The numbers
Deposit Protection Service data for 2025 shows cleaning accounted for 29.37% of deposit claims — the leading cause for a fifth consecutive year. Damage followed at 18.42%, rent arrears at 16.45%, and redecoration at 10.88%.
Looking at it from the other direction, Tenancy Deposit Scheme figures for the twelve months to March 2025 show cleaning was raised in 54% of the disputes that reached adjudication, ahead of damage at 49%, redecoration at 31%, gardening at 14% and rent arrears at 10%.
But most tenancies never get there
Worth keeping in perspective: fewer than 5% of deposits protected by the DPS end in a claim at all, and only around 1% of deposits — 46,950 cases in the year to March 2025 — go all the way to formal adjudication with the TDS. The overwhelming majority of tenancies end without argument.
Why cleaning specifically
Three reasons. First, cleanliness is subjective in a way that a broken door is not — “clean” means different things to a departing tenant in a hurry and an agent with a checklist. Second, it is the last thing done, usually under time pressure, often after the furniture has gone and the daylight has faded.
Third, the areas that fail are predictable and easy to miss:
- Oven interiors and door glass
- Extractor filters
- Limescale on shower screens and taps
- Window frames and sills
- Skirting boards
- Inside kitchen cupboards
- Behind and under appliances
The disputes that are avoidable
The TDS adjudication team has noted that a proportion of disputes could have been avoided with earlier communication — a tenant flagging an issue when it happens, or a landlord explaining the reasoning behind a deduction rather than presenting a figure.
Many cleaning disputes are really evidence disputes: nobody documented the starting condition properly, so nobody can prove what changed. That is also why what your landlord can and cannot charge you for depends so heavily on the check-in report.
How to not be in the 29%
- Get a copy of your check-in inventory before you start cleaning, and work to that standard rather than an imagined one.
- Photograph everything at check-out in the same lighting and angles as check-in.
- Deal with the predictable failure points above rather than the visible surfaces — oven cleaning and carpet and upholstery cleaning are the two that most often get flagged.
- If you use a cleaning company, choose one that will return and re-clean if the agent flags something.
For our part, every end of tenancy clean carries a 7-day re-clean promise: if the agent flags something within the agreed scope, we come back and put it right.
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.