A professional end of tenancy clean in the UK costs roughly £180 to £420 outside London and £220 to £500 or more inside it, before carpets. A one-bed flat sits near the bottom of that, a three-bed house near the top, and the spread within any one property size is wide enough that identical homes get quoted £140 and £400 by different companies in the same week.
Before any of that matters, one thing is worth knowing: since the Tenant Fees Act 2019, a landlord or agent in England cannot require you to pay for a professional clean as a condition of the tenancy. Any clause saying you must produce a receipt from a professional cleaning company is unenforceable. What they can do is expect the property returned in the condition it was let, allowing for fair wear and tear, and deduct from the deposit if it is not.
Quick answer: Expect £120 to £220 for a studio, £150 to £300 for a one-bed, £230 to £340 for a two-bed and £300 to £450 for a three-bed, with London at the upper end. Carpet cleaning is nearly always a separate charge at £40 to £80 per room. Only book a company offering a re-clean guarantee, because that is what actually protects the deposit.
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Typical prices by property size
| Property | Outside London | London | Hours on site | Add carpets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | £120 to £200 | £170 to £220 | 3 to 5 | £40 to £80 |
| 1 bedroom | £150 to £260 | £200 to £300 | 4 to 6 | £75 to £100 |
| 2 bedrooms | £200 to £300 | £260 to £340 | 5 to 8 | £100 to £140 |
| 3 bedrooms | £300 to £450 | £320 to £420 | 5 to 8 | £120 to £175 |
| 4 bedrooms or more | £380 to £550 | £420 to £600 | A full day | £150 to £200 |
Quotes advertised as starting from a low figure are usually minimum job prices for a small property in good condition with one bathroom. They are not misleading exactly, but the number you actually pay is set after the scope is assessed, so treat a from-price as an opening position rather than a quote.
Why bedroom count is the wrong way to compare quotes
Bathrooms and kitchens drive the labour, not bedrooms. Some companies price room by room, at roughly £35 per kitchen, £35 per bathroom, £30 per living room, £20 per bedroom and £10 per hallway, against a minimum job price of around £120. That model explains why two properties with the same bedroom count can differ by £80.
A bedroom is a floor, a window and some skirting. A bathroom is descaling, sanitising, grout, glass, extractor and fittings. A kitchen is the oven, the hob, the extractor filter, the fridge and freezer interiors, and every cupboard inside and out. Two of the three rooms in a property that take real time are the ones nobody counts.
So when you collect quotes, give the same information to each company: number of bathrooms and en-suites, whether the property is furnished, whether carpets or hard floors, oven condition, and whether there has been a pet. Quoting on bedrooms alone produces numbers that cannot be compared, and it is how people end up with a cheap quote that rises at the door.
Ask specifically what the base price includes. Budget operators frequently exclude oven cleaning, appliance interiors and inside-cupboard work, which are precisely the areas an inventory clerk checks first.
What the Tenant Fees Act changed, and what it did not
Landlords and agents in England cannot make professional cleaning a contractual requirement, and cannot charge a fee for it as a condition of the tenancy. They can still deduct from the deposit if the property is returned dirtier than it was let, judged against the check-in inventory and allowing for fair wear and tear.
The distinction is between a requirement and a standard. Nobody can compel you to hire a company. Everybody can hold you to returning the property as you found it. In practice this means a tenant who cleans thoroughly themselves and documents it is on solid ground, and a tenant who cleans casually is not, regardless of who did the work.
Cleaning is consistently the largest single cause of disputed deposit deductions in the UK, accounting for more than half of contested cases. Typical deductions sit around £60 to £100, while disputed cleaning charges can reach £200 to £400. That range is the actual financial risk you are weighing a £200 clean against.
The check-in inventory is the reference document for all of it. If the property was let with a grimy oven and the inventory records that, you are not obliged to hand it back gleaming. If the inventory says the oven was clean, you are. Find your check-in report before you decide how much cleaning to pay for, and note that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland operate under separate legislation. Our guide to how tenancy rules work now covers the wider position for renters in England.
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The add-ons that are not in the headline price
Carpet extraction, upholstery, external windows and balconies are almost always charged separately because they need different equipment. Carpets are the big one, adding £40 to £80 per room, or £75 to £175 across a property.
- Carpet hot water extraction. £40 to £80 per room. Check the tenancy agreement, since some specifically require professional carpet cleaning where carpets were professionally cleaned at check-in.
- Upholstery and sofas. £50 to £150 depending on size and fabric. A two-seater is nearer £50 to £80.
- Oven deep clean. Included by better operators, charged as an extra by budget ones. Built-up grease is the single most common cleaning deduction.
- External windows. Usually a separate trade entirely.
- Balconies and outdoor areas. Treated as add-ons because they need different kit.
- Mould, heavy limescale or pet hair. Adds time, so declare it when quoting rather than letting the team find it.
Declaring the true condition up front is genuinely in your interest. A fixed quote given on accurate information holds; a fixed quote given on optimistic information gets revised on the doorstep, when you have no time to call anyone else.
What a full clean should actually cover
A genuine end of tenancy clean is judged to inventory-check standard, which is stricter than a domestic deep clean. The difference is that it covers the inside of things: appliance interiors, cupboard interiors, extractor filters, window tracks and the areas behind and beneath white goods.
Use this to check what a quote includes before booking. If a company will not confirm these in writing, the price is not comparable with one that does.
- Kitchen. Oven interior, racks, glass door and seals; hob and extractor filter; fridge and freezer interiors defrosted and wiped; washing machine drawer and seal; inside and outside of every cupboard; behind and under freestanding appliances; sink, taps and splashback descaled.
- Bathrooms. Limescale removed from taps, shower head and screen; grout and sealant; toilet including behind the pan and the cistern; extractor fan cover; mirrors and glass streak-free; plugholes cleared.
- All rooms. Skirting boards, door frames and doors including tops; light switches and sockets; radiators including behind; picture rails and coving; internal windows, sills and tracks; wardrobe and cupboard interiors if fitted.
- Floors. Hard floors mopped, carpets vacuumed thoroughly including edges and under furniture that is staying. Extraction is separate.
- Often forgotten. Loft hatch surround, meter cupboard, bin store, garden waste and anything left in a shed or garage.
Two areas cause the majority of failed inspections and both are invisible during a normal tidy. The first is the oven, including the inner glass panel, which on many models unclips for cleaning and is otherwise impossible to reach. The second is anywhere behind a freestanding appliance, since a fridge or washing machine that has not moved in three years hides a genuinely poor floor.
Also empty the property completely, including anything stored in a loft or garage. Items left behind are charged for as removal rather than cleaning, and disposal charges are typically higher than cleaning ones. Anything you no longer want is better donated in the week before, which our guide to decluttering before a move covers.
Doing it yourself against paying a company
We compared the three routes on cost, time and the risk of paying twice, using published 2026 UK rates. The result is closer than the headline prices suggest, because the cheap options carry a failure cost the expensive one does not.
| Route | Cost for a 2-bed | Your time | If it fails inspection | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean it yourself | £20 to £40 in materials | 10 to 16 hours | You pay for a clean anyway, on top | Properties let in modest condition, documented |
| Hourly cleaner | £130 to £240 at £22 to £30 per hour | Supervision only | No guarantee, so you pay again | Topping up your own work |
| Professional fixed-price service | £200 to £340 | None | Free re-clean under guarantee | Anyone whose deposit exceeds about £1,000 |
Two conclusions. First, the hourly route is the weakest of the three. At £22 to £30 an hour and six to eight hours of work, it lands close to a fixed-price professional quote while carrying none of the guarantee, and it has no incentive to finish quickly.
Second, the re-clean guarantee is the entire value proposition of the professional route, not the cleaning quality. If the property fails a check-out inspection, the company returns and redoes it at no cost, which means you cannot end up paying twice. A firm that will not offer one is selling you the same risk you would carry doing it yourself, at a higher price.
Check the guarantee window. It typically runs 48 to 72 hours from the clean, which has to cover the gap until the check-out inspection. Book the clean for the day before the inspection, not four days before.
Prices are indicative UK ranges drawn from published 2026 cleaning company rates and vary considerably by region, property condition and what a given quote includes.
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When paying for it is not worth it
Skip the professional clean if your deposit is small relative to the quote, if the check-in inventory records the property as being let in poor condition, or if you have several unhurried days and the property is genuinely not in bad shape.
Cleaning companies will not tell you any of this, so here it is plainly. If you rented a room in a shared house with a £400 deposit and the quote is £250, the arithmetic does not work. Clean it yourself properly, photograph everything, and accept the risk of a modest deduction.
The inventory point matters just as much. Tenants routinely pay to hand back a property in better condition than they received it, because nobody checks the check-in report. If it records grease on the oven and marks on the carpet at the start, you owe the same standard back and no more.
Whichever route you take, photograph every room, every appliance interior and every floor on the day you hand the keys back, with the date visible. Evidence is what settles a cleaning dispute, and it costs nothing.
One thing that is worth paying for regardless: clean after the property is empty, not before. Cleaning around furniture and boxes wastes the money entirely, because the areas an inventory clerk checks are the ones currently hidden. Our checklist for moving out of a flat sets out the order.
How EcoGreen Movers fits around the clean
Sequencing decides whether the cleaning money is well spent. Everything out, then the clean, then the inspection, in that order and ideally across two days. EcoGreen Movers works to a confirmed arrival window rather than a vague morning slot, which is what makes booking a cleaner for the following morning realistic rather than a gamble.
We run residential moves nationwide, including London, Manchester and Edinburgh, and use reusable crates that leave with the van rather than a hallway of cardboard for the cleaners to work around. Get in touch for a quote.
Frequently asked questions
Can a landlord force a tenant to pay for professional cleaning?
No. Since the Tenant Fees Act 2019, landlords and agents in England cannot make professional cleaning a condition of the tenancy or charge a fee for it. They can still deduct from the deposit if the property is returned in worse condition than the check-in inventory records, allowing for fair wear and tear.
Is carpet cleaning included in the price?
Usually not. Most companies include vacuuming as standard and charge separately for hot water extraction, at roughly £40 to £80 per room. Check the tenancy agreement, because some require professional carpet cleaning specifically where the carpets were professionally cleaned at the start.
How long does a clean take?
Three to five hours for a studio or one-bed, five to eight for a two or three-bed, and a full day for larger or heavily soiled properties. These assume the property is empty, which is why furniture and boxes still in place push the time and the price up.
What is a re-clean guarantee?
A commitment to return and redo the work free if the property fails a check-out inspection, typically valid for 48 to 72 hours. It is the main reason to use a professional service rather than an hourly cleaner, and it should be the first thing you ask about.
Which areas cause the most deductions?
Ovens first by a distance, then limescale on taps and shower screens, extractor fan filters, inside kitchen cupboards, behind and under white goods, window tracks and skirting boards. Inventory clerks check to a specific standard, and these are the areas casual cleaning misses.
In summary: compare on rooms, insist on the guarantee
Budget £200 to £340 for a two-bed and £300 to £450 for a three-bed outside London, with carpets on top. Quote on bathrooms and kitchens rather than bedrooms, declare the real condition, and only book a company that offers a re-clean guarantee covering the gap to your inspection.
Check the check-in inventory before deciding what standard you actually owe, and photograph everything on the day you hand back the keys. Nobody can require you to hire a professional. Whether it is worth it depends on the size of your deposit, not on what the tenancy agreement claims.
One last practical note: book the cleaner as soon as the move date is confirmed rather than in the final week. End of tenancy work concentrates around month ends and the last Friday of the month in particular, and the companies with the strongest guarantees fill those dates first. A late booking narrows the choice to whoever still has a slot, which is rarely the firm you would have picked.
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