Yes, the oven can cost you part of your deposit. Cleaning features in 54% of TDS disputes, checkout clerks open the oven first, and 'fair wear and tear' does not apply to dirt. Match the check-in standard and keep a dated receipt.
Why the clerk opens the oven first
We meet a lot of inventory clerks at end-of-tenancy handovers. Most walk into the kitchen, set the folder on the worktop and open the oven door before writing a word. The logic is sound. Worktops, sinks and floors can be made presentable in twenty minutes on checkout morning. Baked-on carbon cannot. A clean oven tells the clerk the rest of the flat was probably cleaned properly rather than skimmed over.
The oven is the honesty test.
A worktop forgives a quick wipe. The oven floor remembers the whole tenancy.
What the checkout report actually records
A checkout report grades your property against the check-in report line by line. For the oven that means dated photographs of the cavity, roof element, door glass, racks, hob and extractor filters, plus a wording grade such as 'professionally cleaned', 'cleaned to a good domestic standard' or 'requires cleaning'. Those phrases carry money; an adjudicator reads them literally. Three pieces of scheme jargon do most of the work in a dispute:
- Inventory
- The room-by-room list of what is in the property and what condition it is in, drawn up at the start of the tenancy.
- Check-in report
- The dated record of condition and cleanliness on day one, ideally signed by both sides. It sets the baseline your checkout is judged against; mydeposits calls it the most important document in a dispute.
- Apportionment
- A split decision, where the adjudicator awards the landlord part of a claim rather than all of it, for example where an oven was cleaned but not quite back to the recorded standard.
Cleaning tops every scheme's dispute table
All three government-approved deposit schemes report the same pattern. Formal disputes are rare, the DPS puts it at under 3% of the deposits it protects, but when a tenancy does reach adjudication, cleaning is the most common claim and has been for years.
| Scheme | What their figures say | Period |
|---|---|---|
| TDS | Cleaning featured in 54% of the disputes it adjudicated | 2024–25 |
| DPS | Cleaning caused 29.37% of disputes, the top category for the fifth year running | 2025 |
| mydeposits | Calls cleaning 'consistently the most common issue' in its casework | Current guidance |
The DPS has made the oven point directly: grease left long enough can pass beyond what cleaning recovers, and the claim then returns as damage, argued under a bigger heading. In the ovens we open in rented flats, that line is usually the door glass, etched by grease baked through a full tenancy.
Fair wear and tear does not cover dirt
Fair wear and tear is the allowance for a property ageing through normal use. Scratched enamel where trays have slid in and out for a decade is wear. A tired door seal is wear. Carbonised fat on the cavity floor is a cleaning failure, and TDS guidance is blunt about the difference: the condition of a property in respect of cleaning 'is not subject to fair wear and tear'. An oven can be worn and still clean. That distinction decides most oven claims.
What the Tenant Fees Act changed in 2019
Since 1 June 2019 a landlord in England cannot charge you a cleaning fee and cannot require you to hire a professional firm, let alone a named one, yet the law still expects you to hand the property back at the standard of cleanliness the check-in report recorded. Government guidance on the Act spells out both halves. If the oven falls short of that baseline, a deduction from the deposit remains lawful.
A dated receipt is your best evidence
Adjudication runs on paper. The deposit is treated as the tenant's money until the landlord proves a loss, on the balance of probabilities, using the check-in report, the checkout report, photographs and invoices. A receipt for an oven clean dated a day or two before checkout, from a firm that states what was done, answers the 'oven requires cleaning' comment before it is written. Ours itemise the dip-tank method, the parts cleaned and the date. Keep it with your own photos of the cooled, empty oven from key-handback day.
Time the clean for the last few days
Book the oven for one to three days before checkout, after your final proper cook. Our method is non-caustic and hand-finished, so you can cook the same evening, but a roast between the clean and the clerk defeats the point. A single oven takes about 90 minutes. We work seven days, useful when month-end checkouts stack up, and the price is fixed on the phone on 020 8077 5225 before anyone gets in a van. If a full end-of-tenancy clean is booked too, have the oven done first so the kitchen wipe-down comes after the greasy work.
DIY or the £77 professional line
If the oven was lightly used and the check-in report says 'good domestic standard', a weekend with a non-caustic paste, a scraper and patience will usually get you there. Where DIY reliably fails is the last tenth: between the door panes, the fan surround, the rack runners. Those are exactly the spots clerks photograph. A single oven clean is £77 with us, a double £110 and hobs £23–28, with racks soaked in the heated tank in the van while the cavity is degreased by hand. Set that against a contested deduction plus your own hours, and the sums are quick. Our price list is fixed, and we have set out what oven cleaning costs across London if you want the wider picture.
Questions tenants ask us at checkout time
Can my landlord make me pay for a professional oven clean?
No. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 banned compulsory professional cleaning in England. You must return the oven at the cleanliness shown in the check-in report, and whether you get there with your own labour or a paid clean is your choice.
What if the oven was already dirty when I moved in?
You only owe the standard that was recorded. Find the check-in report and its photos; if they show a greasy oven, say so and expect the claim to fail or be apportioned. If cleanliness was never recorded, the landlord has a weak baseline.
Will a receipt guarantee my deposit back?
No single document guarantees anything, because adjudicators weigh everything on the balance of probabilities. A dated, itemised receipt paired with your own checkout-day photos is about as strong as tenant evidence gets on the oven line of a claim.
How close to checkout should the oven be cleaned?
One to three days out, after the last big cook. Same-day works if the appointment is early; a single takes about 90 minutes and there is no smell afterwards, so an afternoon checkout is safe.