Moving out in Sydney: a cleaning checklist that protects your bond
A run-up to handing back the keys — what to read in your lease, what to book in which order, and the four jobs a bond clean will not do.
2 min read
Most bond disputes aren't about damage. They're about cleaning, and about sequencing: the clean booked before the removalists, the carpet receipt nobody arranged, the rubbish left for a cleaner who doesn't take rubbish. Hence a boring checklist, in order.
Two to three weeks out
- Re-read the lease and the condition report. The condition report is what your final inspection gets judged against. The lease sometimes adds obligations on top, and the classic one is professional carpet steam cleaning with a receipt. Two things to know about that clause: a bond clean doesn't include it, and in NSW a lease can only require it in limited cases (commonly where you kept approved pets). Check it against NSW Fair Trading's current guidance before paying by default.
- Book the removalists first, the clean after them. A clean done around boxes is a clean done twice.
- Decide furnished or unfurnished. If the landlord's furniture stays, the furnished end of lease clean adds sofa and mattress cleaning plus the fridge and washing machine. Empty property, unfurnished. Details in End of lease cleaning in Sydney.
One week out
- Book the end of lease clean for after the removalists and before the inspection. On ProperLink you can schedule it for a chosen slot, and the price is shown GST-inclusive before you publish, so there aren't quotes to chase while you're also chasing boxes.
- Arrange the separate jobs the clean won't do: rubbish removal, carpet steam cleaning if it genuinely applies to you, mould treatment if there's any, wall marks if the condition report holds you to them.
- Redirect mail and book utility disconnections. Not cleaning, but this is the week they belong to.
Moving day
- Everything out, including the rubbish. Waste removal isn't part of any cleaning scope.
- Final meter photos while the place is empty.
After the clean, before the inspection
- Walk the property with the condition report in hand, room by room, and photograph everything the way it was photographed when you moved in. Fair wear and tear is generally not yours to fix; cleanliness is. NSW Fair Trading draws that line if it's ever contested.
- Keep your records alongside the photos: the job and payment history in the app for the clean, plus the carpet company's receipt if that applied to you. If a deduction is proposed, that folder is your answer.
Still deciding whether you need a bond clean at all? End of lease vs standard clean settles it in a minute.