End of Tenancy Cleaning in Sidcup

1930s semi, quiet road near Lamorbey Park. Three bedrooms, bathroom, separate kitchen, lounge with bay window, garage, driveway, nice garden at back. Family — two children at Holy Trinity Lamorbey Primary — 4 years at £1,650. Ellis & Co managing from their Blackfen Road office.

Van on driveway. Free. This is Sidcup, parking is never problem.

Kitchen first. Separate room at back. Zanussi cooker, gas, freestanding. We pull out — 4 years of grease behind, on skirting, on wall. Scrape first, then degrease. Both ovens we spray, 20 minutes. Lower oven needs second pass — family cooking for 4 years, it builds up. Hob done, four burners, caps off. Serving hatch: kitchen side is greasy, lounge side is dusty. Both sides wiped. Extractor filter soaked. Fridge cleaned — gasket has mould starting, we fold back and clean inside. Cupboards all wiped. Floor is vinyl, we degrease — colour goes lighter, like always.

Back door to garden — track has leaves. Not many, but 4 years of leaves from the trees at back of garden. We vacuum track, wipe with cloth, finger-test. Clean.

Lounge. Bay window at front — three panes, painted timber frame. We clean glass and vacuum tracks. Fireplace — sealed, painted surround, simple. Wiped. Textured ceiling — Artex. We dry-brush only. There is grease shadow near serving hatch, same as every 1930s house. We brush as much as we can, then photograph what stays. Carpet vacuumed. Radiators cleaned.

Upstairs. Bathroom — bath with shower over, glass screen. Limescale at ~265 ppm, 4 years family. Waterline is heavy — we need two passes with descaler cloth. Screen one pass. Taps done. Toilet done. Floor mopped.

Three bedrooms. All simple — carpet, wardrobe, window. Master at front with bay window, tracks done. Children room has sticker on wardrobe and small pencil mark on wall — both cleaned. Box room used as office — desk wiped.

Garage — part of the let. Concrete floor, we sweep. Shelving wiped. Some cobwebs in corner, cleared. Maybe 10 minutes.

4 hours 15 minutes total. Simple house, honest work.

Ellis & Co come next afternoon. Their DA14 lettings person — she does many of these 1930s semis every month. Kitchen: oven opened, serving hatch both sides checked, floor colour noted. Lounge: Artex shadow accepted. Bay tracks: finger-tested. Bathroom: waterline gone, screen clear. Children marks: cleaned. Garage: clean. Done in maybe 10 minutes. Passed.

Deposit back in 8 days. Full return. Family is moving to bigger house in Blackfen — the chalet style with loft conversion. Still in grammar school catchment. That is Sidcup — families don't leave, they just move to bigger house on next road.

Nothing complicated. No marble, no exposed brick, no concierge. A 1930s semi that needed proper cleaning so deposit comes back. Oven, bathroom, serving hatch, Artex, garage, garden threshold. We do it right, we document what we can't fix, deposit comes back. Our guide on deposit dispute evidence explains how.