Adelaide end of lease cleaning and what SA's Law Handbook says
A reasonable state of cleanliness
The Legal Services Commission's Law Handbook says a tenant returns the home to the landlord in a reasonable state of cleanliness. It's a standard of how the place is left, and you can reach it with your own mop and bucket.
The carpet clause
The Law Handbook gives this as an example of a term that can't be enforced: all carpets to be professionally cleaned by the tenant at the end. It says that clashes with section 69(3) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1995.
Pets change the carpet answer
According to the Law Handbook, since 1 July 2024 a landlord who allows a pet inside can set a reasonable condition that carpets be cleaned to a professional standard when the tenancy ends. A pet condition can't make you buy goods or services from a particular person or business.
The inspection sheet
SA's condition report is called an inspection sheet. The Law Handbook says the landlord gives you one signed copy at the start, and it's used at the end to check for damage and whether the home was left reasonably clean.
If a bond claim comes
Consumer and Business Services handles bonds for the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs. The Law Handbook says the other party gets 14 days to dispute a claim, and a disputed claim goes to conciliation and can then be referred to SACAT.
How we'd run the last week of an Adelaide lease
Read the lease and the inspection sheet
Look for any carpet term or pet condition, and note anything marked as dirty or worn when you moved in.
Send the job
Give the bedrooms and bathrooms, tick the oven, inside windows or carpets if they apply, and put your handover date in the note.
Empty the place
Everything goes first, including the fridge, the bins and anything in the shed. Keep the power and water on.
Let the clean happen
Leave the inspection sheet on the bench, so the cleaner can see what the place looked like at the start.
Walk it and photograph it
Check each room against the sheet, then take dated photos before the keys go back.
Adelaide bond cleaning: what you can do yourself
Worth doing yourself
- Clear out the shed, the letterbox and anything left outside.
- Vacuum and wipe rooms you've barely used.
- Sort the wall marks you made yourself, gently, on a small patch first.
Where a cleaning business earns its keep
- Baked-on ovens, grills and rangehoods.
- Shower glass, grout and soap scum.
- Inside windows and tracks through the whole place.
- Carpet steam cleaning, where a lawful pet condition asks for it.
Check the carpet clause before Adelaide end of lease cleaning
Check the carpet clause before you book. The Law Handbook says a blanket professional carpet term can't be enforced, so unless you've got an indoor pet condition, leave steam cleaning off the list when the carpets don't need it. Put the effort into what the inspection sheet says was clean at the start.