The end of lease cleaning checklist that gets your bond back

Why a Eurobodalla bond clean is its own beast

Renting on the Eurobodalla coast is a bit different to renting in the city, and an end of lease clean here has its own quirks. Salt air off the bay leaves a film on windows and tracks. Sand finds its way into every door track and skirting board, especially in the holiday-let strip from Durras down through Batemans Bay and out to Moruya. If you've lived near the water at all, you know the back flyscreens cop a constant coating that you stopped noticing months ago. The property manager will notice it on the exit inspection.

On top of that, a lot of local places double as holiday rentals between tenancies, so the standard the agent holds you to is often higher than an average suburban lease. They want it ready to re-let the same week. The REINSW exit condition standard is what most local agents work from, and it isn't vague. Floors, walls, wet areas, oven, range, windows and tracks all get checked against the condition report you signed on the way in.

So before you grab a bucket, understand what you're actually being judged on. You aren't cleaning for it to look nice. You're cleaning to match the property to how it was recorded at the start of your lease, minus fair wear and tear. That single idea changes how you approach every room, and it's the difference between getting the full bond back and arguing over a deduction three weeks after you've moved out.

Start with the entry and exit condition report

Dig out the entry condition report and the photos you took (or should have taken) on move-in day. This is your map. Agents compare the property to that document, not to some perfect showroom version of the place. If a mark on the laundry wall was already there and noted when you arrived, it isn't your problem now. If the carpet had a stain in the back bedroom on day one, you don't need to lose sleep over it.

Go room by room and make two lists. List one is everything that's genuinely your mess to fix, the grime that built up while you lived there. List two is anything pre-existing that you can prove with the original report or photos. Keeping these separate stops you from over-cleaning things that were never your responsibility, and it gives you ammunition if the agent tries to charge for something that was already logged.

Take fresh, dated photos as you finish each room. A clear shot of a spotless oven, a clean window track, an empty and wiped-out cupboard. If there's ever a dispute through NSW Fair Trading or the Tribunal, dated before-and-after photos are worth far more than your word against the agent's. This five minutes of phone work has saved local tenants hundreds of dollars more than once.

The kitchen, where most bonds are won or lost

The kitchen is the single biggest deduction trap, and the oven is the worst offender. Baked-on grease and that brown glaze on the inside of the door is the first thing an agent opens and inspects. Pull out the racks and soak them, get into the corners, do the glass on both sides of the door, and don't forget the grill and the drip tray. The range hood filters need degreasing too, they slide out and most people have never touched them.

Move the fridge and the freestanding oven out and clean the floor and walls behind them. That gap is where crumbs, fat splatter and the odd fork go to die, and agents know to look. Wipe down the inside and outside of every cupboard and drawer, the splashback, the rangehood underside, and the cooktop including around the burner rings. Run a cloth over the top of the overhead cupboards as well, dust and grease settle up there and it shows under a torch.

Finish with the sink and tapware. Clear the drain, scrub out any tea staining, and buff the tap so it actually shines. A streaky tap and a greasy splashback tell the agent the whole clean was rushed, even if the rest of the room is fine. First impressions in the kitchen set the tone for the entire inspection, so it pays to be thorough here even when you're running out of energy.

Bathrooms, laundry and the mould you stopped seeing

Coastal humidity means mould creeps into grout, silicone and ceiling corners faster here than inland, and it's one of the most common things flagged on a Eurobodalla exit report. Hit the grout lines, the silicone around the bath and shower base, and the underside of the toilet seat and behind the bowl. Soap scum on the shower screen needs a proper scrub, not a quick wipe, because the glass shows every smear when the light hits it.

Pull the exhaust fan covers down and clean the dust off them, clear the drain hair, and descale the shower head if it has gone crusty with our hard-ish water. Mirrors should be streak free. Inside the vanity and the laundry cupboards, wipe out the shelves and the lint that collects around the washing machine taps and dryer. If there's a dryer, clean the lint filter, agents do check it.

Don't paint over mould or use a marker on grout to fake it clean. It comes back within days and an experienced property manager spots a cover-up instantly, which makes them scrutinise everything else harder. If the mould is genuinely set into old silicone, a fresh bead of silicone is a cheap fix that reads as a clean, well-kept bathroom. We use low-tox products for all of this, which matters in a small unventilated bathroom where you're breathing the fumes.

Floors, carpets and the sand that gives you away

Hard floors need a vacuum and then a proper mop, getting right into the edges and corners where dust banks up. Sand is the local tell, it gathers along skirting boards and in the grooves of timber-look flooring, and a quick once-over leaves it sitting there for the agent to find. Move the lighter furniture and check underneath, because dust bunnies under the bed are a classic deduction note.

Carpets are where a lot of leases specifically require a professional carpet clean, and many local agreements state it in writing. Vacuuming alone won't lift the ground-in traffic lanes down the hallway or the marks in front of the lounge. A professional carpet clean also handles odours, which matters if you've had pets, and most agents want the receipt as proof. Our carpet cleaning is a flat $50 per room plus GST, and when it's part of an end of lease clean there's no minimum, so we can quote it together with the bond clean as one job, one price.

Check your lease for a pet clause too. If pets were approved, there's often a condition requiring carpet cleaning and sometimes a flea treatment on exit regardless of whether you actually saw a flea. Sorting this before the inspection is far cheaper than the agent organising it themselves and taking it out of your bond at a marked-up rate.

Windows, tracks, walls and the spots people forget

Windows inside and out, plus the tracks and flyscreens, are non-negotiable on the coast because salt residue builds up fast and is obvious in the afternoon light. Vacuum the tracks first to get the sand and dead bugs out, then wipe them. Take the flyscreens out, hose or brush them down, and pop them back. A streak-free window with a clean track is one of those small details that quietly tells the agent the whole place was done properly.

Walls and skirting boards collect scuff marks, especially in hallways and around light switches and door handles. A magic eraser handles most marks, but go gently because scrubbing too hard can take the paint sheen off and make it look worse. Wipe down doors, architraves, the tops of doors, and the skirtings. Dust the ceiling fans, the light fittings, the air conditioner vents and the smoke alarm covers.

Then there's the list everyone forgets. Inside the dishwasher filter, behind the toilet, the garage floor oil spots, the picture hooks (fill the holes if your lease requires it), cobwebs under the eaves and around the outdoor light, the letterbox, and the bins which should be washed out and empty. Clean the outdoor entertaining area and sweep the carport, because on a coastal property the outside areas are part of the inspection just as much as the inside.

Garden, rubbish and the outside areas agents still check

Out here the yard is part of the deal, and a tidy interior with an overgrown garden still draws comments on the exit report. Mow the lawn, edge the paths, pull the weeds out of the garden beds and the cracks in the driveway, and trim anything that has gone wild over the lease. If the place came with a particular garden standard noted on entry, match it. Coastal gardens grow fast over a wet season and an agent will note long grass and weedy beds as a return-to-original-condition issue.

Clear out everything you aren't taking. That includes the shed, the garage, under the house if there's space, and any rubbish you've been meaning to take to the Surf Beach or Brou tip and never got around to. Leaving behind a mattress, a broken bbq or bags of green waste is an easy deduction because the agent simply charges removal at their rate and you've no say in the cost.

If clearing the place is a job in itself, we do lawn and yard work and rubbish removal as well, so the garden, the green waste and the hard rubbish can be sorted in the same visit as the clean. For a busy move, having one local team handle the lawn, the rubbish run and the inside means you aren't chasing three different people in your last week, which is usually the most stressful stretch of any move.

When to DIY and when to book the bond-back guarantee

Plenty of tenants do their own bond clean and get the full amount back, and if you've the time, the gear and a place that was reasonably well kept, there's no reason you can't. The honest catch is time. A proper end of lease clean on a two or three bedroom place is a long, physical day, often two, on top of the actual move. The oven, the windows, the carpets and the yard are the parts people underestimate, and they're exactly the parts agents inspect hardest.

If the maths doesn't work, a professional bond clean takes it off your plate and comes with backup if the agent picks something up. At Capital Coastal Cleaning our end of lease cleans are done to the REINSW exit standard and come with a bond-back guarantee, so if the agent flags something we covered, we come back and sort it. We're police-checked, fully insured, use low-tox products, and we quote a fixed price up front rather than charging by the hour, so there are no surprises when the invoice lands.

As a guide, bond cleans are a fixed price by size plus GST, from $450 for a one bedroom up to $850 for a four bedroom depending on the size and condition, with carpet cleaning at a flat $50 per room plus GST on top if your lease requires it. We're a local Indigenous-owned team, Tyson, Shanice and Lisa, working the coast from Durras to Moruya, open seven days, with a 5.0 rating from 110 Google reviews. If you want a fixed quote before you commit, call us on 0479 184 498 and we'll sort it out before your inspection date.