End of tenancy carpet cleaning

For tenants

Carpet is one of the most common reasons a bond gets partly withheld, and it is one of the easiest to deal with. Under the Residential Tenancies Act you are responsible for leaving the property reasonably clean and tidy, allowing for fair wear and tear. You are not responsible for the carpet being older than it was when you arrived, but you are responsible for the state you leave it in.

Timing is the thing most people get wrong. Book the carpet clean for after the house is empty and the rest of the cleaning is finished, not before. There is no point steam cleaning a lounge that still has to have its walls wiped down and its skirtings done. Aim for the day before your final inspection, so the carpet is dry and the property is presented at its best.

We supply a dated receipt listing every room cleaned, which is what a property manager will ask for. If a specific mark was noted in your entry inspection report, tell us and we will note its condition on the receipt too.

For landlords and property managers

Vacancy costs more than cleaning. We prioritise turnaround jobs and can usually get to a property within one or two working days, often on the same day the tenants hand back the keys. We are happy to work off a key safe or collect a key from your office, and we will send photos of anything we find that you would want to know about, such as burns, pet damage, or a stain that has come back through from the underlay.

For agencies managing a portfolio, we can invoice monthly against a purchase order rather than per job, and we keep a record of when each address was last done so you can see the maintenance history when a dispute comes up.

Book the carpet last, on the day before the final inspection. Everything else in the house should already be finished.

What we look for on a rental carpet

• Traffic lanes through hallways and between doorways
• Furniture indentations and rust marks from bed and table legs
• Pet urine, which needs sub-surface treatment rather than a surface clean
• Cooking oil transfer near kitchen and dining thresholds
• Sun bleaching along window lines, which is fair wear and tear, not soiling
• Burns, cuts and permanent dye stains, which we photograph and report rather than attempt to hide