To think that this end of tenancy clean is too expensive?!

[boffin9207]

OH and I rent a 1 bed flat and moving soon. Asked the agency if they had any recommended cleaners as wary of just picking someone off the internet and both places they have recommended have quoted £250+VAT. Is this steep or am I just naive?

Would also be grateful if any recommendations can be sent for end of tenancy cleaners in London!

End of tenancy cleans are insanely expensive, I've always found often though they do guarantee you get your deposit back on the cleaning front so can be worth it. Ours was about the same when we moved im afraid!

(Also in London)

Sounds right, to be honest. Are they guaranteeing your deposit back based on their clean? When I last moved , I felt it was worth the money in the long run.

We have always cleaned ourselves and got our deposit back each time. That is a lot of money IMO.

Back when we use to rent our was £75 including steam cleaning carpets and oven clean, but we live up North.

Think of it in man hours. If you had one cleaner for a whole day (which should be enough in a 1 bed flat, even to do the oven, fridge and inside of cupboards) they would be earning £31.00 per hour. I think that's a bit much tbh!

That does seem a lot. I do this type of cleaning for a living and I am around a third cheaper. I'm not in London but from talking to friends it seems that cleaning is cheaper in London.
The bonus of using a recommendation from the agency is that you will almost certainly not lose out on your deposit for cleaning. Many a time a tenant has used their own firm and they haven't done a good enough job and after checkout you could end up paying again

Bibbity don't forget to deduct products, accounting fees, payroll costs, insurance, business account fees, equipment, etc from that 31 p/h. It costs me over 200 in fees alone to run my business per month!

How much is your deposit. In previous rentals mine was £450 so £250 for guarantee of deposit back wouldn't have been worth it. I cleaned myself with help of parents and always got deposit back. Unless you are filthy mingers it won't be a massive job to leave it as you found it.

If they do a good job that seems fairly standard for London, based on what we've paid in the past. How many different quotes have you got? My advice: don't choose the cheapest quote, it will be cheap for a reason and you might have to redo it (bitter experience).

The problem is the ridiculous jobsworths that are inventory clerks. We had a fab landlord, great EA. The inventory clerk told us that certain things hadn't been cleaned - they had. They wanted to deduct us money for something that was simply in a different room to the one they had originally recorded it in. They also said the toaster was missing, while providing a photo that showed it proudly gleaming on the countertop.

If your contract specifies a 'cleaning to a professional standard' and they question your cleaning, and you don't have a receipt to wave at them from a professional cleaner, they can make your life horribly difficult. Our last deposit for a 1 bed in London was six weeks rent (£2250) - £250 to ensure we got our deposit back was a worthwhile investment in our view.

If you talk to them nicely and say that your flat is very well cleaned already they might charge you a normal hourly rate but log it as an end of tenancy clean which is what I did I used Molly Maid and they basically came round and went over/did bits I'd missed and I paid about £40

I think that is ridiculous. Cleaning to a professional standard should be the LL's cost.

£10-£20 on cleaning products and a bit of elbow grease comes in at ...... well, tops, twenty quid

But they can't withhold the entire deposit anyway if it's just for cleaning. They can only deduct the cost of having whatever isn't clean to their standards cleaned, so worst case scenario they insist it needs a full end of tenancy clean, that means £250 in OP's case using the cleaning agency the agent recommended. So she can either pay upfront £250 or take the chance of cleaning it herself and then pay £250 if they aren't happy. I'd take my chances with cleaning it myself to try and save £250.

Trifle if the flat is cleaned to a professional standard on moving in, then that is how it has to be left. OP, £250 sounds about right to me.

zilpha - I get the point but LLs/EAs aren't known for getting the cheapest quote. I'd rather go out, do no cleaning and spend £200 than spend a day scrubbing and risk still spending £300! though obvs that's a personal call.

trifle - they provide the flat to you when you move in at 'professional clean' level. You're just expected to return it in the same state, hence it being the tenant's cost to bear.

Is it in your tenancy agreement that it has to be a professional clean?

We paid £100 in Chester and £200 in London.

Definitely shop around as it might save you £50 or so.

The last time we did an end of tenancy clean in London (7 years ago) it was £1500 plus VAT. 4 bedroom house that had dogs in it (with our landlord's permission).

I was green with queasiness at paying that, but it was worth it in the end -the place was sparkling, and they spotted things that we would never have seen (and we had a weekly cleaner anyway!).

Sounds right to me.
It covers you so worth doing.
Not cheap but par for the course

Depends what it covers: if oven (inside and out), fridge and carpets, that sounds about right for London

They must have seen you coming Romantic

Sounds about right but still shop around and check reviews.

Scrubba -
Elbow grease is not free. Workers must be paid.

Also NI contributions, pensions, VAT if the company is big, corporation tax on any profits, the phone bill of the bookings dept, paper certificates and invoices, the cost of doing accounts, insurance, dealing with any complaints, - really you have no idea.