End-of-tenancy cleaning and your deposit: what landlords can require

Cleaning is the single biggest cause of tenancy deposit disputes in England and Wales — appearing in 54% of all cases that reach adjudication, according to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme’s most recent statistical briefing (2024/25). Yet landlords lose, or have their claims reduced, far more often than they should. Not because the property was not dirty, but because they could not prove what clean looked like at the start.

If you want cleaning deductions to stick, you need to understand three things: what the law actually allows, what adjudicators actually look at, and why a documented check-in standard is the only thing that reliably holds up.

What the Tenant Fees Act 2019 changed

Before June 2019, many tenancy agreements contained clauses requiring tenants to pay for a professional end-of-tenancy clean regardless of the property’s condition. Those clauses are now unlawful.

Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 (in force from 1 June 2019), you cannot require tenants to pay for professional cleaning services as a condition of getting their deposit back. The one narrow exception, per GOV.UK guidance, is where professional cleaning was carried out before the tenancy began and is clearly evidenced. Even then, you cannot mandate that the tenant pays for a professional clean at the end — only that they return the property as clean as they found it.

Charging a banned fee is a civil offence for a first breach, carrying a financial penalty of up to £5,000. Repeat breaches within five years can be treated as a criminal offence with an unlimited fine, or a penalty of up to £30,000 imposed by the local authority.

What the Act does not remove is the right to claim genuine cleaning costs from the deposit when the property is returned in a worse condition than it was let. That right remains intact — but the burden of proof sits entirely with you.

The standard: same condition as check-in, allowing for fair wear and tear

The test is straightforward: the tenant must return the property in the same condition as when it was let, except for fair wear and tear. Importantly, fair wear and tear applies to condition, not cleanliness. A carpet that has thinned with use is wear and tear; a carpet that is ingrained with grease is not.

This means that even in a property that has aged during a long tenancy, you can still claim cleaning costs if the standard of cleanliness has fallen below the check-in benchmark. The question is not “is the property clean?” but “is it as clean as it was when the tenant moved in?”

That check-in benchmark is everything. Without a detailed, signed, photographed inventory, an adjudicator has no reference point — and because the deposit legally belongs to the tenant, in the absence of evidence the landlord’s claim will usually fail.

What adjudicators actually need to see

Adjudicators at TDS, mydeposits and the DPS weigh documentary evidence against a balance-of-probabilities standard, with the onus firmly on the landlord. In practice, a successful cleaning claim requires:

A detailed check-in inventory — room by room, surface by surface, with explicit notes on cleanliness (not just “good condition”). “Kitchen — clean throughout, oven interior clean, no grease, hob surfaces spotless” is useful. “Kitchen — good condition” is not.

Dated photographs at check-in — ideally taken the same day as the inventory, showing the oven, bathroom grouting, behind appliances, windows and any areas that typically attract end-of-tenancy disputes.

A matching check-out report — using the same format and structure as the check-in, so the comparison is explicit. Photograph the same areas in the same order.

Proportionate quotes or invoices — adjudicators apply a betterment principle: you cannot claim the cost of returning the property to a higher standard than it was in at check-in. If the oven was only partially clean at check-in, you can claim to restore it to that level, not to showroom condition. Quotes must reflect the actual work required, not a blanket deep clean.

A mydeposits case study illustrates this. A landlord claimed £250 for a full deep clean; the adjudicator awarded 65% (around £162.50). The check-in inventory had recorded “poor” cleaning, but a deep-clean invoice dated ten days into the tenancy reset the baseline upward, so the award reflected only the genuine shortfall at check-out — not the full deep-clean cost.

The “professional cleaning required” clause problem

Despite the Tenant Fees Act, clauses stating “the property must be returned in a professionally cleaned condition” or “a professional cleaning receipt must be provided” still appear in older template agreements. Do not rely on them.

Adjudicators will not award you the cost of a professional clean purely because a clause says so — they still require evidence that the property was dirtier at check-out than at check-in. If you had the property professionally cleaned before a new tenancy, include the receipt and any cleaner’s report in the check-in pack. That, combined with photographic evidence of the resulting standard, is the strongest baseline you can set.

What you can and cannot claim

Scenario	Can you claim?
Oven left greasy; oven was clean at check-in (documented)	Yes — cost of returning oven to that standard
Property generally dirty; no check-in inventory exists	Extremely unlikely to succeed
Mould on bathroom grouting; check-in showed clean grout	Yes, if attributable to the tenant rather than a building defect
Carpets stained; carpets were noted as worn at check-in	Partial claim at most; betterment applies
Tenant left rubbish; check-in was clear	Yes — removal cost is claimable
Clause in AST required professional clean	Not enforceable under the Tenant Fees Act 2019

Costs must be reasonable and verifiable. For context, end-of-tenancy cleaning for a one-bedroom flat broadly runs from around £150 to £300 in the current UK market. An invoice in that region is defensible; a £600 invoice for a studio is not, unless you can justify it.

Practical steps before the next tenancy starts

The time to protect yourself is at the start of the tenancy, not the end. Before your next tenant moves in:

1. Produce a written inventory with explicit cleanliness ratings for every room, including inside appliances, behind furniture and window frames.
2. Photograph everything — dated, in good light, with close-ups of dispute-prone areas (oven interior, hob, bathroom, sealant lines, extractor filters).
3. Have the tenant sign the inventory within the first few days, and record any amendments they raise.
4. Keep a copy of any professional cleaning receipt if you had the property cleaned before letting.
5. Conduct a mid-tenancy inspection — typically at 3–6 months — and note cleaning standards. Any independent cleaning carried out during the tenancy can reset the baseline (as the mydeposits case above shows).

Thorough tenant referencing matters too: a full reference check — employment verification, credit history and previous landlord references — helps you let to reliable tenants, and a robust check at the outset reduces the likelihood of a contested check-out.

A word on proportionality

Even when you are entirely in the right, overclaiming damages your position. Adjudicators are experienced in spotting inflated quotes and full deep-clean invoices submitted for properties that only needed a light tidy. The scheme rules are explicit that a landlord must act reasonably and claim no more than is needed to make good the loss. If you claim £350 when the evidence supports £120, you risk the whole claim being viewed sceptically.

Compare the referencing and tenancy management tools that help you build the kind of paper trail — from move-in to move-out — that makes legitimate claims straightforward and keeps disputes rare.

The bottom line

Cleaning disputes are won and lost at check-in, not check-out. A signed, photographed, room-by-room inventory that records specific cleanliness standards is the only evidence an adjudicator can act on. Without it, even a genuinely dirty property may cost you the dispute.

The Tenant Fees Act means you cannot mandate professional cleaning in your agreement — but you can absolutely claim for the cost of returning a property to its check-in standard. Make that standard indisputable, and you are in a strong position. Leave it vague, and you are relying on the tenant’s goodwill.

If you are managing multiple tenancies and want a consistent, documented process from referencing through to end-of-tenancy, see how PropertyGoose works for landlords — or check our pricing if you are ready to get started.

Written by Craig Ryder