Uncategorized - by Northfields Clean - August 26, 2026

I run Northfields Clean, a cleaning company based in west London, and if there’s one job that separates the cleaners who know what they’re doing from the ones who don’t, it’s end of tenancy cleaning. I spend most of my week hiring cleaners, vetting them, training them, and figuring out whether they’re actually capable of doing this job properly. So when people ask me what “professional end of tenancy cleaning” actually includes, I’ve got a pretty clear answer, built from doing this over and over again.

This isn’t a generic checklist pulled from somewhere else. It’s what we actually do, what we don’t do, and why.

End of Tenancy Cleaning Is Just a Deep Clean With a Purpose

Here’s something that surprises people: we don’t really treat “end of tenancy cleaning” as a separate category of clean. In our world, a deep clean is the catch-all term for any clean that goes beyond a standard maintenance clean, and by definition, an end of tenancy clean is a deep clean. So any cleaner on our team who’s trusted with end of tenancy jobs is a cleaner who’s already proven they can do deep cleans properly.

The difference is really about purpose. A standard clean keeps a home looking good week to week. An end of tenancy clean has one job: get the property to a standard where the tenant gets their deposit back and the next tenant can move in without finding someone else’s mess.

The Kitchen Is Where Deposits Are Won or Lost

If I had to point to one room that makes or breaks an end of tenancy clean, it’s the kitchen. There are just so many separate parts to it, and most of the important ones aren’t visible at a glance.

We always make sure to cover:

Inside the oven
Inside the fridge and freezer
Inside cabinets and drawers, not just the fronts
Any white goods, like the microwave
The hob and stovetop

Why the Hidden Spots Matter Most

A tenant moving into a new place expects the inside of the oven and fridge to be properly cleaned, not just wiped where it’s visible. That’s the standard we hold cleaners to, because it’s the standard the next tenant is going to judge the property by. This is also exactly the kind of thing that gets missed when someone tries to do their own end of tenancy clean, or hires someone who isn’t actually trained for it.

The Bathroom: What We Clean and What We Don’t

The bathroom gets a full clean too. That means limescale, grouting, surfaces, baseboards, and clearing out any rubbish left behind.

Why We Don’t Touch Mould

One thing I’m upfront about: we do not clean mould, as a rule. Mould removal needs specialist treatment, and we’re a general cleaning company, not a mould remediation service. If a property has a mould problem, that’s a different job entirely, and I’d rather tell a client that honestly than pretend we can sort it as part of a standard clean. This is something a lot of people don’t realise when they book an end of tenancy clean, so it’s worth knowing going in.

How We Make Sure Nothing Gets Missed

Our Checklist, Cross-Checked Against Landlord Expectations

We have a full cleaning checklist for every type of clean we offer, including end of tenancy cleaning. That list gets shared with the client and it’s the same list the cleaner works from on the day. Everything on it has to be completed. We’ve built that list by cross-checking it against what landlords and letting agents actually expect at check-out, so the property is cleaned top to bottom to a standard that’s designed to get the deposit back, not just to look tidy.

Before-and-After Photos as Proof

We also take before-and-after photos of the job. That’s not just for us, it’s for the client, so there’s proof every part of the property has actually been cleaned if a landlord or agent ever questions it.

Our 7-Day Guarantee

If something is genuinely missed by one of our cleaners, we guarantee we’ll come back within seven days and put it right, completely free of charge. It doesn’t happen often, because of how the checklist and photo system works, but when it does, that guarantee means the client isn’t the one left chasing us or losing money over it. It’s peace of mind, and honestly, it’s the kind of thing that should be standard in this industry.

How Long Does an End of Tenancy Clean Take?

As a rule of thumb, an end of tenancy clean takes about double the time of a standard clean on the same property. So if a one-bedroom, one-bathroom flat takes around an hour and a half for a standard clean, expect that same flat to take three to three and a half hours when it’s being deep cleaned for an end of tenancy move. The bigger and more lived-in the property, the longer that stretches.

When to Book Your End of Tenancy Clean

Timing trips a lot of people up. If you’re moving out, the clean should be booked in on the day of the move, once all the furniture is out of the property. If it’s a move-in clean instead, it can happen any time before the new tenant’s furniture arrives.

Either way, the property needs to be completely empty of furnishings for the clean to happen properly. You can’t do a thorough end of tenancy clean around boxes, furniture, or belongings still sitting in the rooms. If you’re planning this yourself, build that into your moving day logistics, because it’s one of the most common things people get wrong.

What’s Not Included (And Where We Can Point You)

There are a few things we deliberately don’t offer as part of a standard end of tenancy clean:

Steam carpet cleaning. We’ll vacuum carpets thoroughly, but we don’t do steam cleaning.
External window cleaning. We clean windows from the inside, not the outside.

If a client needs either of those, we’ll happily point them toward carpet cleaners or external window cleaners we’ve worked with before and trust. We stick to what we’re genuinely expert at, which is a thorough clean of the inside of the property, rather than stretching into specialist work like steam cleaning or mould treatment where we’re not the right people for the job.

My Honest Advice If You Want Your Deposit Back

If you take one thing away from this, it’s this: once you’ve found a good cleaning company, check their reviews, check their history, make sure they are who they say they are, and just book them in.

Trying to do an end of tenancy clean yourself, especially if you’re not confident you can hit the standard a landlord or agent expects, is a risk that isn’t worth taking when it comes to getting your deposit back. A properly vetted, professional clean takes that worry off your plate entirely, and that’s really the whole point of it.