About Bond Clean Guide

This site answers one question: "What do I actually need to do to get my bond back?"

Most end-of-lease advice online is written by people who have never handed a property back — or by cleaning companies trying to scare you into a $600 package. The result is renters paying for things the law doesn't require, and losing bond money over things nobody warned them about.

Who writes this

Bond Clean Guide is written by a carpet and upholstery cleaning technician working in Melbourne's western suburbs. A big share of that work is end-of-lease jobs: cleaning carpets for renters handing back keys, and seeing first-hand what property managers flag at final inspection — and what they let through. The before-and-after photos on this site come from real jobs (shared with permission, nothing identifying).

To be clear about the limits: we're not lawyers or conveyancers, and tenancy rules differ between states. Where the law matters, we link the official source and encourage you to read it.

Editorial rules

• Official sources first. Tenancy claims link to state bodies (Consumer Affairs Victoria, Tenants Victoria, RTBA and equivalents) — not to other blogs.
• Real experience, labelled as such. When advice comes from doing the job rather than a rulebook, we say so.
• No scare tactics. We tell you when you're allowed to do it yourself, and when paying a professional genuinely makes sense.
• Dated and maintained. Every guide shows its published and updated dates. When rules change, the guide changes.

Spotted something out of date? Tell us — corrections are the most useful mail we get.