End of tenancy cleaning in London, Liverpool and Manchester

End of tenancy cleaning is the one job where the standard is fixed before you ever pick up a sponge. The check-in inventory the agent filed on the day you moved in, photographs and all, sets it, and your deposit gets measured against that report when you leave. We have done this for thousands of London tenants since 2014, across every borough from Zone 1 out to Zone 6. Last year we helped tenants recover £1.2m in deposits that would otherwise have gone on cleaning deductions. The rate is £30 an hour per cleaner, kit and products included, two cleaners minimum on anything above a studio. Ring 0333 555 2076 for a price in about three minutes and a slot booked on the same call. The rest of this page is the detail, because on this job the detail is the whole point.

This is the London pillar for everything we do at the end of a tenancy. It covers how the inventory benchmark actually works, what the clean includes, what it costs, the legislation that changed on 1 May 2026, and a directory of every London borough we run teams into. Already know your borough? Jump to it below. If you are moving out beyond the M25, there is a pointer to the regional pages near the end.

Why a London deposit comes back short

Roughly one in three deposits has something deducted. The reason London landlords and agents cite most is insufficient cleanliness at check-out. The average London deposit now sits around £1,800 and keeps climbing. So a £243 clean on a 2-bed flat to protect £1,800 is plain maths. The part that catches people out is that the inventory check-out runs against you by default.

Here is the bit most tenants never hear. The check-in report you were sent when you moved in is the benchmark, and almost nobody reads it. Say that report logged the oven as clean and in good working order, with a photo of a spotless interior. At check-out the oven has to be back in that exact state. Your own idea of clean does not come into it, and neither does how it looked last week. The benchmark is the day-one photo, and that photo was almost certainly set by a professional clean the previous tenant or the agent paid for.

That leaves one reliable route, which is a clean of the same calibre. Doing it yourself is possible on paper. In ten-odd years of this across London I have seen maybe three DIY jobs pass inventory with nothing deducted. Most land between fifty quid off for the oven and three hundred off for the kitchen, bathroom and carpets. By then the tenant has already lost a weekend scrubbing, for a worse result than a deposit back. That is the sum that gets people on the phone.

How the clean actually works, and the 57 points behind it

An end-of-tenancy clean follows a checklist. Personal taste does not enter into it. Ours runs to 57 points across a standard two-bed, built over years of watching what London agents flag and what they let go. It is an agent-approved 57-point checklist that goes well past a tidy-up. The cleaner can walk you through the whole list at the start of the job if you want chapter and verse. If you would rather run it yourself first, the whole thing is free as a printable end of tenancy cleaning checklist. The summary is below, room by room, with the items that lose deposits called out where they sit.

A few terms get used loosely, so here is what they mean on this job.

Check-in inventory

The dated, photographed report the agent or an independent clerk produces on move-in day. It records the condition and cleanliness of every room and is the benchmark your check-out is judged against.

Deposit-protection scheme

By law your deposit is held in TDS, DPS or mydeposits. Each runs a free dispute-resolution service that weighs evidence from both sides if a deduction is contested.

End of tenancy versus deep clean

A deep clean resets a home you are keeping to live in, with no formal standard. An end-of-tenancy clean is benchmarked to the inventory and carries the 48-hour re-clean guarantee. A domestic clean is ongoing maintenance at a lower rate.

Hold-over

An option where the cleaners stay through the inventory inspection so anything flagged is fixed on the spot. Useful for strict agents and high-stakes check-outs.

Kitchen, where deposits are most often lost

The kitchen is where the most deposit money goes, so this is the longest part of the list.

• Oven stripped right down. Racks in a soaking tank, the door taken apart so the film between the glass panels is dealt with, interior, fan, element, seals. For what a standalone job looks like, see oven cleaning.
• Hob with every ring and burner lifted, grates scrubbed, control knobs off and washed.
• Extractor hood degreased inside and out, filter soaked and put back.
• Inside and outside of every cupboard, shelf edges and the kickboards along the bottom.
• Inside the fridge and freezer. Defrost first, please, because we cannot defrost a freezer as part of the clean.
• Behind and under the fridge, dishwasher and washing machine. Dragged out, cleaned, put back.
• Washing machine drum, the door seal where the black mould ring forms, and the detergent drawer pulled out and scrubbed. That seal is the single most-flagged item in London rentals.
• Dishwasher filter, seals and spray arms.
• Microwave inside, outside and underneath.
• Sink, taps, drainer and plughole descaled and polished.
• Tiles, splashback and grout, with a full grout scrub. A quick wipe will not pass.
• Bins emptied and washed inside and out.
• Floor lifted where possible, hoovered and mopped with the right product. Wood, tile, stone or vinyl that needs a specialist at check-out is covered under floor cleaning.

Bathrooms, the other deposit-killer

Bathrooms come a close second, almost always on limescale and grout.

• Limescale taken off taps, shower head, screen and tiles. London water is officially hard to very hard in every borough, and the day-one photos almost always show bright chrome your check-out has to match.
• Grout scrubbed back to white, or as close as it honestly comes. If it is past saving we photograph it and note it was not our doing.
• Toilet inside, under the rim, base, cistern, hinges and behind the pedestal.
• Shower screen on both sides, tracks and the sealant bead included.
• Bath, taps, the underside of the taps, overflow and plughole.
• Mirrors and cabinets, behind them where the fixing allows.
• Extractor fan vent wiped.
• Sealant checked. We will not re-sealant, but we clean it back to a usable state.
• Floor into the corners, behind the loo and under the basin pedestal.

Bedrooms and living areas

Less drama here. The bits that get missed are inside cupboards and behind radiators.

• Inside every wardrobe, drawer and built-in cupboard. Top, sides, floor and back.
• Skirting boards, door frames, doors, handles and finger plates.
• Light fittings, lampshades, ceiling roses and switches.
• Window sills, reveals and frames inside. If the inventory wants external glass too, add window cleaning.
• Radiators behind, underneath, on top, and vented where we can get to it.
• Walls spot-wiped for marks where the paint allows. Nail holes and scuffs that need filling and repainting are a decorator job, and the landlord will charge for that however clean the wall is.
• Carpet hoovered through, under beds and sofas, with rugs lifted. If your tenancy specifies professional hot-water extraction at check-out, which is very common in London, see carpet cleaning, booked on the same visit.
• Hard floors washed with a product matched to the material.
• Mirrors, internal glass and picture frames.
• Upholstery hoovered. Sofas used hard, by pets or over a long tenancy, may need professional upholstery cleaning.

Throughout

Then the things that run through the whole flat, regardless of room.

• Light switches, sockets, thermostats and intercom units.
• Internal doors both sides, handles and hinges.
• Stairs where there are any, spindles and bannisters included.
• Cobwebs out of every ceiling corner.
• A final walk-through with before-and-after photos for your records.

A word on what falls outside the base spec. Exterior glass sits with our window cleaning service as an add-on, and some London inventories ask for it by name. Carpet shampooing and deep upholstery work are extras too. We vacuum as standard; hot-water extraction is a separate carpet cleaning service that many London tenancies require with a receipt. We clean. We do not paint, repair or re-sealant. And we will not shift heavy furniture you have left behind, though if the place needs clearing first we also do removals and one booking covers both.

What it costs across London

The hourly rate is £30 per cleaner, inclusive of kit, products and travel inside our standard London area. The table below assumes a property in normal lived-in condition, which is what most rentals are at the end of a tenancy.

Properties in genuinely poor shape cost more, and we say so on the phone rather than spring it on the invoice. Student houses at the end of term in Mile End or Bethnal Green. Smokers’ flats. Pet-wrecked carpets. A kitchen where the oven has not been opened in two years. All of those run over the table. London-average end-of-tenancy cleaning was running £285 for a 2-bed on industry pricing data published in early 2026, so our from-£243 sits about 15% under that, and we still include the oven strip-down, the appliance pull-out and the guarantee.

That guarantee is the part worth reading twice. Every end-of-tenancy job carries a 48-hour re-clean guarantee. If the letting agent flags any cleanliness issue within 48 hours of the clean, we come back and redo it free, no arguing and no small print. You let us know inside 48 hours, the property is still in the state we left it, with nobody moved in, and we sort it. It is rarely needed. The first-time pass rate is around 97%. But the downside of a failed inventory is your deposit, so the safety net earns its place. We are on the books of 300+ letting agents and have helped tenants recover £1.2m in deposits that would otherwise have gone on cleaning deductions.

What the 1 May 2026 rules change

From 1 May 2026 the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is in force across England. Section 21 no-fault evictions are gone. Every existing assured shorthold tenancy becomes a periodic tenancy with no fixed end date, and tenants can give two months’ notice whenever they like.

For cleaning, the standard at check-out has not moved. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 still stops a landlord forcing you to pay for professional cleaning as a contract term, and the inventory-benchmark rule still applies, so the flat goes back to the standard recorded on move-in. What changes is the rhythm. Move-outs become more frequent and harder to predict, because people leave when it suits them rather than on a fixed contract date. Month-end was already the busy window. Book earlier than you would have a year ago, especially around the end of the month, and the new pattern will not catch you out.

The check-in report you were sent when you moved in is the benchmark, and almost nobody reads it.

Pick your borough

We run teams out of depots in south-west, east and north London and cover every borough inside the M25. Each borough page has its own pricing, the local letting agents we deal with, and the neighbourhoods we clean there. Pick yours from the list. Not sure which borough a postcode sits in? Ring 0333 555 2076 and we will tell you. The edges around Bermondsey and Southwark, Hammersmith and Fulham, and the Haringey and Harringay split trip people up constantly.

Central and west London

City of London (EC1-EC4), Westminster (W1, SW1, WC), Kensington & Chelsea (SW3, SW5, SW7, W8, W10, W11), Hammersmith & Fulham (W6, W12, W14, SW6), Camden (NW1, NW3, NW5, WC1), Islington (N1, N5, N7, EC1), Hounslow (TW3, TW4, TW5, TW7, W4), Ealing (W3, W5, W7, W13, UB1, UB6).

North London

Barnet (N2, N3, N11, N12, N20, NW4, NW7, EN4, EN5), Brent (NW2, NW6, NW9, NW10, HA0, HA9), Enfield (EN1, EN2, EN3, N9, N13, N14, N18, N21), Haringey (N4, N6, N8, N10, N15, N17, N22), Harrow (HA1, HA2, HA3, HA5, HA7, HA8), Hillingdon (UB3, UB7, UB8, UB9, UB10, UB11).

East London

Hackney (E2, E5, E8, E9, N1, N16), Tower Hamlets (E1, E2, E3, E14), Newham (E6, E7, E13, E15, E16), Waltham Forest (E4, E10, E11, E17), Redbridge (IG1, IG2, IG4, IG5, IG6, IG8), Havering (RM1, RM2, RM3, RM11, RM12, RM13, RM14), Barking & Dagenham (IG11, RM8, RM9, RM10).

South London

Wandsworth (SW11, SW12, SW15, SW17, SW18), Lambeth (SE11, SE24, SE27, SW2, SW4, SW8, SW9, SW16), Southwark (SE1, SE5, SE15, SE16, SE17, SE22), Lewisham (SE4, SE6, SE8, SE12, SE13, SE14, SE23, SE26), Greenwich (SE3, SE7, SE9, SE10, SE18), Bexley (DA1, DA5, DA6, DA7, DA8, DA14, DA15, DA16, DA17), Bromley (BR1, BR2, BR3, BR4, BR5, BR6, BR7, BR8), Croydon (CR0, CR2, CR3, CR4, CR5, CR7, CR8), Sutton (SM1, SM2, SM3, SM4, SM5, SM6, SM7), Merton (SW19, SW20, CR4, SM4), Kingston upon Thames (KT1, KT2, KT3, KT5, KT6, KT9), Richmond upon Thames (TW1, TW2, TW9, TW10, TW11, TW12, KT1, KT2).

What the inventory clerk opens first

After a decade of these, inventory clerks fall into three rough types. Most are reasonable professionals doing a careful visual check, opening cupboards, looking behind things, photographing anything that looks off. A few are overzealous and will find something whatever you do, so the aim there is to keep the flags minor and stop them adding up. A small number are in a hurry and will tick the box if the place smells clean and the oven looks right. You do not get to know which one is coming.

The items that get flagged most, in roughly the order we see them on London check-out reports, are these. The oven first, every time; interior, glass, seals and racks, and if it is not right a deduction is close to automatic, which is why we take it apart. Then the washing machine door seal and detergent drawer, that black mould ring nobody who has lived with it for two years can still see. The fridge seal and drip tray go the same way, build-up so slow it is invisible. Limescale on taps and shower heads next, because London water is hard to very hard in every borough and the calcium comes back fast. Then grout, bathroom and kitchen, where white against grey is often the line between a pass and a £150 deduction. Extractor filters after that, pulled and degreased. Behind the big appliances. Skirting and radiator tops, where dust settles and turns sticky. Carpets, for stains but also compression and embedded grit, and frequently an explicit contract requirement for professional extraction in London, covered under carpet cleaning. Walls and ceilings last, for marks, smoke and damp, which cleaning fixes only where it is surface and not structural.

We prioritise all of it, and we keep a dated photo of every item at completion, so anything flagged unfairly has a visual record to push back with.

I’d honestly braced myself to lose most of the £1,600.

One from Bow, E3, this February. “I’d honestly braced myself to lose most of the £1,600. Two years in a rental with two cats and a husband who cooks nothing but curry. Monster Cleaning did the place over a Sunday, eight hours, two cleaners, carpets added on top, and sent me a full photo report afterwards. The check-out the next day came back with nothing flagged. Nothing. The agent said it was the cleanest check-out they’d had that month. Deposit back in full, eleven days later.” That is Tom, and it is the outcome the whole checklist is built to produce.

Add-ons that travel with a move-out

A move-out is rarely just the clean. These slot onto the same booking, and most are cheaper bundled than booked apart.

• Carpet cleaning. Many London tenancies require professional carpet cleaning with a receipt. If yours does and you skip it, the deduction is near-automatic, so it makes sense on the same visit.
• Oven cleaning. Already standard in our end-of-tenancy clean, but if the oven is the only thing your agent has flagged in advance, which happens more than you would think, an oven-only spec runs from £77.
• Removals. We move people too. Coordinate the move and the clean on one day and a single booking covers both; van out in the morning, cleaners in the afternoon, keys back by evening.
• Upholstery cleaning. If the tenancy came furnished and the sofas have had a hard life, especially with pets, professional upholstery cleaning may be required.
• Window cleaning. Inside glass is included. If the inventory asks for the outside, add it.
• Floor cleaning. Specialist hard-floor work for wood, stone, tile, vinyl, LVT and Victorian encaustic. Some inventories call for professional floor restoration at check-out.

Moving out beyond London

London is the core of what we do, with full coverage on our End of Tenancy Cleaning London page. The same spec and the same guarantee run in two other big metropolitan areas, with locally-run teams.

• End of Tenancy Cleaning Liverpool, covering Greater Liverpool and the surrounding Merseyside postcodes.
• End of Tenancy Cleaning Manchester, Greater Manchester, central and outlying districts.

For the commuter belt around London we also run teams into the Home Counties: End of Tenancy Cleaning Surrey, End of Tenancy Cleaning Kent, End of Tenancy Cleaning Essex, End of Tenancy Cleaning Hertfordshire, End of Tenancy Cleaning Berkshire and End of Tenancy Cleaning Buckinghamshire.

Booking it without a month-end scramble

Ring 0333 555 2076 as early as you can. Month-end is the crush right across London, because nearly every rental in the city changes hands on the last or the first day of the month. For an end-of-month move-out, book 7 to 10 days ahead if you possibly can. Mid-month, 3 to 5 days is usually fine. From May 2026 expect that pattern to get spikier as the Renters’ Rights Act settles in and people gain the freedom to leave at any point.

Tell us the property size, the check-out date, the borough and any known problem areas, and we quote on the phone. If you have the check-in report to hand, mention anything logged as new or as good as new, because that tells us where the benchmark is high. We book in for the day before check-out where we can, with a buffer, rather than the morning of, because a blocked drain or a fridge that will not defrost needs slack to fix. The property should be empty when we arrive, furniture out and rubbish gone, since we cannot clean under a bed that is still there. If the removals run late, ring and we will reschedule rather than do half a job; we also do removals if you want both in one booking. At the end you get photographic proof of every room, before and after, and an itemised invoice on company-headed paper, which is your evidence pack if the check-out tries to deduct. If anything is flagged within 48 hours, we are back to fix it, free.

Questions tenants ask

Do I really need professional end-of-tenancy cleaning in London, or can I do it myself?

You are allowed to do it yourself. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 stops a landlord making professional cleaning a contract condition. The snag is the benchmark. Your deposit is judged against the standard recorded in the check-in inventory, and in London that standard was almost always set by a professional clean. Matching it without professional kit and a proper checklist is hard. Most tenants who try end up with deductions that cost more than the clean would have.

Does the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 change anything for end-of-tenancy cleaning?

From 1 May 2026, Section 21 no-fault evictions are abolished and every existing assured shorthold tenancy in England becomes a periodic tenancy. Tenants can give two months’ notice at any time. The cleaning duty at the end of a tenancy does not change. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 still limits what a landlord can demand, and the property still has to come back to the standard recorded on move-in. The real effect is more frequent, less predictable move-outs, so book as early as you can around month-end.

How long before check-out should I book?

For end-of-month check-outs, meaning the last three days of the month, book 7 to 10 days ahead. For mid-month dates, 3 to 5 days is usually enough. Weekends fill faster than weekdays. Last-minute slots do come up, so if you are reading this 24 hours before your check-out, ring anyway and we will tell you honestly whether we can do it properly.

Is the 48-hour re-clean guarantee genuinely free?

Yes. If the letting agent flags any cleanliness issue within 48 hours of the clean, we come back and redo it at no charge. You need to tell us inside the 48-hour window, and the property has to be in the state we left it, with nobody moved in and using the kitchen. We have offered this since 2014 and never regretted it. Our first-time pass rate is around 97%, so the safety net is rarely needed, but it matters that it exists.

What if my London landlord disputes the clean even after you have come back?

If you have used us and the re-clean and the landlord still pushes for a deduction, you can escalate to the deposit-protection scheme’s dispute resolution, run by TDS, DPS or mydeposits depending on which holds your money. Our invoice, the dated before-and-after photos and the re-clean record are all admissible evidence. We have given statements for adjudications when asked. Tenants with a full professional-clean paper trail rarely lose these.

Does the property need to be empty for an end-of-tenancy clean?

Yes, fully empty is strongly preferred. Every item of furniture left behind is a surface we cannot fully reach, and every box is a question of what is clean underneath it at the check-out. If a single piece is being left for the next tenant we can often work around it, but the more that stays in the flat, the less complete the clean.

Is carpet cleaning always necessary at end of tenancy in London?

Not always, but often. Many London tenancy agreements include a clause requiring professional carpet cleaning with a receipt. Where the clause exists and is not met, a deduction is near-automatic. Even without it, carpets with visible compression, staining or odour are worth professional hot-water extraction at check-out. Read your contract, then see carpet cleaning for the detail.

Can the cleaners be there during the inventory inspection?

Yes, if you want. Most tenants book the clean for the day before check-out and the inventory clerk for the morning after. Some ask for what we call a hold-over, where we stay through the inspection so anything flagged can be sorted on the spot. That adds an hour or two at the standard rate and is worth it for high-stakes check-outs with a strict agent.

What happens if the oven or appliances are broken?

We clean them. We do not fix them. If the oven was already broken or the fridge has a failing seal, cleaning will not restore the function and the landlord can still reasonably deduct for the repair. We photograph the condition before and after so the line between dirt and damage is clear in any dispute.

How do you handle bathroom mould?

Surface mould we treat with specialist products and reduce a long way. Mould that has gone into the sealant, the paintwork or the structure is not a cleaning problem, it is a ventilation or damp problem, and it is legitimately the landlord’s to resolve under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. If the mould is structural we document it in the photos so you have evidence it predates the clean.

Does Monster Cleaning work with specific London letting agents?

Yes. We are on the books of 300+ letting agents across London, including Foxtons, Dexters, Hamptons, Winkworth, Knight Frank, Savills, Chestertons, Marsh & Parsons, Douglas & Gordon, Felicity J Lord, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, Benham & Reeves and a long list of independents. If your agent has particular requirements we will know them, and if they are strict on certain items we brief the cleaners accordingly.

What areas of London do you cover?

All 32 London boroughs, Zones 1 to 6 and most of the M25 catchment. Pick your borough from the directory above for local pricing and the neighbourhoods we clean. We also cover Greater Liverpool, Greater Manchester and the Home Counties of Surrey, Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Ring 0333 555 2076 with your postcode to confirm.

Get a price

Call 0333 555 2076 and we price the job on the phone in about three minutes. Property size, check-out date, borough and any known problem areas, that is the lot. Out of hours, send us a message and someone calls you back first thing. A couple of WhatsApp photos of the kitchen and bathroom sharpen the quote, which helps most on the larger houses. And if your check-out is tomorrow, ring anyway, and we will do everything we can.