Bond Clean vs. Additional Fee

A bond clean happens once a year, usually in November. A cleaning company cleans the whole house very thoroughly. They charge between $600 and $800 depending on the amount of grime, dust, hairs, oil, marks, mould, shower scum, and other things they have to clean. To pay for the bond clean, each student pays a cleaning fee of $120 when they leave.

As long as students clean their rooms and other areas they use reasonably well, there will be no additional cleaning fees.

If students leave at other times of the year without cleaning their areas properly, we cannot wait months for the bond clean to take care of this.

We must clean the rooms ourselves, which requires an additional fee – not related to the bond-cleaning cost.

We explain this on the rules page (see 8 – Cleanliness and Tidiness, and 18 – Departure).

You can avoid additional cleaning fees by ensuring you clean your room properly and leave other areas you use (refrigerator space, cupboard space, etc.) equally clean.

See the photos to the left. The top image shows a reasonably clean shower.

The next photo shows the same shower after a bond clean.

If a tenant leaves a shower with horrible brown stains, mould, and filth all over the tiles, like the bottom photo, that we have to spend an hour cleaning, we will charge for that.

This applies to all other areas, including sinks, floors, walls, carpets, windows, mirrors, under the bed, refrigerator spaces, cupboards, and garbage bins. If you wish to avoid additional fees, please ensure that you leave the room and other spaces in the same condition they were when you moved in.

The Bond Cleaning Fee is not the Additional Cleaning Fee 

As long as the room is left in the same condition it was in at the start, a tenant only has to pay the Bond Cleaning Fee at departure. There will be no other cleaning fees.

On the other hand, if we have to spend hours cleaning, we will be charging for that.

Student Stats
90% of student tenants leave their rooms in relatively good condition, reasonably clean. They only pay the standard cleaning fee. About one in ten leave areas like those to the left. They pay an additional cleaning fee. The great majority of students do the right thing and treat us fairly, as we do them. 😊