Introduction

An end of lease clean in Melbourne is not judged on effort. It is judged against the entry condition report you signed when you moved in, item by item, usually in about an hour.

Clean each item until it passes the check an agent actually uses:

• Kitchen: look through the oven door glass with a torch, lift the burner caps, and wipe the underside of the rangehood.

• Bathroom: shine a light across the shower screen at a low angle. Streaks and scale show up instantly.

• Tracks and ledges: run a finger along every window and sliding door track. A grey fingertip means fail.

• Melbourne extras: ducted heating vents, split system filters, balcony drains and winter condensation mould on window frames.

• Order and proof: empty the property first, clean top to bottom, photograph every room when you finish, and keep your entry report beside you the whole time.

Cleaning is the single biggest cause of bond deductions in Australia, responsible for 56% of them (End of Lease Bond Disputes Report, 2025).

Most end of lease cleaning checklists tell you what to clean. Very few tell you how you will be marked.

We clean vacated rentals across Melbourne every week, which means we usually arrive after the tenant has left and before the property manager walks through. We see the same items pass and fail again and again, and the pattern is consistent: renters rarely skip whole rooms. They clean an item to a standard that looks fine standing up, and the agent checks it from an angle nobody thought to try.

This checklist fixes that. Most items come with the check we see agents use, so you can mark your own work before anyone else does.

First, a note on the terms

If you are reading from outside Australia, the bond is what other countries call a security deposit, and the end of lease clean is the move out clean that decides how much of it comes back. In Victoria the bond is held by a government authority rather than the landlord.

Where we quote numbers below, they are Australian figures from Australian regulators, and we have labelled them as such. The method travels. The rules do not.

Know the standard you are cleaning to

In Victoria, a renter must leave the property reasonably clean, and the agent compares its condition at the end with the entry condition report completed at the start, allowing for fair wear and tear. That comparison is the whole test.

Two things follow from it.

Your entry condition report is your most useful cleaning document. Before you touch anything, read it room by room. If it recorded marks on the carpet, a stained benchtop or an old oven on day one, you are not expected to hand back something better. If it said “clean” for an item, that is the bar.

Clean is not the same as new. Faded paint, worn carpet in walkways and small nail holes are ageing, not dirt. You cannot clean your way out of them, and you should not lose your weekend trying. In Victorian disputes, carpet is generally written down by about 10% a year following Australian Taxation Office guidance, so a tired carpet after five years is expected to look tired.

The odds are on your side if you get this right. In the 2024 to 2025 year, 65% of Victorian bonds were returned in full, and 96% of bond claims were settled by agreement rather than at a tribunal (RTBA Annual Report, 2024 to 2025). In our experience the renters in the minority usually lost money on a handful of items, not a whole house.

Kitchen checklist

The kitchen is where most cleaning deductions start, because grease is sticky, layered and easy to miss from above.

• Oven interior, racks and trays. Agent check: opens the door, then shines a phone torch through the glass from outside. Baked residue on the back wall or between the door panes shows as a dark film. Soak racks overnight rather than scrubbing them on the last day.

• Oven door glass and seal. Agent check: runs a finger along the rubber seal. Crumbs and grease collect in the fold.

• Cooktop. Many Melbourne rentals have gas cooktops. Agent check: lifts a trivet and a burner cap. The ring of grease under the cap is one of the most common kitchen notes we see.

• Rangehood. Agent check: looks up at the underside of the canopy and wipes a finger across it. Remove the filter, soak it in hot water with degreaser, and wipe the inside of the housing while it is out.

• Splashback and grout behind the cooktop. Agent check: looks at it side on under the kitchen lights. Grease shows as a dull, speckled haze.

• Cupboards and drawers, inside and out. Agent check: opens a few at random and checks corners and drawer runners, then looks at the tops of the overhead cupboards if they can see them.

• Dishwasher. Agent check: pulls out the bottom basket and looks at the filter and door seal.

• Sink and tapware. Agent check: looks at the base of the tap and the plug hole, where scale and grime build up.

• Fridge, if one came with the property. Agent check: opens it, checks the seal and the crisper drawers, and sometimes looks behind it. If you are asked to switch it off, leave the door propped open.

• Microwave, if supplied. Agent check: opens it and looks at the roof of the cavity.

Bathroom and laundry checklist

Bathrooms fail on water. Soap, body oils and minerals leave a film that is almost invisible under a ceiling light.

• Shower screen. Agent check: views it at an angle against a light, or shines a torch across the glass. Any film shows as white streaks. Clean, rinse, then dry with a squeegee and a cloth so it does not dry spotty.

• Tiles and grout. Agent check: looks at the lower rows and corners, where grout darkens first. Scrub, rinse and let it dry fully before judging.

• Silicone. Agent check: looks at the joint where the wall meets the tray or bath. Surface mould usually comes off with the right product. Mould that has grown inside the silicone cannot be cleaned out and is generally treated as fair wear and tear, so note it rather than attacking it.

• Toilet. Agent check: lifts the seat, checks under the rim, the hinges and the base where it meets the floor.

• Exhaust fan. Agent check: looks up. A grey fuzz on the grille is visible from the doorway. Most covers unclip for washing.

• Vanity, drawers and mirror. Agent check: opens the drawers, then looks at the mirror from the side, where smears show.

• Drains. Agent check: glances at the shower and basin wastes for hair.

• Laundry trough and tap. Agent check: the same as the kitchen sink, plus the space where the washing machine stood. Lint and detergent spills collect on the floor and wall behind it.

• Dryer, if supplied. Agent check: pulls out the lint filter.

Living areas and bedrooms checklist

These rooms rarely fail on anything large. They fail on edges, ledges and tracks.

• Window tracks and sliding door tracks. Agent check: the finger swipe. Vacuum the grit first, then wipe with a damp cloth, then dry. The balcony door track is the one people forget.

• Window sills and frames. Agent check: looks at the corners of the frame for black spots, particularly on the side facing the room.

• Flyscreens. Agent check: holds them up to the light. Remove and rinse them if the entry report shows they were clean.

• Skirting boards, door frames and handles. Agent check: a white cloth along the top edge of the skirting. Dust shows as a grey line.

• Light switches and power points. Agent check: looks for fingerprint smudges around the plate.

• Built in wardrobes. Agent check: opens the doors, checks shelves, hanging rails and the sliding door track at the base.

• Ceiling fans and light fittings. Agent check: looks up. Fan blades collect a thick layer on the top edge, and fittings collect dead insects.

• Walls. Agent check: scans for marks at hand height and near furniture positions. Spot clean gently with a damp microfibre cloth. Scrubbing matte paint hard can leave a shiny patch that looks worse than the mark.

• Blinds. Agent check: runs a finger along a slat. Dusting is normally expected. A full wash is only needed if the entry report shows they were washed clean.

Melbourne specific items that generic checklists miss

Checklists written for other cities, or for other countries, tend to miss the fixtures that are common in Melbourne housing.

• Ducted heating vents. Many Melbourne houses and townhouses have floor or ceiling heating vents and a large return air grille, often in the hallway. They collect dust, hair and the occasional lost earring. Lift out the floor vents, vacuum and wipe them, and wipe the return grille.

• Split system air conditioners. Agent check: opens the front panel. The mesh filters clip out and can be rinsed and dried. Grey filters are a very common note.

• Balconies in apartments. Across the CBD, Southbank, Docklands, a balcony is part of the property. Sweep it, clean the glass balustrade on the inside face, and clear the floor drain. A blocked balcony drain is easy for an agent to spot and easy for you to fix.

• Winter condensation mould. Melbourne winters are damp, and many rentals have single glazed aluminium windows. Condensation runs down the glass and grows black spots on the frames and the sills. Treat it with a mould remover, rinse, and dry thoroughly.

• Garages and carports. If the lease includes one, sweep it out and remove anything that is yours. Oil stains on concrete are rarely fully removable, but cobwebs and rubbish are.

Floors and carpets

Floors are cleaned last, once everything above them is finished.

• Hard floors. Agent check: looks along the edges and in corners, where the mop missed. Vacuum the edges with a crevice tool before mopping.

• Carpet. Agent check: looks at traffic paths and stains. Vacuum thoroughly, including under where beds and couches stood.

Professional carpet cleaning is not automatic. For leases entered into after 29 March 2021, a Victorian rental provider cannot require you to arrange professional cleaning at the end of a tenancy unless one of two things is true. Either the property was professionally cleaned immediately before you moved in and you were told so, or professional cleaning is needed to restore it to its entry condition, such as wine or urine stains in the carpet (Consumer Affairs Victoria, Guideline 2). The same guideline lists steam cleaning of carpets as the kind of cleaning that goes beyond reasonably clean. Check your lease and your entry report before you book it. If you do book it, keep the receipt with your photos.

The order that saves a second pass

Work top to bottom, and dry before wet. Dust fans, fittings, vents and ledges first, then wipe surfaces, then clean wet areas, then vacuum, then mop last. Doing it in reverse drops dust onto floors you already finished.

Start the slow jobs early in the week. Oven degreaser and grout cleaner both work better with time to soak. Leave the final pass for the day the property is empty, because cleaning around furniture leaves an outline of dust where each piece stood.

If you book professionals, know what the price covers

Plenty of renters do this themselves and pass. Others book it out, because a fixed price and a written guarantee turn an uncertain week into a known cost. In Melbourne, a fixed price end of lease cleaning service starts from AUD $245 for a studio, and a three bedroom, two bathroom home is $490 without carpet, both including GST. With our service, if the agent raises a cleaning issue, you report it within seven days of the clean and we return to fix it at no charge.

Whoever you book, ask exactly which items are included and which are extras, because this is where most misunderstandings start. Fridges, windows, deep blind washing, wall washing, balconies and garages are often priced separately, and so is carpet steam cleaning. With us, carpet steam cleaning is from $110, then $55 per extra bedroom or $60 per living area, so it is worth asking any provider which rooms their carpet price covers.

Our own end of lease cleaning checklist sets out room by room what a standard clean includes and what costs extra, which makes it easy to compare against any other quote you receive.

Handover day: prove what you did

The inspection itself is short. Most apartment inspections we see take 30 to 60 minutes, and a three or four bedroom house can take up to 90. What happens afterwards depends on what you can show.

1. Photograph every room in daylight once you finish, with close ups of the oven, the shower screen, the tracks and anything the entry report flagged.

2. Email the photos to yourself so they carry a date that does not depend on your phone.

3. Keep receipts for any professional cleaning.

4. Return every key listed on your entry report, and get written confirmation that you did.

After that, the timelines are set by law. The agent must complete the exit condition report within 10 days of the tenancy ending, and must give you a reasonable opportunity to be there when they inspect, so ask. A rental provider has 14 days from the end of the agreement to start a bond claim (Consumer Affairs Victoria). If they claim for cleaning, your photos and your entry report are what you will answer with.

The short version, again

Clean each item until it passes the agent’s check, not until it looks fine to you standing in the doorway.

Read your entry condition report first and clean to it, not beyond it. Do the kitchen and bathroom with a torch in your hand. Run a finger along every track. Add the Melbourne extras: vents, split system filters, balconies and winter mould. Empty the place before the final pass, and photograph everything when you finish.

The bond is rarely lost on the big rooms. It is lost on the burner caps, the rangehood underside and the balcony door track.

Sources: End of Lease Bond Disputes Report (Australia, 2025); Residential Tenancies Bond Authority, Annual Report for 2024 to 2025 (Victoria, Australia); Consumer Affairs Victoria guidance on condition reports and bond claims, and its Guideline 2 on cleanliness; Tenants Victoria guidance on carpet depreciation. Inspection times and item observations are from O2O Cleaning’s own work across Melbourne. All figures are Australian, and none of it should be read as a United States statistic.