Bond cleaning under the Queensland Act
The Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act asks tenants to keep the premises and inclusions clean, having regard to their condition at the start of the tenancy. At the end, you leave them as far as possible in the same condition they were in at the start, fair wear and tear excepted.
You choose who does your Queensland bond clean
You can clean the place yourself or book a business, and the landlord or agent cannot make you use a cleaner they choose.
The lessor or the lessor's agent must not require you to buy goods or services from them, or from a person they nominate. The RTA says a tenant may choose to engage a professional company to do the cleaning or do it themselves, and an owner cannot make you use a specific carpet cleaning service or pay a set fee for one.
Pet conditions in a Queensland lease
If you were allowed a pet, the agreement can carry conditions. Where the pet could carry parasites, one can require professional fumigation at the end, and where the pet was allowed inside, one can require the carpets to be professionally cleaned at the end.
The standard is the one ordinarily achieved by businesses selling those services, and a pet condition cannot raise the rent or the bond. Fumigation is pest control, so that part is for a pest controller rather than a cleaner.
The RTA bond and disputes over a claim
The bond is up to four weeks' rent, whatever it is called, and the RTA holds it. If you and the lessor cannot agree on the refund, the RTA's dispute resolution comes first, and QCAT after that.
Step by step to a Qld bond claim
Keep the entry report
You got the entry condition report at the start and returned it within seven days. Keep your copy: it is the checklist for the clean.
Clean to the start condition
Go room by room against the entry report, leaving what is only fair wear and tear.
Fill in the exit report
Complete the exit condition report and hand it in with the keys. The owner sends you a completed copy within three business days.
Apply for the refund
Lodge the bond refund with the RTA, and use its dispute resolution if you cannot agree.
Before a Queensland bond clean: what we'd do
Book the bond clean for once the place is empty, give the business a copy of your entry condition report, and get what is included and the re-clean terms in writing. If your agent hands you a list of cleaners, the choice is still yours.