Choosing a cleaner
How to Choose an End of Lease Cleaner
Almost every exit cleaner advertises a bond-back guarantee, and almost none of them can honestly give you one. Here is what the guarantee should actually say, which document the clean must be measured against, and the question that exposes the difference.
- Why the agent's checklist is the only scope that counts
- What a bond-back guarantee can honestly promise
- The return-visit commitment to get in writing
- Why an honest cleaner tells you what will not come back
Operating since 2015
One documented cleaning standard, applied site by site across Sydney and regional NSW
- Police-checked cleaners
- Vetted and inducted before they set foot on your site
- $20m public liability
- Certificates of currency issued before the first shift
- Rolling agreement, no lock-in term
- Scope and price in writing within 24 hours
How do you choose an end of lease cleaner?
Start with the scope. An end of lease clean — also called a bond, vacate or exit clean — is judged against the agent’s or landlord’s exit condition report, not against a general standard of tidiness. So the first question to ask a cleaner is whether they will work to that document. Send it to them before you accept a quote. A cleaner working to their own idea of clean is working to the wrong specification, however hard they work.
Then read the guarantee. A bond can be withheld for damage, wear and unpaid rent, none of which a cleaner controls, so a guarantee of the bond itself promises something outside the contractor’s power. What can honestly be promised is a free return visit if the final inspection raises a cleaning item. Get that in writing, with a time limit stated.
Finally, ask what will not come back. Long-set stains, damaged grout and worn surfaces are damage, not soil, and an honest contractor identifies them at the inspection rather than after the invoice. Clean Best Australia inspects before quoting, works to the agent’s checklist, and returns at no charge if a cleaning item is raised within seven days.
- Operating since 2015Trading continuously since 2015
- Police-checked cleanersWorkplaces, clinics, campuses, buildings and homes
- $20m public liabilityPlus workers compensation for every person on the roster
- Every site audited monthlyFindings and corrective actions issued in writing
The checklist is the specification
What an exit inspection is actually measured against
Knowing how to choose an end of lease cleaner comes down to a single insight: tenants almost never fail on the visible stuff. The floors are fine. The benches are fine. The property looks, to any reasonable human, clean. And the inspection still raises six items, because the agent is not measuring the property against a reasonable human — they are measuring it against a document, and that document mentions the window tracks, the top of the doors, the inside of the range hood filter and the mark where the fridge stood.
So the thing to select for is not effort. It is a contractor who will work to the right specification, and who will tell you the truth about what will not come back.
We would rather have the agent’s checklist than guess
If you have the exit condition report, send it to us before we quote. It is the document your bond will be judged against, so it is the document the clean should be built from. Agents differ — some care intensely about window tracks, some about ovens, some about the grout — and a contractor who works to a generic scope is effectively guessing which agent they are dealing with.
Empty property, after the truck
An exit clean performed around furniture will fail, because the marks that matter are the ones underneath and behind things. So the property is cleaned empty, after the removalists, ideally with us holding access while you are already gone. That is not us being fussy about scheduling: it is the difference between a clean that passes and one that produces a phone call.
The honest conversation about what will not come back
An exit clean can restore a neglected property a very long way, and it is genuinely satisfying work. But entrenched grout mould, an oven that has never been cleaned in four years, permanent marking on a painted wall, and scale on a shower screen may not fully return, and we will say so at the quote rather than on inspection day. Any contractor who tells you every property comes up like new has either not seen the property or is planning a difficult conversation for later.
Carpet, and why it is quoted separately
Many leases require a receipt for professional carpet cleaning specifically. A line item buried in a general cleaning invoice will not satisfy an agent who wants proof, so we quote the extraction separately and provide its own documentation. It is a small administrative distinction that saves an argument, and the argument is always about the receipt rather than the carpet.
Commercial make-good is a different job entirely
When a fit-out is stripped out of an office or a warehouse, the dust does not leave with it. It settles into every surface in the tenancy — ceiling grid, ledges, cable trays, window frames, the tops of things nobody has looked at in five years — and it keeps falling for days. Add adhesive residue on the floor, marks where fixtures were removed, and a landlord’s schedule of condition to satisfy. We inspect it, because photographs genuinely never show dust, and quote it properly.
The return visit, and what it does not cover
If the final inspection raises a cleaning item within seven days, we come back and rectify it at no charge. What we will not do is claim to guarantee your bond, which can be withheld for damage, wear, unpaid rent and a dozen things a cleaner has no influence over. We control the cleaning. We will stand behind exactly that and nothing we cannot deliver.
Call 1300 494 983 and send us the checklist.
Make-good
Strip-out dust is the part everyone underestimates
A commercial make-good looks, on the day the builders leave, like a job for a broom. It is not. The dust from a strip-out is fine, it is everywhere, and it keeps settling for days out of the ceiling void, the cable trays and the ledges nobody has touched since the fit-out went in.
So a make-good clean is sequenced from the top down, with a second pass after the dust has finished falling, and it is quoted after somebody has physically stood in the tenancy. A landlord's schedule of condition is unforgiving, and a make-good that fails costs far more in held-over rent than the clean ever did.
- Sequenced top-down, with a second pass once the dust settles
- Adhesive residue, fixture marks and floor restoration included
- Worked against the landlord's schedule of condition
- Quoted after inspection, never from photographs
The written specification
What an exit clean usually covers
The standard scope for a Sydney residential vacate. Yours is built from the agent's checklist and the inspection.
- Oven, grill and cooktop cleaned inside and out, including racks and trays
- Range hood cleaned and filter degreased or replaced as required
- Inside every cupboard, drawer, pantry and wardrobe, including runners and tracks
- Bathrooms detailed: shower, screen, grout, bath, basin, toilet, tiles and exhaust fan
- Window interiors, sills, frames and tracks, and flyscreens where fitted
- Door tops, door frames, architraves, skirtings and light switches
- Marks and dust behind and beneath appliances, fixtures and furniture positions
- Light fittings, ceiling fans and accessible vents
- Laundry: tub, taps, cupboards, machine spaces and floor
- Walls spot-cleaned for marks that will lift without damaging the paint
- Floors vacuumed and mopped throughout, including cupboard bases and wardrobes
- Garage, balcony, courtyard and accessible outdoor areas swept and tidied
Carpet extraction is quoted separately with its own receipt, as most leases require. Wall repainting, damage repair and rubbish removal are outside the cleaning scope and quoted separately.
Commercials
How an exit clean is priced
We price the property as it actually is, after an inspection — not from a bedroom count, because the number of bedrooms tells you nothing about how long the oven will take.
Apartment exit
One and two bedroom units and apartments being vacated at the end of a residential lease.
- Worked against the agent's own exit checklist
- Oven, cupboard interiors, window tracks and door tops
- Return visit at no charge if inspection raises a cleaning item
- Carpet extraction quoted separately with its own receipt
Fixed figure, issued in writing before anyone starts.
House exit
Three and four bedroom houses, often with multiple bathrooms, a laundry, a garage and outdoor areas.
- Full property detail, cleaned empty after the removalists
- Marks behind and beneath appliances, fixtures and furniture
- Garage, laundry, balcony and accessible outdoor areas
- Honest assessment at quote of what may not fully come back
Fixed figure, issued in writing before anyone starts.
Commercial make-good
Office, retail and industrial tenancies being handed back to a landlord under a make-good obligation.
- Post-strip-out dust removal across every surface in the tenancy
- Adhesive residue, fixture marks and floor restoration
- Worked against the landlord's schedule of condition
- Quoted after inspection, because photographs never show dust
Fixed figure, issued in writing before anyone starts.
Site inspection at no charge, then a written scope and price inside 24 hours.
The process
How an exit clean is booked
Four steps, and the checklist arrives before the quote rather than after the inspection fails.
- 01
Send us the checklist
Call 1300 494 983 with the property details and, if you have it, the agent's exit condition report — that document is the specification, so we would rather work to it than guess.
- 02
We inspect the property
We look at the actual condition, tell you honestly what will and will not fully come back, and identify anything that needs quoting beyond the standard exit scope.
- 03
Fixed price in writing
Within 24 hours you have a fixed price and a scheduled date, timed after the removalists rather than around them, with carpet extraction quoted separately if the lease requires it.
- 04
Clean, inspect, return if needed
The property is cleaned empty. If the final inspection raises a cleaning item within seven days, we return and rectify it at no charge.
FAQ
What people ask before booking an exit clean
What tenants, landlords and outgoing commercial occupiers settle before they book.
What scope should an end of lease clean be measured against?
The agent's or landlord's exit condition report, and nothing else. That document is what your bond will be judged against, so it is the document the clean should be written against — inside cupboards, inside the oven, the tracks of every window, the top of every door, the marks behind where the fridge stood. Any cleaner working to their own idea of clean is working to the wrong specification, however hard they work. Send them the checklist before you accept a quote.
Should I trust a bond-back guarantee?
Read exactly what it promises. Nobody honest can guarantee a bond, because a bond can be withheld for damage, wear, unpaid rent and a dozen things that have nothing to do with cleaning — so a guarantee of the bond itself is a guarantee of something the cleaner does not control. What a contractor can genuinely commit to is the cleaning: a return visit, at no charge, if the final inspection raises a cleaning item. Clean Best commits to that within seven days, and says plainly that the rest is not ours to promise.
Should I book the clean before or after the removalists?
After, always, and preferably after the last box has genuinely gone. An exit clean performed around furniture is a clean that will fail, because the marks that matter are exactly the ones underneath and behind things. If your handover is tight, tell us at the quote and we will schedule around the truck rather than have two crews colliding in a hallway.
Is carpet steam cleaning included?
It is quoted alongside the clean rather than assumed into it, because many leases require a receipt for professional carpet cleaning specifically, and a line item on a general cleaning invoice will not satisfy an agent who wants proof. We provide the extraction and the documentation separately so you have something to hand over rather than an argument to have.
Do you do commercial make-good and office exit cleans?
Yes, and they are a different animal from a residential vacate. A tenancy make-good usually involves post-strip-out dust that has settled into every surface in the building, adhesive residue on floors, marks left by fixtures that were removed, and a landlord's schedule of condition to satisfy. It is quoted after inspecting the premises, because photographs never show the dust.
What if the property was not well maintained during the tenancy?
We will tell you at the quote. An exit clean can restore a neglected property a long way, but there are limits: a shower with entrenched grout mould, an oven that has never been cleaned, or a wall with permanent marking may not fully come back, and you deserve to know that before you pay rather than on inspection day. Where extra work is genuinely needed, it is quoted plainly.
How long does an end of lease clean take?
A one-bedroom apartment in reasonable order is usually a half day. A three or four bedroom house is a full day, sometimes with two cleaners. A neglected property takes considerably longer, which is why we inspect rather than pricing over the phone from a bedroom count — the number of bedrooms tells you almost nothing about how long the oven will take.
Can you clean while I still have the keys but I have already left?
That is the ideal arrangement. Access is agreed at the quote — a key, a lockbox, or a meeting on site — and the property is cleaned empty, at our own pace, without anyone working around a removal. You return, walk through, and hand keys back. If anything is not right, tell us before the inspection rather than after it, and we will be back.
Keep reading
The rest of the due diligence
What a contractor should be able to evidence in each setting, and the documents to ask every one of them for.
Send us the checklist before you accept anybody's quote
We work to the agent's exit report, inspect the property before pricing, and the fixed price is back within 24 hours. Call 1300 494 983.