End of Tenancy Cleaning Quote: Scope, Labour and Exclusions

The customer says the flat is empty. Your cleaners arrive to food in cupboards, belongings on the floor and rubbish by the door. A fixed end of tenancy cleaning quote only works when you define the condition, the work and what happens if the property is not ready.

Start with the handover condition. Inspect the property. Write the room scope. Build the crew-hours and cost. Then give the customer and cleaners the same document.

Define the handover condition before pricing

Ask what the property must be ready for. It might be an inventory check-out, letting photographs, a new tenant or another named handover. Ask for any named letting-agent or inventory check-out instructions and record the answer on the enquiry.

Promise that the crew will clean every accessible, listed surface using the agreed method. State the expected finish for each task. Record pre-existing damage and permanent staining because neither is a missed cleaning task. Tell the customer to report missed included work by room and surface, with a photograph where possible, through the agreed reporting process.

You cannot promise that a landlord, letting agent or inventory clerk will approve the property or return a tenant's deposit. Damage, tenancy terms and another party's judgement sit outside the cleaning scope.

Name the customer instructing the work. Then name the person who can approve extra work while the cleaners are on site. They may not be the same person.

Record who receives the completion photographs and who takes the keys afterwards. Set this chain before you price the clean. Otherwise the crew finishes the work and waits while several people argue about authority.

Qualify the property before offering a fixed quote

Ask for the property facts before discussing a total. Bedroom count helps identify the rooms. It does not tell you how much grease is inside the oven or how many cupboards still contain food.

Record:

• The full address and postcode
• Property type, floors and room names
• Whether it is vacant, partly occupied or occupied
• Furniture, belongings, food and rubbish left inside
• Visible grease, scale, dust, hair, residue and odours
• Cupboards and appliances that have been emptied
• Water, power and working lights
• Keys, alarms and entry instructions
• Stairs, lift access, parking and the carrying route
• Building access times and permitted working hours
• The completion deadline
• The person authorised to approve a variation

Ask who will remove belongings, empty cupboards and dispose of rubbish. Put their answer in the quote assumptions. Do not leave it in an email thread that the cleaners never see.

Decide whether photographs are enough

Request current wide photographs of every room. Ask for closer images of ovens, hobs, extraction filters, cupboards, bathrooms, floors, windows and reported problem areas.

Photographs can hide grease films, odours, blocked surfaces and poor access. They may not show the top of cupboards or the space behind furniture. Visit the property when the rooms are occupied, the condition is unclear or the deadline leaves no room for a bad assumption.

If you cannot confirm the condition or readiness, issue an estimate instead of presenting the work as fixed. For example, estimate E-1847 in the house electrical example gave a range of 900–1,400 rather than a fixed total. Use the quote versus estimate guide to choose the right document for the information you have.

Build a cleaning scope checklist by room and surface

Walk through the property in the order the crew will work. Name the room, surface and task. A room name alone is not a cleaning instruction.

For each line, record the observed condition and mark the task as included, optional or excluded. That produces a cleaning scope checklist the customer can accept and the crew can follow.

Specify the kitchen and appliances

Separate appliance fronts from appliance interiors. If the oven interior is included, say so. Do the same for the fridge, freezer, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer and extractor.

List work on worktops, splashbacks, sinks, taps, cupboard fronts, cupboard interiors, drawers, handles, switches, doors, skirting boards and floors. State whether the crew may pull out appliances or clean only accessible areas.

Define bathrooms, bedrooms and living areas

For bathrooms, name the toilet, bath, shower, basin, taps, screen, mirrors, tiles, grout surfaces, extraction cover, storage and floor. Distinguish ordinary cleaning from stain treatment, damaged sealant or repair work.

For bedrooms and living areas, list reachable surfaces, shelves, wardrobes, doors, handles, switches, skirting boards and floors. State whether wall work means spot cleaning or washing whole walls.

Name carpet vacuuming and carpet extraction separately. They use different labour, supplies and equipment. Do not let one line called floors cover both.

Separate options from the base clean

Price uncertain or equipment-heavy work as separate options. Useful option lines include cupboard interiors, appliance interiors, carpet extraction, blinds, wall washing, interior windows, rubbish removal, furniture moving and outside areas.

Record the accepted or declined status of each option. A blank line is not a decision.

Stop at unknown or unsafe material

Tell the crew not to treat sharps, pest waste, unknown chemicals or material that looks like biological contamination as ordinary dirt. Stop the affected task. Keep people away and photograph the condition without disturbing it.

Decide whether trained handling or another provider is needed. Check the Health and Safety Executive guidance on hazardous substances (opens in a new tab) when the condition creates an exposure risk for your workers.

Turn the scope into a deep cleaning labour estimate

Estimate the work task by task. Use the condition seen during the visit or shown in current photographs. Do not start with a price per bedroom and hope the cleaners finish inside it.

Build the deep cleaning labour estimate with a worksheet:

For each row, add the task time and its access or setup time. Multiply each block of elapsed time by the number of cleaners paid for that block, using your own figures. Add the row totals and shared activities to get total crew-hours.

Compare each planned task time with the same task in your own completed-job records. Then adjust it for the condition, access and amount of work in front of you. A completed oven record is useful for another oven; a whole-property average hides which task missed the plan.

Add paid work outside the room lines. Include unloading, chemical preparation, carrying equipment, lift waits, stairs, water changes, equipment changes, final checks, completion photographs, packing and key return.

Build the crew plan from the labour total. Assign the oven, bathrooms, floors and detailed finishing work. Check whether one person will wait for another to finish with a machine, water point or room.

Price labour, supplies, equipment and markup

Start with your planned crew-hours. Build your loaded labour cost from gross pay plus the employer payroll costs, employer pension contributions, paid leave and other employment costs caused by employing the cleaner. Divide that total by productive working hours using your own figures, then multiply the hourly result by the planned crew-hours.

Add consumables used because of the job. Then add job-specific equipment costs, travel, parking, restricted access charges and approved disposal. If the clean causes the cost, put it in the job record.

Recover overhead separately. One practical method is to total office, administration, insurance, van, storage, phone and other overhead for a set period, then divide it by the productive crew-hours planned for that same period. Apply the resulting overhead amount to the job's planned crew-hours. Do not also add a cost directly if it is already inside that overhead total.

Use this sequence:

Planned crew-hours × your loaded labour cost
= planned labour cost

+ job-specific supplies
+ job-specific equipment costs
+ travel, parking, access and approved disposal
+ allocated overhead
= total planned cost

total planned cost × your markup percentage
= markup amount

total planned cost + markup amount
= quoted price

Markup is added to cost to reach the selling price. Margin is profit measured as a share of the selling price. They are different calculations. The job pricing guide explains how to separate labour, materials, overhead and markup without inventing a market rate.

Use HMRC's guidance on charging, reclaiming and recording VAT (opens in a new tab) to check whether and how VAT must appear for your business and service. Do not guess the treatment or copy it from another cleaning business.

Use a fixed quote when the condition, access, readiness and work are defined. Use an estimate, an inspection condition or separately priced options when they are not. A fixed price does not mean accepting undisclosed work for free.

Write an end of tenancy cleaning quote the crew can follow

Use the same room names and task wording in the customer document and crew sheet. Match them to any named letting-agent or inventory check-out instructions. If the customer accepted oven interior cleaning, the crew sheet must say oven interior. Do not shorten it to kitchen.

Before sending an end of tenancy cleaning quote, read every line as if you were the cleaner entering the property with no access to the enquiry emails. Rewrite anything that leaves the surface or task open to interpretation.

Copy-ready quote template

Customer: [name of instructing customer]
Service address: [full address and postcode]
Quote number: [quote number]
Proposed service date: [date or scheduling window]
Quote valid until: [date]
Property status: [vacant / partly occupied / occupied]
Required finish: [inventory check-out / letting photographs / new occupation / other]
Named check-out instructions: [document, version or date]

Included work:
- Kitchen: [surfaces, appliances and tasks]
- Bathroom(s): [surfaces and tasks]
- Bedroom(s): [surfaces and tasks]
- Living areas: [surfaces and tasks]
- Floors: [vacuuming / mopping / extraction]
- Other areas: [hall / stairs / storage / other]

Optional work:
- Appliance interiors: [scope and option price]; [accepted / declined]
- Cupboard interiors: [scope and option price]; [accepted / declined]
- Carpet extraction: [scope and option price]; [accepted / declined]
- Windows and blinds: [scope and option price]; [accepted / declined]
- Wall washing: [scope and option price]; [accepted / declined]
- Rubbish removal: [scope and option price]; [accepted / declined]
- Other: [scope and option price]; [accepted / declined]

Customer preparation:
[belongings removed, food removed, cupboards emptied, access cleared]

Site assumptions:
[property condition, utilities, keys, parking, lift and working hours]

Exclusions:
[blocked areas, damage, permanent staining, repair, restoration, unknown material and disposal limits]

Variation process:
[affected work stops until the named contact approves the added scope and price in writing]

Missed included work:
[reporting contact and method; identify the room and surface]

Completion record sent to: [name and contact]
Keys returned to: [name, place and method]
Quoted total: [price]
Payment terms: [terms]
Accepted by: [name, method and date]

Put firm cleaning quote exclusions around the price

Write exclusions around conditions that would change the labour, method or risk. Make them specific enough for the customer and crew to understand.

Possible exclusions include:

• Belongings, food or rubbish not removed as agreed
• Areas blocked by furniture or stored items
• Repairing damage or replacing failed sealant
• Removing paint, adhesive or building residue
• Restoration or specialist stain treatment
• Moving heavy furniture or appliances
• High or outside work not listed in the scope
• Unknown chemicals, sharps, pest waste or biological contamination
• Water or power being unavailable
• Disposal beyond the accepted rubbish option

Match each exclusion to the property. Do not paste a long defensive list onto every quote. The useful exclusions are the ones that tell the crew when the accepted price no longer fits the site.

Stop and agree a variation when the property differs

Suppose the customer described the property as empty. The crew opens the door and finds food in cupboards, belongings on floors and bags of rubbish by the entrance.

Do not start the affected tasks and discuss the price later. Photograph the condition. Tell the customer which assumptions have failed. Price the added clearing, disposal or cleaning work and get written approval from the named contact.

Record the variation against the original quote. Include the added scope, added price, approval name, approval time and effect on the completion time. If approval does not arrive, complete only the unaffected accepted work where that remains practical and safe.

Worked example: keep the quote and variation separate

The house example is an electrical job, but its document control applies to cleaning work. All figures below are sample currency units, not rates.

R. Chen at 14 Oak Street accepted quote Q-1847 for a bathroom exhaust fan and four LED downlights at 1,105. The ceiling was lined, and chasing was excluded. Extra cable and chasing were approved on site as a 160 variation. Invoice INV-1847 was therefore 1,265.

The original quote did not silently become 1,265. It remained 1,105, with a separate approved variation of 160. Keep the same distinction when added rubbish, blocked rooms or undisclosed appliance interiors change a cleaning job.

Record completion and invoice the accepted work

Take completion photographs by room and task. Use the same room names as the quote. A folder of random images makes it hard for the office to answer a question about the oven or second bedroom.

Record unfinished excluded areas and the reason. Note who received the photographs, when the keys were returned and where they were left. If the customer asks for more cleaning after handover, compare the request with the accepted scope before booking a return visit.

Invoice the original accepted work and each approved variation. Do not add unapproved work because the crew chose to do it. Do not remove an accepted option without recording why it was not completed.

Check cost tracking and job profitability

Close the job with actual figures. Record every cleaner's paid time, supplies used, equipment hired, parking, travel, disposal and other direct costs. Compare them with the plan against the accepted quote.

On the Oak Street example, the cost measured against original quote Q-1847 was 850. Profit against that quote was 255 because 1,105 minus 850 equals 255. Margin was about 23%, calculated as 255 divided by 1,105. Markup was 30%, calculated as 255 divided by 850.

Do not calculate profit from invoice INV-1847 for 1,265. The cost of the 160 variation is not given. Combining the invoice total with the original job cost would produce a false result.

Use the cost record from each end of tenancy cleaning quote to find where planned crew-hours or equipment costs missed the actual job. Update the next property survey with the task or access condition that caused the miss.