A lot of us are familiar with the concept of end of tenancy cleaning. Back in our younger years before we could even think about owning our own place in London, you had to go through those few days before moving out when you cleaned everything like mad, washing down things that you never even thought of cleaning when you lived there so you could keep the landlord happy and get your deposit money back. Landlords are also familiar with the concept of end of tenancy cleaning, and it’s quite common for lease or rental contracts to request this specifically.
However, the idea of moving in cleaning or start of tenancy cleaning isn’t so familiar. Why on earth would you want or need to clean a property up before you moved in, for goodness sake? You might be a bit puzzled about this concept… until it happens to you.
A Couple Of Start Of Tenancy Cleaning Scenarios
So, what does start of tenancy cleaning look like? Well, here’s a couple of situations where you may need it and they’re not too far-fetched. In fact, they happened to me.
Number One was when an elderly relative was moving out of a Central London house owned by the family trust to a newer, smaller place, and my immediate family was moving in (long story which I won’t bore you with). Now, the elderly relative moving out wasn’t much of a cleaner so when we moved in, things were a bit of a mess. I don’t think some of the floors had been mopped for years! I also got to see first-hand what actually happens when someone doesn’t dust for seven years a la Quentin Crisp. It does get worse: it grows mould. Needless to say, it took quite a bit of effort and lots of hot water, detergent and scrubbing to get that home to a hygienic and liveable condition.
Scenario Number Two was less extreme and this happened when we moved into a cottage that had been on the market and vacant for some time. Again, there was dust all over the place (less than seven years’ worth of it, thank goodness!) as well as cobwebs, dead flies, dead leaves and little piles of mouse crap. It was less of a hassle to clean up compared with Scenario Number One but it really wasn’t what you want to do when you’re trying to find the best place to put the couch and arrange the beds.
The Scenario That Landlords Know Well
Of course, if you’re a landlord, you can probably think of another scenario, one that is both end of tenancy and start of tenancy cleaning. One of the hazards of renting out property is that sometimes, tenants leave in a hurry and they don’t clean up properly after themselves (thank goodness you’ve got their deposit money — which they won’t be getting all back). It could be just a few bits and pieces that haven’t been dusted, vacuumed or scrubbed, or it could be a king-sized mess left by the nightmare tenants.
However, you know that it’s important to get someone into your rental property again as soon as possible so that you can get a return on your investment. That’s the whole reason why you bought those flats or that house, after all. Now, the sort of tenants you want to attract probably don’t want to move into a messy property (unless you know them personally and have come to some sort of arrangement — in which case they’re going to need a spot of start of tenancy cleaning). And even if nice tenants do come walking up to your door, they might not choose your place if it smells horrible and looks dingy thanks to layers and layers of grime.
This means that before your new tenants move in, you’re going to have to arrange to get the place clean, preferably as soon as possible so that you can start earning from your investment again. What’s more, if you present your new tenants with a beautifully clean place when they move in, you can give them an idea of how clean you expect the place to be when they eventually move out again. With photos, if possible, so there aren’t any arguments further down the track.
However, there’s a good chance that you have another job as well as being a landlord, and you can’t take time off work to go around your rental with a vacuum cleaner, mop and duster. You also want to have some sort of spare time, especially if you’ve got kids with sports matches on Saturdays that you’d like to watch rather than cleaning up the rental flat. This means that you probably want to find a good London-based cleaning company who will take care of cleaning up the place for you nice and quickly so you can rent the place out again as soon as possible.
Anyclean’s Start And End Of Tenancy Cleaning Services
Whether you’re moving in or moving on out of rented accommodation, then you can make the process a whole lot easier by calling on Anyclean’s professional cleaning services. They’ve got some great teams who know the ins and outs of start end of lease cleaning services back to front, up and down and probably sideways as well. After all, they’ve been a tenancy check out cleaning company since 1998 and you don’t last this long in the business without being good at it.
Anyclean teams up for their pre and post tenancy cleans for a couple of reasons. The first is the one that’s probably of most interest to landlords and new property owners: having a team take care of the job gets it done more quickly. The team comes in, blitzes your rental dwelling and gets out of there, leaving it clean and ready for new occupants. The second reason is because when you’ve got a team working on things together, the job usually gets done to a higher standard, as they keep each other accountable, using a checklist that’s loved by letting agencies all across London. They are used to working with furnished and unfurnished properties, so no matter which applies in your situation, they can help you.
Homes in between occupants are in all conditions, ranging from just a bit of dust and a few spider webs to absolute chaos and grime. This means that you can never tell how long it’s going to take to get a house or flat ready for moving in. Anyclean does not want you to have any nasty surprises on the bill if the job ends up taking longer than originally expected — unhappy customers are never a good thing — so the company uses a per-property pricing system instead. This keeps things simple and straightforward and everybody’s happy. All of the work is covered by their insurance policy and by Anyclean’s 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Carpet cleaning isn’t part of the standard package for their full house deep cleans. However, it does need to be done in some cases. This is why if you book in for carpet cleaning at the same time as you get our end of tenancy cleaning teams in, you get a discount on the usual carpet cleaning rate.
No matter where you are in the Greater London Metropolitan Area, Anyclean can help you out, whether the place you’re moving into or out of is big or small, a house or a flat, or furnished or unfurnished. From Croydon to Enfield and from Twickenham to Romford, they go anywhere in the M25 ring!
Please get in touch with Anyclean if you want to know more about their moving in and moving out cleaning services, or if you’d like to make a booking.
