What the Check-Out Inventory Clerk Actually Looks For, Room by Room

Written by Iva, founder of Iva Cleaning Services London.

The check-out inventory is the twenty minutes that decide what happens to your deposit. A clerk, usually independent of both landlord and tenant, walks the empty property with the check-in report, a camera and a torch, and records the condition of every room. What they write is the evidence if there is a dispute. Knowing what they look at, and in what order, is the single most useful thing a tenant or a letting agent can know before the keys go back.

We prepare properties for check-out every week for tenants, landlords and agents, and we see the reports that come back. This is what the clerk actually checks, written from their side of the clipboard. It is the standard our end of tenancy cleaning is built to meet, and the reason we work from the same list the clerk does.

How a check-out works

The clerk starts with the check-in report. Every item in the property has a line: “Kitchen, oven, clean, good condition” or “Bathroom, bath, limescale to taps, chip to enamel near plug”. Their job at check-out is to compare, not to judge against an ideal. A property that was handed over with a scaled shower head will not be marked down for a scaled shower head. A property that was handed over professionally cleaned, and says so on the report, will be marked down for anything short of that.

Two things follow. First, the check-in report is the standard, so read it before you clean. Second, cleanliness is not wear and tear. A carpet can wear; a worktop cannot “wear” dirty. Any shortfall in cleaning is recorded as a tenant responsibility, however small, which is why cleaning is the most common reason for a deposit deduction year after year.

Most clerks work room by room in a fixed order, and they photograph as they go. Dated photographs are what the deposit scheme adjudicator relies on. If you want to protect yourself, take your own in the same order after the clean.

Kitchen

The kitchen is where the most deductions come from, so clerks spend the longest here.

• Oven. The door is opened, the shelves pulled out, the glass inspected from both sides and the roof of the cavity checked with a torch. Burnt-on carbon on the glass or the shelves is the single most photographed item in a check-out. A clerk can tell at once whether an oven has been professionally cleaned, because the inner door glass is clear and the shelves are bright.
• Hob and extractor. Grease on the hob surround and under the pan supports. The extractor filter is pulled out and held to the light; a clogged, yellow filter is a deduction on its own.
• Cupboards and drawers. Every one is opened. Crumbs in the cutlery drawer, a sticky ring under where the oil bottle lived, dust on the top of the wall units. The tops of wall cupboards are checked with a torch or a phone camera held above.
• Fridge and freezer. Inside, including the door seals and the drip channel at the back, and whether the freezer was defrosted. A freezer left iced up is noted.
• Sink, taps and splashback. Limescale on the tap base and the spout, the plughole, and the sealant along the back of the worktop.
• Washing machine and dishwasher. The detergent drawer, the door seal and the filter. Black mould in a washing machine seal is a common line on a report.
• Bins. Empty, washed, and present. A missing bin is a replacement charge.

Bathroom

• Taps, shower head and screen. Limescale compared against the check-in photograph. In London’s hard water this is the item most often worse at check-out than check-in. If the check-in says “bright chrome”, the clerk expects bright chrome.
• Grout and sealant. Black or pink mould along the bath edge and in the shower corners is photographed close up.
• Toilet. Under the rim, the waterline ring, the hinges of the seat and the floor around the base.
• Extractor fan. The grille is checked for dust.
• Mirrors, glass, tiles. Water marks and toothpaste splashes.
• Plugholes. Hair.

Our guides on removing limescale and getting rid of bathroom mould cover the two items here that tenants most often fail on when they clean themselves.

Bedrooms and living rooms

Tenants under-clean these rooms because they look clean. Clerks know that and check the places a quick clean misses.

• Skirting boards, door frames and the tops of doors. A finger along each one.
• Light switches, sockets and door handles. Grey marks around the switch plate.
• Inside wardrobes, drawers and cupboards. Opened and photographed empty. Coat hangers left behind are noted as items to remove.
• Windowsills, window frames and tracks. The runner of a sliding window or the channel of a sash collects a year of dust.
• Behind and under furniture that belongs to the landlord. The bed is moved; the sofa cushions are lifted.
• Walls. Scuffs, picture-hook holes and Blu-Tack marks. These are not cleaning items but they are on the same report.
• Carpets. Compared to the check-in. If the check-in says “professionally cleaned”, a vacuumed carpet with a visible traffic lane will be marked as needing a professional clean. Stains are photographed with a scale card beside them.
• Curtains and blinds. Dust along the top of a blind; marks on a curtain lining.
• Light fittings and lampshades. Dust and dead insects in a pendant shade.
• Radiators. The top and the gap behind.

Hallway, outside and everything else

The front door inside and out, the doormat, the meter cupboard, the balcony or garden (swept, no rubbish, bins emptied), the loft hatch if there is one, and any outbuilding. Keys are counted against the check-in list, including window keys and fobs. Meter readings are taken and photographed. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are tested.

What the report says, and what happens next

The clerk writes a condition and a cleanliness note for each item, with photographs, and often an overall line such as “property cleaned to a domestic standard, not professional”. That phrase matters: if the check-in said “professionally cleaned”, the landlord can claim the cost of bringing it back to that, and the adjudicator will usually support a reasonable invoice. What a landlord cannot do is insist on a professional clean as a condition of the tenancy; since the Tenant Fees Act 2019 the requirement is only that the property is returned to the same standard of cleanliness, however that is achieved. We cover the deductions side in can a landlord deduct cleaning from the deposit?

For agents, the check-out is where turnaround time is won or lost. A property that passes clean is re-let the same week; one that fails goes back for a clean, a second inspection and a dispute that can take weeks. That is why many of the agents we work with book the clean before the check-out rather than after, and why we clean to the clerk’s list rather than a generic one. Our cleaning for estate agents in London is built around that schedule.

Cleaning to pass

If you are doing it yourself: start with the check-in report, work top to bottom in each room, open everything, and do the oven and the limescale last because they take the longest. Photograph each room when you finish. Allow a full day for a one-bedroom flat and two for anything bigger.

If you would rather it was done: our end of tenancy clean covers every item above as standard, from £199 plus VAT for a studio, with one oven cleaned free. We work from the empty property, we know what the clerk is going to photograph, and if the check-out report flags something we missed, send it to us the same day and we put it right.

Handing the keys back soon? Book online and we confirm within one working hour.