What the Tenant Fees Act 2019 changed
Since the Tenant Fees Act 2019 came into force in England, a landlord or letting agent cannot require a tenant to pay for a professional clean at check-out. The government's own guidance for tenants states this directly.
Professional cleaning sits on the list of prohibited payments, alongside charges for viewings, tenancy setup and referencing, inventory checks and check-out services. A “professional cleaning clause” in a tenancy agreement requiring you to produce a receipt from a cleaning company is not enforceable in England for tenancies covered by the Act.
That means the demand itself is the problem. An agent may ask you to leave the property clean — that is reasonable and always has been — but they cannot make paying a cleaning company a condition of your tenancy or of getting your deposit back.
What your landlord can still do
The Act did not remove your obligation to return the property in the condition you found it, minus fair wear and tear. If you leave it dirtier than it was at check-in, the landlord can claim reasonable cleaning costs from your deposit.
The key limit: a deposit can only be used to restore the property to its original condition, never to make it cleaner or better than it was when you moved in. If the oven had baked-on grease at check-in, you are not required to hand it back spotless.
What “fair wear and tear” means
Fair wear and tear is a defect that occurs naturally through regular, reasonable use over time — carpet that has thinned in a hallway after three years, scuffed skirting boards, faded paint. It is not the same as damage, neglect, or dirt.
Adjudicators consistently distinguish between the two, and one of the most common landlord mistakes is treating ordinary ageing as tenant damage, or claiming for a full replacement where a repair or clean would do.
The deposit rules worth knowing
Under the same Act, deposits are capped at five weeks' rent where annual rent is under £50,000, or six weeks' rent at £50,000 or above.
What actually decides a dispute
Evidence. According to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme's adjudication team, dated photographic or video inventories are the single most effective way to support a claim.
Their advice is to photograph at check-out in the same lighting and from the same angles as the check-in report, so the comparison is genuinely like for like. If there is no clear record of the property's condition at check-in, a landlord will struggle to justify a cleaning deduction at all. Our room-by-room guide to what gets checked at a check-out inventory covers the details clerks look at most closely.
So should you book a professional clean anyway?
You are not obliged to. But cleaning remains the single largest cause of deposit deductions in the UK, and a professional end of tenancy clean typically costs far less than a disputed deduction.
It is a commercial decision, not a legal requirement — and the difference matters, because a landlord who tells you it is compulsory is wrong. If you do decide it is worth it, our end of tenancy cleaning service is priced from the property itself, and ovens and carpets can be added or left out depending on what your check-in report actually records.
This guide is general information about renting in England, not legal advice. For advice on your own tenancy, speak to your deposit scheme, Citizens Advice or a solicitor.