A Melbourne bond is normally a month’s rent, so on an average unit that is well over two grand sitting with the residential tenancies bond authority, and a professional end of lease clean on the same unit is a few hundred dollars. The whole move out decision lives inside that gap. The clean is small money and the bond is not, so the real questions are what the law makes you do, what the agent can take, and whether your own labour covers it.
Reasonably Clean Is the Legal Standard, Not Spotless
Section 63 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 requires you to leave the property reasonably clean. Consumer Affairs Victoria spells that out as free from marks, dirt, cobwebs, stains and dust, to the point where more cleaning would not improve anything. The pass mark is reasonably clean measured against your entry condition report, not spotless. A degreased oven that still looks fifteen years old passes. Grout that was already discoloured when you moved in is not your problem at exit. And fair wear and tear is excluded entirely, so worn carpet in the walkways or faded paint near a window cannot come out of your bond no matter how tired it looks.
That report you signed in week one is the whole benchmark. If you never filled it in properly, the agent’s version of the starting condition is the one on record, and that is usually where renters lose.
What the Clean Costs Against What the Bond Holds
In Melbourne right now a one bedroom bond clean runs about $250 to $380, and a two or three bedroom home sits around $350 to $550, with bigger houses going higher once carpet steam cleaning and outside windows get added on. Set that against a month of rent held by the RTBA, more on some high rent leases, and the sum is lopsided. But the sum only matters if a deduction is genuinely likely, and deductions need evidence, so the money question turns into an evidence question fast. Paying for a clean does not protect the bond on its own, the receipt and photos of the finished place do more of that work than the clean itself.
What an Agent Can Claim, and What They Cannot
An agent can put a claim against your bond for cleaning below the entry standard, for damage beyond fair wear and tear, and for unpaid rent. That list is shorter than most claim letters suggest. Off the table completely:
- Fair wear and tear, so faded curtains, worn bench tops and carpet traffic lanes stay off any claim.
- Anything the condition report shows was already there.
- A professional cleaning receipt demanded purely because a clause in the lease says so.
That last one trips people constantly. For leases signed after late March 2021, a professional cleaning clause only holds if the place was professionally cleaned right before you moved in and you were told that in writing at the start. Same goes for the carpet steam cleaning clause agents love to include, it reads official and it is mostly unenforceable. They also cannot tell you which cleaning company to use.
How a Claim Runs Through the RTBA
You do not have to wait for the agent. You can lodge your own refund claim through RTBA Online with your bond number, and once you do, the rental provider has 14 days to contest it with a Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria or VCAT application. No application inside that window and the RTBA pays you out automatically. RDRV is the free mediation service that came in during 2025 and it settles a lot of matters before any hearing happens. VCAT sits behind it as the formal step, with a small filing fee and a hearing usually some weeks out, and the member decides on evidence rather than on who talks better. From October this year agents will also have to hand renters their documentary evidence a few days before lodging a claim, and that evidence cannot contradict the condition report.
So the paperwork that wins is boring. Entry report, dated photos from the day you handed back the keys, receipts for anything you paid for.
When Cleaning It Yourself Is Fine
DIY is completely legal. Nothing in Victorian law forces a professional clean in the ordinary case, and plenty of tenancies end with a mop, a weekend and a full refund. It suits a small flat that was kept in decent shape, where the entry report shows an ordinary standard and you have a proper day to give it.
Where it falls over is specific. Oven degreasing, shower glass and carpets in older properties are the three spots where household products run out of reach, and they are also the three spots agents photography first. A big family home after several years is another matter again, because the hours blow out and one missed area sends you back for a second visit. If an inspection does get failed on a DIY job, ask for the chance to fix the listed items before anything goes near the bond, and get that list in writing.
And whichever way you go, photograph everything on the way out. The clean gets you through the inspection. The photos get you through a dispute.
