that price. Added to the clean it costs £31 for a single or a single wide oven, and £62 for a double or a 90cm range cooker. Our oven cleaning in St Albans page covers the oven on its own.
Carpets added to the clean are £29 a bedroom, £36 a living room, £47 a through lounge, £35 a flight of stairs, £20 a hallway and £8 a landing. For carpets without the clean, see carpet cleaning St Albans.
The price calculator at the top of the page gives your figure in a few seconds, or ring 0333 555 2076 between 8am and 7pm, seven days a week.
Chalk water and the checklist
St Albans water comes from Affinity Water and is classed as hard, as is usual where supplies come from chalk. Scale builds quickly on taps, shower screens, tiles and the toilet pan, and on a check-out report it reads as a dirty bathroom. Every St Albans clean includes descaling.
The cleaners are vetted (interviewed in person), insured and trained on our 57-point checklist:
- Kitchen: inside and outside every cupboard and drawer, worktops, hob, extractor and filter, tiles, sink and taps, fridge and freezer, washing machine drawer and door seal, and behind the cooker if it slides out.
- Bathroom: limescale off the taps, shower head, screen and tiles, grout, bath, basin, toilet and fan.
- Every room: skirting, picture rails, doors and frames, radiators, switches and sockets, window sills and inside glass, wardrobes inside, floors vacuumed and mopped.
Monster Cleaning has been going since 2014 and works across London, Liverpool, Manchester and the counties around them, St Albans included. More than 300 letting agents work with us, tenants have recovered £1.2m in deposits after our cleans, and we hold 4.7 on Google.
Deposit rules and licensing in St Albans
Your landlord must protect the deposit in a government-approved scheme, and at the end of the let they can only deduct for damage or for leaving the home less clean than it was at check-in, allowing for fair wear and tear.
If you disagree with a deduction, the scheme’s free dispute service decides it on the evidence, and the check-in and check-out reports are the main evidence. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 stops a landlord making a professional clean a condition of the tenancy. What counts is the inventory.
St Albans City and District Council runs only the national mandatory licensing for HMOs: a shared house with five or more people needs a licence, and there is no selective or additional licensing scheme in the district. In a smaller shared house the usual end-of-tenancy arrangement is that each tenant cleans their own room and the last one out does the kitchen and bathroom.
If something is flagged after we have been, tell us within 48 hours of the clean and we will send a cleaner back to do it again for free.
Parking permits and booking a date
Streets around the city centre and the station are in the council’s controlled parking zones, which use virtual visitor permits. If you live in a zone and have visitor permits, one all-day session for the cleaners’ van saves us paying for parking. If we do have to pay, the cost goes on your quote at what we pay.
When booking, give us the postcode, bedrooms, the floor, the date the keys go back and any oven or carpets. The home should be empty, with the power and hot water on. Fixed-date leavers fill the end of each month, so book a week or two ahead if you can.
We cover the rest of the county from our end of tenancy cleaning Hertfordshire page. Staying put and want a regular cleaner? See domestic cleaning in St Albans, from £69 for a 3-hour visit.
St Albans tenants ask
Do you clean the terraced cottages in Bernards Heath?
Yes, often. They are priced by bedrooms, so a two-bed cottage on Boundary Road or Culver Road is £263. Tell us about any loft room or cellar.
My let is in a St Albans conservation area. Does that change anything for the clean?
No. Conservation area rules are about the outside of the building. The clean is judged against your inventory like any other let, though period details such as picture rails and cornicing are on our checklist.
I commute to London and can’t be there on the day. Is that a problem?
No, you do not need to be there. Tell us how the cleaners get in and where to leave the keys afterwards.
Will the hard water add to the price?
No. Descaling the bathroom, taps and kitchen sink is part of every St Albans clean.
Can my landlord insist on a professional clean?
Not as a condition of the tenancy. You must hand the home back as clean as it was at the start, allowing for fair wear and tear, and the deposit scheme settles any dispute on the reports.