What is in this guide
The cleaning industry has done an effective job of convincing renters that a bond clean is a specialist service with a fixed standard. It is worth starting from what the standard actually is.
Across Australian tenancy law the requirement is to leave the property in the condition it was in at the start of the tenancy, less fair wear and tear. The Queensland Residential Tenancies Authority puts it directly: the same condition as at the start, excluding dirt, grime, grease or damage caused during the tenancy. The RTA also says plainly that the tenant may choose to engage a professional company or do the cleaning themselves.
So the bar is not spotless. It is the entry condition report. And whether you hire someone is a decision about your time, not an obligation that comes automatically with the lease.
Two exceptions worth checking before you decide. Some agreements contain a specific clause, most commonly about professional carpet cleaning, and those are worth reading rather than assuming. And if you had pets, your agreement may say something additional.
Read the entry condition report first
Everything on this page is secondary to this. The inspection compares the property to that document, so the document tells you what you are actually responsible for and, just as usefully, what you are not.
If the oven was already stained when you moved in and the report says so, that is not your job. If the report is silent, it is.
The jobs that actually get noticed
The Queensland RTA publishes the list of areas tenants most often overlook, and it is a better guide to what gets marked down than any cleaning company checklist, because it is written by the body that hears the disputes:
- Windows and window tracks
- Skirting boards
- Light fixtures, ceiling fans, and air conditioning vents and filters
- The inside of every cupboard and cabinet
- Ovens
- Outside areas, including balconies, gardens and lawns
- All rubbish removed
- Any damage repaired
That list is short and it is almost entirely made up of things people do not think of as cleaning. Nobody loses a bond over the floor in the middle of the lounge room. They lose it over the inside of the cupboard above the fridge.
The order worth doing it in
Work top to bottom and leave the floors last, because everything you do knocks dust down. Do the whole house one room at a time rather than one task at a time, so a half-finished house is still a set of finished rooms.
Start a week out, not the night before. The jobs that take longest are the ones that need soaking and a second pass.
- The oven. Start here, because it is the worst one and it usually needs two goes. Racks out and soaking while you do everything else
- Range hood filter. Frequently forgotten, and visibly greasy when it is
- Inside cupboards and drawers. Empty, wiped, and left dry. Check the tops of the overhead cupboards
- The bathroom. Grout, shower screen, the exhaust fan cover, and behind the toilet. If there is mould, that is its own job, and bathroom mould is worth reading rather than just bleaching
- Windows, tracks and flyscreens. The single most commonly listed omission. Flyscreens, windows and tracks covers doing it properly
- Light fittings, fans and vents. Dust on a ceiling fan blade is very visible from directly underneath, which is where an inspector stands
- Skirting boards and door frames. A damp cloth, working around the room once
- Walls. Marks only, not a wash. Test in a corner first, because wiping flat paint can take the paint off
- Picture hooks out and holes filled, if your agreement requires it
- Carpets. Check the agreement first. If professional cleaning is specified, keep the receipt
- Hard floors last
- Outside. Lawn mowed, garden weeded, balcony swept, cobwebs from the eaves, bins emptied and washed. Packing cardboard goes flat in the recycling rather than stacked beside it, and what goes in the yellow bin covers what gets a load rejected
- The shed, the garage and the roof space. Anything you leave behind is rubbish removal charged to you
The things people forget entirely
- The dishwasher filter and door seal
- The washing machine detergent drawer and seal, if it stays with the property
- Inside the fridge cavity if the fridge is the landlord’s
- Curtains and blinds, including the top of the blind headrail
- The letterbox
- Under and behind the appliances you are taking with you, which have been hiding a rectangle of floor for years
- Marks on the ceiling above where a heater or a candle sat
- Air conditioning filters, which are usually a clip-out panel and take five minutes
Do it yourself or pay someone
Both are legitimate. The honest version of the decision:
Do it yourself if you have a week, the property is in reasonable shape, and your agreement has no professional cleaning clause. It is a long weekend of work for a typical three bedroom house, most of it in the kitchen and bathroom. If cleaning turns up cockroaches behind the appliances, cockroaches in the house covers what to do about it before the inspection rather than after.
Pay someone if you are moving interstate, you are handing back keys the same day you move, the property needs more than a clean, or the cost of two days of your time exceeds the quote. Get the quote in writing, ask specifically whether it includes windows, tracks, oven and the outside, and keep the receipt and the invoice.
Either way, do a walk through afterwards with the RTA list in your hand, because professional cleans miss things too, and it is still your bond.
One safety point
Oven cleaners and mould treatments are the two strongest chemicals most households own. Ventilate, wear gloves, follow the label, and never mix products, particularly anything containing bleach with anything containing ammonia or acid. If a product says to leave the room, leave the room.
Photograph it when you finish
Date-stamped photographs of the empty, clean property are the cheapest insurance available at this point, and they are the thing that resolves a disagreement weeks later when the property has already been re-let.
Room by room, including inside the oven and the cupboards. Then hand back every key.
What happens next, and how a claim against your bond is actually decided, is covered in getting your bond back.
On the products themselves, cleaning kits and refill systems sets out the small number a house actually needs and prices the kit model against buying them separately.
The one-page family week
One printable page that holds the whole week: meals, school, activities and who is doing the pickup. Free, and we send one useful email a week.
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