Your deposit isn't lost at the final inspection. It's lost in the fortnight before it, when "we'll give it a quick going-over" meets a letting agent with a clipboard and a UV torch.
This is the checklist we clean against on every end-of-tenancy job in Belfast. It mirrors what agents actually inspect — so you can use it yourself, or hand the whole thing to us and collect your deposit instead.
The five deposit-killers
Before the room-by-room list, know where deposits actually die:
- Inside the oven. The single most-failed item in Northern Ireland. Baked-on carbon needs dwell time and the right chemistry, not enthusiasm.
- Limescale on taps, screens and tiles. Belfast's water is soft, but shower screens still fog with soap scum that reads as limescale on a report.
- Skirting boards and door tops. Agents run a finger along them. Every time.
- Extractor filters and fan grilles. Grease here says "never deep cleaned" louder than anything else.
- Grout lines. Grey grout that should be white is a re-clean charge waiting to happen.
Kitchen
- Oven: racks, glass (inside the door too), rubber seals, carbon on the floor of the cavity
- Hob, hob rings, and the gap between hob and worktop
- Extractor hood, filters and grilles — degreased, not just wiped
- Fridge and freezer: defrosted, shelves out and washed, door seals scrubbed
- Cupboards and drawers: crumbs out, inside faces wiped, handles polished
- Washing machine: drawer out and descaled, door seal dried and de-moulded
- Bin area disinfected; kickboards and plinths wiped
Bathrooms
- Shower screen descaled to clear glass — both sides
- Grout brushed and mould treated at the silicone lines
- Taps and shower head descaled until chrome, not chalk
- Toilet: under the rim, behind the pedestal, the hinges of the seat
- Extractor fan cover dusted; mirror and any glass polished streak-free
Every room
- Skirting boards, door frames, door tops and handles
- Light switches, sockets and light fittings (dead flies out of the shades)
- Windows inside, sills and tracks; blinds dusted slat by slat
- Radiators — front, top, and behind where the brush fits
- Carpets vacuumed edge-to-edge; hard floors mopped after dusting, never before
- Cobwebs from ceiling corners and behind furniture
The order matters
Work top to bottom, back to front, dry before wet. Dust falls — clean the floor last. And leave the property aired: an agent who walks into fresh air starts the inspection in a better mood than one who walks into bleach fog.
Agent-standard isn't about effort. It's about a checklist, executed twice — once to clean, once to verify.
If you'd rather spend those two days doing literally anything else, our End of Tenancy service comes with a deposit-back guarantee: if the agent flags cleaning, we return and fix it free.