moving out of private rental - cleaning of soft furnishings

[MousyMouse]

our contract states that 'soft furnishings must be professionally cleaned and receipts must be handed over' or similar (don't have the contract in front of me).
a) can it not be done by us (only 1 sofa and 1 double bed here)?
b) isn't that 'fair wear and tear'?

Well I would class that as fair wear and tear, but if its in your contract and you have signed it then you will have to do it to get your bond back.

If you don't then the LL can deduct it from the bond and they will almost certainly take more out than you would be able to hire someone to do it for.

They want the reciept as proof someone has done it. If you did it using your own steam cleaner then there would be no proof that it was clean.

You could ask your LL, if you hire a cleaning machine/steamer and do the job yourself that will be enough? Or if it has to be fully carried out by a professional.

the sofa is not dirty, it has just been sat on for a few years, so the covers do not look new (have been washing them regularly, though).
the inventory says 'not been professionally cleaned', the matress on the bed was new.

no, we were not given cleaning receipts. but the inventory says 'rug and sofa covers clean but not recently cleaned'

In both our last rental contracts it said 'carpets & curtains to be professionally cleaned & receipts shown' - we never bothered with either, just cleaned and washed them ourselves, and had no problems getting our full deposit back.