How a check-out works
The clerk arrives with the check-in report, walks each room in the same order it was originally recorded, and notes differences — condition, cleanliness, missing items, damage. Photographs are attached to anything they intend to flag. The report then goes to the landlord or agent, who decides whether to propose a deduction.
Most of the properties we clean across south west London fall into four broad types, and each fails in its own way: Victorian and Edwardian conversions in Wimbledon and Putney, purpose-built flats around Kingston and Raynes Park, period houses in Richmond with timber floors and original features, and the high-turnover shared and student-let housing around Kingston.
Kitchen
The kitchen is where most cleaning deductions originate, and the oven is where most kitchen deductions originate.
- Oven interior, door glass and between the panes
- Hob and extractor filters
- Inside and on top of cupboards
- Fridge and freezer, including seals, and defrosted
- Dishwasher and washing machine drawers and filters
- Behind and beneath appliances
- Sink and taps, checked for limescale
Between the oven door panes is the classic one — it looks fine from the front and photographs badly under a clerk's torch. If you are not stripping the door yourself, a dedicated oven clean is usually cheaper than the deduction.
Bathrooms
- Limescale on screens, taps and shower heads
- Grout and sealant
- Extractor vents
- Toilet, including behind the base and the cistern
- Mirrors and glass
London water is hard, so limescale accumulates faster here than tenants expect. Grout discoloration that has built up over years is usually wear rather than dirt, but scale that wipes off with the right product is not.
Bedrooms and living areas
- Carpets — note that professional carpet cleaning may be expected where the check-in report records them as professionally cleaned
- Skirting boards
- Picture rails and cornicing in period conversions
- Wardrobe and cupboard interiors
- Marks on walls
The carpet point is the one worth reading twice. If the check-in report says the carpets were professionally cleaned, that is the standard you are being measured against, and a domestic vacuum will not meet it. Our carpet and upholstery cleaning is often booked for exactly that reason.
Floors
Timber and natural stone floors, common in Richmond and parts of Wimbledon, need products appropriate to the surface rather than general-purpose cleaners. Damage caused by the wrong product — a stripped finish, a dulled or etched stone — is not fair wear and tear, and it is far more expensive to resolve than any clean.
Windows
Internal glass, frames, sills and tracks. Sash windows in period conversions collect a remarkable amount in the tracks, and it is usually visible in a clerk's photograph even when the glass itself is clear.
Hallways and communal areas
- Entrance doors
- Light switches
- Radiators
- Meter cupboards
Outside space, where applicable
Gardening was raised in 14% of TDS disputes, so patios, decking and the general state of a garden matter wherever the tenancy includes them. If the check-in photographs show a swept patio and clear borders, that is the state to return it in.
The one thing to do first
Get the check-in report out before you start. It is your benchmark, it is the only document the clerk is comparing against, and almost nobody reads it until the deduction arrives. Then photograph like for like at the end — same rooms, same angles, same lighting.
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.