End of lease cleaning in Sydney: what it is and how it works

An end of lease clean (a bond clean, if that's the word your agent uses) has one audience: whoever does your final inspection. You won't be living in the property afterwards, so "nice" isn't the goal. The goal is handing it back in the state your condition report says you got it, because cleanliness is the most common thing bonds get argued over.

That's also why it's a separate service with its own pricing. Booking a standard clean for a move-out usually ends badly; End of lease vs standard clean covers why.

Unfurnished or furnished

ProperLink offers two versions. Which one you need depends on what's still in the property when the cleaner arrives.

• Unfurnished — the property is empty and the clean covers all of it, top to bottom.
• Furnished — the landlord's furniture stays, so on top of the unfurnished scope this adds sofa and mattress cleaning plus the fridge and washing machine.

If your own furniture is still there, you're not ready for either. Book the clean for after the removalists.

What a bond clean does not include

Four things sit outside both versions, and they're the four things people most often assume are in:

• Rubbish removal. Cleaners don't take waste away. Clear the property first.
• Carpet steam cleaning. A separate trade. In NSW your lease can only demand it in limited cases, commonly where you kept approved pets, so check the clause against NSW Fair Trading's current guidance before paying for one. If it genuinely applies, book it separately.
• Mould removal. That's remediation work.
• Wall cleaning. Scuffs and marks on walls are excluded.

If the lease or condition report puts any of these on you, plan them as their own jobs alongside the bond clean.

What it costs, and when you pay

Pricing works the same way as everything else on ProperLink: calculated from your bedrooms and bathrooms, shown as one GST-inclusive total before you publish. No quote. The two versions have different rate cards because the scopes differ, and the checkout shows your number before you commit. It's a floor you can raise but not undercut; how pricing works explains why.

Publishing an instant job places a hold on your card straight away. For a scheduled booking your card is saved when you book and the hold is placed closer to the slot. Either way you're charged after you approve the completed clean, or automatically 48 hours after the cleaner marks it done if you haven't reviewed it by then. Cancelling is the one exception: a cancellation fee can apply depending on how close to the booking you cancel, and the app shows the amount before you confirm.

How the booking runs

You can publish for right away or schedule a slot. For a move-out, most people schedule it after the removalists and before the final inspection. Cleaners near your address who are online get notified and the first to accept takes the job — there's no bidding. For an instant job the checkout also warns you when it can see no online cleaners in range at that moment; treat that as a heads-up, not a guarantee either way.

ProperLink is opening suburb by suburb across Sydney, so coverage is narrower than the city. The app checks your postcode before anything is charged.