Guide
Can landlords charge for cleaning?
A landlord cannot require you to pay for a professional clean, and cannot make you use a cleaner they name. Here is what the Tenant Fees Act 2019 allows, what can still be raised at check-out, and why cleaning remains the most common cause of deposit deductions.
Reviewed August 2026
Can a landlord charge you for cleaning when you move out?
Not as a required fee. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 a landlord or agent cannot require you to pay for professional end of tenancy cleaning, and cannot require you to use a particular cleaner. They can still raise cleaning at check-out and propose a deduction from your deposit, and cleaning is the most common cause of deposit deductions.
| The demand | Allowed? | What it means for you | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Require you to pay for a professional end of tenancy clean | No | You can clean it yourself, pay someone, or split the job. The choice is yours to make. | Tenant Fees Act 2019, as summarised by cleaning-express.com, accessed August 2026 |
| Require you to use a cleaning company they name | No | A recommendation is fine, a requirement is not, and any cleaner or none at all is your call. | Tenant Fees Act 2019, as summarised by cleaning-express.com, accessed August 2026 |
| Raise cleaning at check-out and propose a deposit deduction | Yes, and it happens often | Cleaning is the most common cause of deposit deductions, and over half of deposit disputes involve it. | Deposit scheme statistics, as summarised by cleaning-express.com, accessed August 2026 |
Can a landlord insist you use their cleaning company?
No. The Act rules out a requirement to use a particular cleaner, so a recommendation is fine and an instruction is not. If a tenancy agreement or a check-out email tells you that you must book a named company, that's a requirement the Act doesn't support, and you can say so politely and in writing.
Why do so many deposit disputes involve cleaning?
Because cleanliness is judged by eye, and two people can look at the same oven and reach different conclusions. Cleaning is the most common cause of deposit deductions and over half of deposit disputes involve it. Written evidence at both ends of a tenancy settles that argument far faster than arguing about it does.
Do you need to book a cleaning company at all?
No, and that includes us. You're allowed to clean the property yourself and hand back the keys. People book a clean because it produces a receipt, a written checklist and a fixed price, and those three things are easier to put in front of a deposit scheme than a weekend of effort with nothing to show for it.
If you're cleaning it yourself, this order of work saves the most time:
- Read the paperwork you were given at the start of the tenancy and clean to that standard rather than your own.
- Photograph every room before you start and again when you finish, with the date on the file.
- Do the oven first. Check-out inspections go straight to it, and it's the one job that needs soaking time while you get on with something else.
- Descale the taps, the shower screen and the kettle. North Kent water is hard, so scale shows here in a way it doesn't everywhere.
- Finish with the floors, then leave the property alone until the inspection.
What does a professional clean cost if you do book one?
Our end of tenancy prices run from £130 for a studio to £370 for a five-bedroom house, fixed by the number of bedrooms and the same in every town we cover. The oven is inside that fixed price and carpets are £30 a room. There's no call-out fee, and products and equipment are included.
The full breakdown, with the published market figures beside it, is in our guide to end of tenancy cleaning costs in Kent. What a clean actually covers, room by room, is on the end of tenancy cleaning page.
No clean guarantees your deposit back, because no cleaner controls that decision. What we do control is the checklist and the 48-hour re-clean promise. If we've missed something we agreed to do, tell us within 48 hours and we'll come back and re-clean the affected areas free. The 48 hours is how long you have to raise it with us. Four things sit outside it: pre-existing damage, permanent staining, mould, and anywhere we couldn't get to.
Want a price before you decide?
Send the number of bedrooms and your check-out date. We answer every enquiry, and the figure that comes back is the one published on this site. If you decide to clean it yourself after that, nobody chases you.