Short-Let Damage Reports: What a Photo Inspection Should Cover After Every Guest
Written by Iva, founder of Iva Cleaning Services London. Damage in a short let is rarely dramatic. It is a…
Every week someone calls us to book a “deep clean” for a flat they are leaving on Friday. Half the time what they need is an end of tenancy clean, and the difference decides whether their deposit comes back. The two services share most of their tasks, but they are judged by different people against different standards, and booking the wrong one is an expensive mistake.
This guide sets out what each one includes, who it is for, how the inventory clerk judges the result, and which to book in the common situations. We offer both: end of tenancy cleaning is priced by property size, and deep cleaning is booked by room.
A deep clean is for a home you are staying in. It resets a kitchen or bathroom that has got beyond a weekly clean: the oven, the extractor, the grout, the limescale, inside the cupboards. It is judged by you, and the standard is “better than it was”.
An end of tenancy clean is for a home you are leaving. It covers every room, every surface and every appliance, and it is judged by an inventory clerk comparing the property to the check-in report. The standard is “the same as when you moved in”, and it is pass or fail.
If you are moving out of a rented property, you need the second one. A deep clean of the kitchen and bathroom leaves the bedrooms, the skirting boards, the inside of the wardrobes and the windowsills untouched, and those are exactly the places a clerk photographs.
| Area | Deep clean (per room) | End of tenancy clean (whole property) |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen cupboards and drawers | Inside and out | Inside and out, emptied first |
| Oven | Add-on, or part of a kitchen reset | One standard single oven included free |
| Hob, extractor, splashback | Degreased | Degreased, filter cleaned |
| Fridge and freezer | Add-on | Wiped inside and out (defrosted by you) |
| Bathroom limescale and mould | Treated | Treated |
| Bedrooms and living rooms | Not included | Skirting, doors, frames, switches, sills, inside wardrobes |
| Windows | Internal glass in the room booked | Internal sills and ledges; glass as an add-on |
| Floors | Vacuumed and mopped in the room booked | Vacuumed and mopped throughout |
| Carpets | Add-on | Add-on, £98 plus VAT minimum |
| Standard | Visibly better | Matches the check-in inventory |
The full list of what we cover room by room is on the end of tenancy page, along with the add-ons. Carpets, upholstery, mattresses, external windows and blinds are extra on both services.
This is the real difference. After a deep clean, you walk into the kitchen and decide whether you are happy. After an end of tenancy clean, an inventory clerk walks round with the check-in report and a camera. They are not looking for “clean”. They are looking for anything that is in a worse state than the check-in photographs, allowing for fair wear and tear. Cleaning is not wear and tear, so a smear on the oven glass that was not there at check-in is a deduction, however small.
We wrote a separate guide on what a check-out inventory actually checks, room by room, which is worth ten minutes before you decide whether to clean the place yourself. The short version: the clerk opens every cupboard, pulls out the oven shelves, photographs the extractor filter, runs a finger along the top of the door frames, and compares the limescale on the taps to the check-in picture.
Three reasons, from what we see when customers call after a failed check-out.
Coverage. A deep clean is sold by room. People book the kitchen and the bathroom because those are the rooms that look dirty, and leave the bedrooms because they look fine. The clerk then finds dust on the wardrobe tops, marks on the skirting and a windowsill that was not wiped. The deduction for “light clean to bedrooms” is small, but it is still a deduction, and it means the whole property is noted as not professionally cleaned.
Standard. A deep clean makes a room better. The check-out standard is a specific point: the condition on the day you moved in, as recorded. If the flat was professionally cleaned before you arrived and the check-in report says so, that is the bar. A good deep clean can reach it in the room it covers, but the service is not built around the report.
Timing. A deep clean is done while you live there. An end of tenancy clean is done after you have moved out, with the property empty, so the cleaners can get into every cupboard and behind every piece of furniture. Cleaning around boxes and a half-packed wardrobe never reaches the standard, however good the cleaner.
You are staying. The kitchen has a year of grease on the extractor and the oven has not been cleaned since you moved in; book a kitchen reset. The shower is scaled and the grout is going black; book a bathroom deep clean. You are a landlord between tenancies and the last tenant left the place clean but the kitchen is tired; a kitchen deep clean brings it up without paying for rooms that do not need it. Our kitchen deep cleaning checklist shows exactly what that visit covers.
You are also better off with a deep clean if you are moving into a place that was not cleaned properly and you want it reset before you unpack. The check-in report has already been written; your aim is comfort, not evidence.
You are leaving a rented property and a deposit is at stake. You are a landlord or agent preparing a property for the next tenant and the check-in inventory will be written against it. You are selling a flat and want it presented empty and spotless for viewings. In each case the whole property needs doing, to a standard someone else will check.
Our end of tenancy clean is priced by property size, from £199 plus VAT for a studio to £549 plus VAT for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house, with one standard oven cleaned free. A studio is booked for about four hours and a four-bedroom house for most of a working day, usually with two cleaners. You do not need to be there; access can be arranged through keys, a concierge or your agent.
Empty the cupboards and the fridge, and defrost the freezer the night before. Take everything off the worktops and out of the bathroom. For an end of tenancy clean, have all your belongings out of the property before the cleaners arrive; a clean around boxes is a clean we cannot stand behind. If the check-in report mentioned carpets being professionally cleaned, add carpet cleaning to the booking, because the clerk will look for the same.
Ask the agent for the check-out report with photographs and compare it to the check-in. A genuine miss is quick to fix if it is reported promptly; tell us straight away and send the photograph. Deductions for things that were already noted on the check-in, or for wear and tear, are not cleaning issues and the deposit scheme’s dispute service decides those, free of charge, on the evidence.
Moving out? Book online: choose your property size, add carpets or windows if you need them, and we confirm within one working hour.
