End of Tenancy Cleaning in Highbury Vale

End of Tenancy Cleaning for Highbury Vale homes

A high proportion of these streets is let, and the items that get argued over are the ones a tenant never thinks of as theirs: the landlord's nets, the front window reveals and the strip of garden onto the pavement.

A large share of these streets is let, so turnarounds are a steady part of the work rather than a summer event. What gets flagged at check out here is a predictable list, and most of it is outside what a tenant thinks of as theirs. The nets and the curtains at the front were usually the landlord's and were in the check in photographs, and they are a good deal greyer than they were. The window reveals and sills on the road side carry a film nobody has washed. The strip of garden between the front wall and the door collects whatever blows off the pavement, and it appears in the first photograph the clerk takes, because they shoot from the gate inward. None of it is hard. It is just not on anybody's list.

Highbury Vale sits in NG6, under Nottingham City Council. Most of the book here is fortnightly domestic work. Tenancy turnarounds are the second stream, because a large share of these streets is let rather than owned by whoever lives there. Deep cleans arrive in autumn, when the heating goes back on and the walls in the back bedroom start marking.

What we run into on Highbury Vale end of tenancy cleaning jobs

Landlord nets are the item worth deciding on early. They are usually polyester, they wash at low temperature, and they take a full day to dry hanging, which is a day nobody has on a turnaround. Washed too hot they shrink and will not reach the sill again, and that is a replacement rather than a clean. So the decision is made before the day: they come down and go through a machine at the start of the job, or they are replaced and the old ones binned. What does not work is doing them last, still wet, an hour before the check out appointment.

How a Highbury Vale end of tenancy cleaning job actually runs

Turnarounds here are usually tight and often same day, with one tenant out in the morning and a check out appointment fixed before anybody has looked at the state of the place. So the practical questions come first. Who holds the keys, the outgoing tenant or the letting agent, and can we get in at the hour we planned rather than an hour later. Where the van can stand while we load, since with no drives it is on street and a loaded trolley across a footway is not something to leave standing. Whether anything has been left behind, because furniture and bagged rubbish are a removal job and not a cleaning one, and finding out at the door costs the morning. The other thing to settle early is the bin. Collections run to a fortnightly cycle for some streams, so a house emptied the week after a collection has nowhere to put anything, and a full bin standing at the front is in the clerk's photographs whether it is yours or not.

Who books it here

Living on a through route decides when windows get opened, which is hardly ever. Traffic noise at the front and road grit on everything near an open window mean most households ventilate as little as they can get away with, and the moisture that would otherwise leave the house stays in it.

We run Highbury Vale on the same round as Bulwell, Old Basford and Cinderhill.

What we check on every Highbury Vale job

The cooker is where these kitchens fail an inspection, and not for the reason people expect. Most of these kitchens were fitted later into a narrow rear room, so the cooker slots into a run with a finger's gap either side, and years of spitting has run down that gap onto the sides of the neighbouring units and pooled on the floor underneath. Pull the cooker out and there is a dark tacky rectangle that has never seen a mop, plus the plinth in front of it. A clerk will pull the cooker out, and they do it early rather than last. That gap needs degreasing on the unit sides as well as the cooker's own, and the floor beneath washed twice, because the first pass only moves it around. The recirculating hood filter above is the same story and takes a soak rather than a wipe.

What the end of tenancy cleaning covers

A sample of what is included

• Kitchen: Oven interior, racks, door glass and grill pan
• Bathrooms: Extractor vent, cabinet interiors, mirrors and chrome polished
• Kitchen: Dishwasher filter and spray arms
• Throughout: All floors vacuumed and mopped

That is a sample rather than the whole list. The full end of tenancy cleaning page sets out every section of the scope, what is deliberately excluded and why, how long it takes on each property size, and what tends to go wrong.