End of lease cleaning checklist (Australia)

This end of lease cleaning checklist includes every area of an Australian rental property: kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, living spaces, laundry, and outdoor areas. You can tick off items as you complete them (your selections are saved in this browser), then print the list or save it as a PDF. It's useful both for tenants doing their own bond cleaning (also known as vacate cleaning) and for professional cleaners reviewing the job before handover.

Five things people often miss

Check these five before you hand back the keys.

Rangehood filter degreasing
Oven door glass
Shower screen limescale
Window track dust
Replacing blown light bulbs before returning keys

Kitchen

Once the kitchen is done, photograph inside the oven, the rangehood filters and the spaces behind appliances.

Warning: never use steel wool or harsh scourers on stainless steel sinks, benchtops or glass cooktops. Scratches count as damage, not cleaning.

Older surfaces such as heat-etched oven glass and mould deep inside old silicone are not dirt. Scrubbing won't remove these and may damage the surface; they are usually considered fair wear and tear or maintenance issues. Instead, photograph them using CleanLog, which records the time and place of each photo.

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Bathrooms and ensuite

Photograph mould in old silicone before you scrub. Mould inside the silicone is a maintenance item, not a cleaning failure.

Bedrooms and living areas

Photograph carpet stains and wall marks when you arrive. Marks already listed in the entry condition report are not yours to fix.

Warning: avoid scrubbing matte paint vigorously with a melamine (magic) sponge. This can create a shiny spot called burnishing, which cannot be cleaned off and may be claimed against your bond.

Laundry

Take a quick photo of the cleaned lint filter and taps.

Outside and final checks

Do a final photo walk-through before you leave. It records the condition you left the property in.

Questions about end of lease cleaning

How clean does a rental have to be at the end of a lease?

The property should be reasonably clean, based on the condition when you moved in, not as if it were brand new. In New South Wales and Victoria, tenancy laws require the property to be left reasonably clean and, as much as possible, in the same condition as at the start of the tenancy, allowing for fair wear and tear (NSW s 51(3), Vic s 63(2)). Queensland's legislation requires the same condition as at the beginning, except for fair wear and tear (Qld s 188(4)), and the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) clarifies that fair wear and tear does not include dirt, grime, or grease. Your entry condition report serves as the reference point.

What do you have to clean at the end of a lease?

You need to clean everything that became dirty during your tenancy, restoring it to the standard shown in your entry condition report. The Queensland RTA recommends cleaning room by room and highlights commonly overlooked areas such as windows and window tracks, skirting boards, light fixtures, ceiling fans, air conditioning vents and filters, the inside of cupboards, the oven, and outdoor spaces like balconies, gardens, and lawns.

Source: RTA Queensland: Cleaning

Do you have to hire a professional cleaner?

Generally, professional cleaning is not mandatory. The Queensland RTA states tenants may clean themselves or hire professionals. Lease terms about professional cleaning are limited too. In NSW, leases cannot mandate professional carpet cleaning at the end of a tenancy (Residential Tenancies Act 2010 s 19(2)(a)), except as a reasonable condition related to having a pet. In Victoria, for leases signed from 29 March 2021, such a requirement applies only if the property was professionally cleaned just before you moved in and you were informed, or if it's necessary to restore the property to the condition it was in when you moved in. In Queensland, the requirement depends on the specific situation.

Source: Residential Tenancies Act 2010 (NSW) s 19

Is there an official RTA bond cleaning checklist?

There is no comprehensive official checklist. The Queensland RTA's cleaning page gives a short list of things not to forget (windows and tracks, skirting boards, light fittings, fans and vents, cupboards, the oven, and outdoor areas). The official documentation is the Exit condition report (Form 14a), which you complete room by room and which is compared to the Entry condition report (Form 1a). This checklist is intended as a practical guide for cleaning, not as an official form.

Source: RTA Queensland: Cleaning

Can you print this checklist or save it as a PDF?

Yes, you can print or save the checklist. Click “Print checklist” at the top of the page, then select a printer or choose “Save as PDF” in the print dialog. Your tick marks are saved only in this browser on this device, and you can clear them by clicking “Reset all”.

What if a mark will not come off?

If scrubbing doesn't remove a mark, stop and assess whether it's actually dirt. Surface changes like heat etching on oven glass, mould inside silicone seals, lime-scale etching on glass, carpet traffic shading, and burnishing on matte paint are alterations to the surface that cleaning won't fix and may worsen if scrubbed. Take a photo of the mark and compare it with the 40 examples in the fair wear and tear guide below.

Guides for the end of your lease

Turn this checklist into agent-ready proof

CleanLog AU logs the date, time, and location of each photo and converts spoken Chinese notes into standard trade English. There is no need to download anything, and taking and previewing photos is free of charge.

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