End of Tenancy Cleaning in Belsize Park

We had a first-floor lateral in a white stucco-fronted Victorian villa — one of those wide streets where the houses are set back from the road behind low walls and mature hedges. About 3 minutes from the tube, 8 from England's Lane. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open-plan kitchen-reception of about 35ft, and ceilings high enough to make you look up before you start looking around. A couple — both in media — had been there 2 years at £3,100/month. KFH Belsize Park managing.

Camden permit via RingGo. £6.50 — the most expensive day rate we pay anywhere. Parked on the next street.

The reception room stopped me for a moment. A marble fireplace — white Carrara, veined, with a cast-iron register grate and a hearth of matching marble. Above it, a ceiling rose of maybe 50cm diameter with a deep acanthus-leaf pattern. The cornicing ran the full length of the room — 35ft of elaborate Victorian moulding with egg-and-dart, dentil, and a secondary rope-twist row. My colleague started on the cornicing with the extension brush while I worked on the fireplace. pH-neutral on the marble — never acidic, never abrasive. Each surface wiped individually: mantel top, the legs, the inner reveals, the hearth. The cast-iron grate got the barely-damp cloth. The marble had a slight tea stain near the mantel top — it lightened with pH-neutral but a shadow remained. Photographed it. Marble stains. That's the material.

The sash windows — four full-height sashes in the reception, two in each bedroom. The agent's brief had specifically mentioned sash boxes. On Victorian sashes the box is the casing that houses the counterweights — it accumulates dust over years and most people never open it. We opened each accessible panel, vacuumed inside, and closed them. Tracks vacuumed. Glass cleaned. Eight sash windows across the flat — about 40 minutes on windows alone.

The kitchen was at the far end of the open-plan space — a high-end refit with handleless cabinets, an integrated Miele oven, an induction hob flush into a quartz island, and a flush-ceiling extractor. Oven: door off, glass out, cavity sprayed, 20-minute dwell. One pass — the couple cooked well but kept it clean. Quartz with pH-neutral. Extractor panel soaked. Fridge-freezer cleaned. The floor was reclaimed herringbone parquet — warm, aged, and beautiful. Specialist wood product, diagonal strokes following the block pattern, barely-damp. The parquet had a slight fade near the window where sunlight hit — photographed it. UV fade on reclaimed wood. Natural.

Two bathrooms. The main had a walk-in rainfall shower with two glass panels, a floating basin, and large-format tiles. Descaler at ~260 ppm, 10-minute dwell per panel. The en-suite had a bath-shower combo with a glass screen. Waterline light (couple, no kids). Both bathrooms: taps done individually, toilets done, floors mopped, chrome polished dry.

Two bedrooms. Both with full-height sash windows (already done), built-in wardrobes (wiped inside, every shelf and rail), and the same reclaimed parquet.

KFH came the next morning. Their Belsize Park senior negotiator — she manages a portfolio of NW3 laterals and knows every detail the landlord expects. Marble fireplace: each surface checked, tea stain noted and accepted as material characteristic. Cornicing: she looked up from multiple angles. Sash boxes: she opened one to check. Parquet: walked in socks — no tackiness. Sash tracks: finger-tested on every window. Oven: torched. Shower panels: phone-torch angle-tested. Passed.

Deposit back in 6 days. Full return. The couple were moving to a 3-bed in Primrose Hill — upgrading within NW3.

The marble and the sash boxes were the details. Most cleans handle the surfaces you can see. A Belsize Park clean handles the surfaces the agent specifically asks about — inside the sash boxes, behind the radiators, underneath the marble hearth. If the tea stain or the UV fade had been disputed, our documentation would have been the evidence. Marble stains and wood fades in sunlight — that's fair wear and tear on natural materials. Our guide on landlord cleaning charges explains the line.