The End Of Lease Checklist Agents Actually Check

An exit inspection is not a judgement on how tidy you are. It is a comparison against the condition report from the day you moved in, worked through with a checklist. Knowing what is on that checklist is most of the battle.

Here is what gets looked at, roughly in the order agents tend to work through a property.

Kitchen

The kitchen is where most bond disputes start, and the oven is where most kitchen disputes start.

• Oven: racks, trays, the inside of the door and the glass between the panes. Baked-on carbon is the single most commonly failed item
• Rangehood: filter degreased, not just wiped
• Cooktop: including the trim and under removable burners
• Cupboards: inside and out, plus the tops of the overheads where dust and grease combine
• Splashback and benches: including the join at the back edge
• Sink and tapware: descaled, drain clear
• Dishwasher: filter, seal and door edge

Bathrooms

• Shower screen, including the metal frame and the runner at the bottom
• Grout and silicone seals — mould here is a common deduction
• Toilet, including the base, the cistern and behind the bowl
• Exhaust fan cover
• Mirror, vanity and inside the drawers
• Any rust or lime on tapware and the drain

Throughout the property

• Walls: spot-cleaned for marks, scuffs and adhesive residue where things were hung
• Skirting boards, door frames and doors: wiped, not dusted
• Light switches and power points: the classic missed item
• Windows: inside glass, plus the tracks and sills — tracks are checked far more often than people expect
• Flyscreens and blinds: dusted or washed
• Air conditioning filters and ceiling vents
• Wardrobes: inside, including shelves and rails
• Floors: vacuumed and mopped, carpets professionally cleaned if that is in your lease

Outside

• Balcony or courtyard swept, cobwebs removed
• Garage or storage cage emptied and swept
• Bins emptied and rinsed
• Letterbox cleared

The five things people miss most

Across the exit cleans we do, the same items come up again and again on properties the tenant has already cleaned themselves:

• The glass between the oven door panels
• Window and sliding door tracks
• The rangehood filter, as opposed to the rangehood surface
• The tops of doors and overhead cupboards
• Marks on walls near light switches and behind furniture

Timing it properly

Clean after the property is empty, not around your last few boxes. Furniture leaves marks and dust behind it, and a clean done around your belongings will need redoing. If your lease overlaps by a day or two, use it — it is worth more than it costs.

The same logic applies at the other end. If you are moving into a place, a move-in clean is far easier and cheaper while it is still empty.

Doing it yourself versus booking it

Cleaning it yourself is entirely reasonable on a small, well-kept property, particularly if you have kept on top of it and the oven is not bad. Where it usually stops making sense is a full-sized house, a place with a difficult oven, or a move where you simply do not have two clear days.

If you do book it, ask one question before you pay: what happens if the agent flags something. Our end of lease cleans are done to the agent exit checklist, and if the agent flags a cleaning item we come back and redo it free. That guarantee covers the cleaning — it is not a guarantee on your bond as a whole, because bonds also cover damage, rent and repairs that have nothing to do with us.

Be wary of anyone who tells you otherwise.