End of Tenancy Cleaning in Crouch End

A ground and first floor maisonette in a three-storey Victorian terrace on one of the residential streets between the Broadway and Crouch Hill — a 3-minute walk from the Clock Tower and a 7-minute walk to Crouch Hill rail station. The couple — a TV producer and a freelance set designer — had lived in the maisonette for 2.5 years at £2,400/month, working partly from home in the front reception room. Managed by Anthony Pepe (Crouch End and Palmers Green offices, 30+ years in the area, 2,250+ Google reviews).

The maisonette occupied the ground and first floors of a handsome mid-Victorian terrace — bay-fronted, with a tiled front path, a vestibule with an original stained glass inner door, and a hallway with a decorative tiled floor in a geometric black-and-red pattern. The stained glass was the first feature we addressed: a panel of deep blues and ambers in an Art Nouveau pattern (later Victorian addition, not original to the 1870s build but now considered part of the property's character). Cleaned on both sides with specialist glass cleaner and a soft cloth — no abrasive products anywhere near the leading. The vestibule tiled floor was swept and mopped with pH-neutral product.

The ground floor had two reception rooms separated by folding doors. The front room — the couple's home office for 2.5 years — had a decorative cast iron fireplace with a tiled surround, cornicing with a ceiling rose, a picture rail, and stripped pine floorboards. The home-office use had left specific marks: two sets of desk indentations in the floorboards (documented for inventory — these are wear, not cleaning), a patch of wall behind the monitor that was slightly less faded than the surrounding paintwork (noted — not a cleaning issue), and a light adhesive residue from a wall-mounted cable organiser (removed with specialist adhesive remover without paint damage). The rear reception had a simpler fireplace (painted wood surround) and French doors to the garden.

The kitchen was in a rear extension — a modern installation with a Bosch oven, quartz worktops, and underfloor heating. The oven was dismantled and degreased in 45 minutes. The set designer had used the kitchen table for model-making — tiny specks of paint and adhesive in the table surface grooves (cleaned where possible, remaining specks documented as they were embedded in the grain).

First floor: three bedrooms and a bathroom. The master had a bay window with original sash mechanism — tracks vacuumed, both sides cleaned. Cornicing and a picture rail throughout. The second bedroom was used as the set designer's studio — paint splashes on the windowsill (removed with careful scraping on the gloss surface, documented on the timber frame), and a faint charcoal smudge on the wall near the window (cleaned with a dry microfibre cloth). The third bedroom was compact, used for storage. The bathroom had a bath-shower combo with moderate limescale at ~280 ppm and the start of mould on the ceiling corner (anti-mould spray applied before descaling).

The rear garden — a 40ft strip — was within the tenancy scope for basic maintenance. The patio directly outside the French doors was swept, the garden path cleared of leaves, and the garden fence line noted as needing landlord attention (not cleaning — two fence panels were loose).

Anthony Pepe inspected the following day. They've been in Crouch End for over 30 years and their checkout reflected the 2.5-year tenancy length — every period feature checked, the home-office marks assessed, the studio paint splashes evaluated, and the stained glass condition verified. The desk indentations, paint specks in the kitchen table grain, and faded wall patch were all accepted as fair wear and tear. The adhesive residue and charcoal smudge were confirmed as fully removed. Royal Cleaning passed.