Flat deep cleaning before rental

[jennyh]

Hey

We are renting our flat out soon and will be looking to have a deep clean done before we get the tenants in, does anyone know what is included in it? Are we talking carpets? Skirting boards? Oven? windows? it is a really simple and small flat with mainly wooden floors and white walls (will be unfurnished) so not talking a massive amount of hard work but just trying to work out what we need to get done without spending a fortune.

What is the difference between a professional deep cleaning company and just using normal cleaners for a bit longer?

Thanks!

[fl0wer]

I think the difference is how sterile a finish you're ordering. When people talk about 'deep cleaning' I think of hospitals and catering kitchens.

However, getting the flat clean is the right thing to do. I wish the rental agencies were as good as their word. They promise absentee landlords to get places properly done between tenants. We have noticed they do the very least they can get away with. University accomodation is often a disgrace.

What if the place housed people who carried TB, Hepatitis, HIV, etc?

Careful landlords recoup the cost of deep cleaning by writing it into each tenancy agreement. Tenant arrives to a spotless place, and signs the agreement knowing there'll be one charge for a cleaning firm hired to do the carpets at the end of the contract. This can be non-negotiable.

Steam-cleaning is good for tiled floors and carpets. Curtains & sofa covers -> laundrette service wash, or dry cleaners. Bathroom and kitchen should be, well, germ free - tiled walls & ceilings as well as the suite. London water makes regular lime scale removal worthwhile.

A professional would take your order & arrange all this for you, plus clean things like mirrors and windows and skylights, lampshades & light switches, plugs and handles, the fridge, oven and hob and drains, front doorsteps and bins.

Cheapie firms: a warning. 'Normal' cleaners are sometimes people whose passports are being held by a middleman while they work for peanuts in this ideal, hidden, black-economy job, paying off those who smuggled them in.

[Burbage]

fl0wer Wrote:

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> ....When people talk about 'deep

> cleaning' I think of hospitals and catering

> kitchens.

Whereas I think of discretion.

But deep cleaners also have equipment for what are politely termed "specialist" tasks. So it depends what, exactly, you want got rid of. Here are some questions that might help the OP decide:

1) Are you particularly ashamed of your grubbiness? Although most of us can tolerate a surprising quantity of filth, landlords, naturally, tend not to. Whether this is because they wish to avoid the basilisk glower of lettings agents, who are professionally withering at the best of times, or simply because they calculate that a bout of outsourced scrubbery can be both claimed against tax and rooked back from tenants, is a moot point.

2) Have you any communicable diseases that your tenants might catch without their prior consent?

3) Is the vermin more exotic than the normal stuff (fleas, bedbugs, dust mites, weevils, silverfish, woodlice, black fungus, rats and/or mice)?

4) Have you ever smoked, kept a pet or been in contact with anyone who has done either? Although I don't think any landlords have yet been sued for inadvertent allergens or third-hand smoke, it's only a matter of time.

5) Is there anything, or anyone, you've done that might have left traces you'd prefer not to be found? There's a range of substances - DNA, fingerprints, bodily fluids and certain unfortunate solids - that, though a natural and normal feature of rented accommodation, can become problematic if you have tenants that ask questions, bear grudges or both. Unfortunately, forensic science (or the courts' willingness to fall for it) has moved on by leaps and bounds, so you can no longer reliably pretend it's a wine stain or a special sort of caulk.

If the answer to any of the above is 'yes' (as this is a public forum, it's best you keep the answers to yourself) then a discreet, professional, deep-cleaning company might be what you need. I am no expert, however, so you should check with your insurance and legal advisors if you're still in any doubt.

Question 5, incidentally, may not be relevant. It depends on where you're going to be living in the meantime. If it's somewhere like Holloway, then I doubt you'll need to worry. But if you're heading for the sunshine of, say, Ecuador, you'll not want anything to interfere with the natural flow of rent.