Oven Cleaning is one of the biggest issues in a rented property

9:58 AM, 26th March 2013, About 12 years ago 11

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oven Oven cleaning is one of the biggest issues and this article is to help Landlords present this particular item in their property in its best condition for an inventory inspection and help tenants bring an oven back to its initial clean state when leaving the accommodation.

Let’s put it into perspective, the cleanliness of a property makes up 51% of tenancy deposit disputes and some of which can be attributed to people forgetting or missing an item to be cleaned, another is that differing people have differing ideas of what is clean. Let me give you an idea how we all think the same but differently.

Picture a cat in your head,
How big is it?
What is it doing?
What colour is it?

While we have all just seen a cat in our minds eye, some cats will be small, medium, large. It might be sleeping, sitting, jumping around and any colour you want. Nevertheless, it is still a cat. The same is true for cleaning, someone might have actually worked very hard to clean a property but yet it is not you to your high standard. Maybe they just don’t know how to do the task correctly and yes some are just simply too lazy to do it. It is a rare situation that we know which of these statements is true for a given household and it might be a combination of all of these factors.

There is a continuum for the level of cleanliness form: never been cleaned, attempted but still dirty, cleaned to an average household standard up to what we call in the inventory profession “cleaned to a high domestic standard” and “cleaned to a professional standard” the best of course being a professional clean.

Here is a list of key phrases I use when describing the cleanliness of an oven from best to worst:
1. As New
2. Cleaned to a professional standard
3. Cleaned to a high domestic standard
4. Clean to a domestic standard
5. Partly cleaned
6. Needs finished clean
7. Not clean.

I must add that fortunately, most inspection I do I only have to decide if the cooker/oven has been cleaned to a domestic or professional standard.

If you look at the picture below, this is an oven an oven cleaned to a high standard but its condition is excluded from our discussion on cleaning. This is a worn oven and unless you have prior information, to this picture, it is not possible to say if this is through damage or due to age and fair wear and tear.

This oven is clean but through age and use, it is marked and even rusted at the sides.

Then we have the oven that is clean to a high domestic standard that is to say it is grease free but there are still baked on marks.

You should also watch out for chemical residue, many of the excellent oven cleaning products on the market leave residue marks on surfaces if you don’t wash off the product fully, which technically means the oven is still partially dirty, need a finish clean.

There are several very good cleaning products on the market. But there is one that I prefer to use it gets the job done and is fairly easy to use and normally takes a clean to domestic standard to a professional clean level. It is a strong chemical so you have to be careful and follow the manufactures instructions it is “Oven Pride”. Please note that I don’t have shares in the company and I am not getting any benefit for mentioning this product my motivation for mentioning it is to help anyone who reads this article in particular Landlords and Tenants.

About the author of this Post

Syd Lewis has been a private landlord for over 20 years, he is an accredited member of the National Landlords Association (NLA), Residential Landlords Association (RLA), Sponsor of the Good Landlords Campaign, a full member of the Association of Professional Inventory Providers (APIP) and a Certified Electrical Portable Appliance Tester (NIPIT). He is passionate about what he does which is providing residential inventory services, PAT testing and marketing floor plans for Agents, Landlords and Tenants. Inventories start from £56.00 to find out more see:-

Website: http://www.aplusinventories.co.uk
Email: info@aplusinventories.co.uk
Contact number: 07564 296784.

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Comments

18:30 PM, 26th March 2013, About 12 years ago

We use a product called Oven Mate which we find very effective. However every once in a while we get a franchaise oven cleaner in - Ovenkleen (I think). They strip the whole thing down and the cost is between £45-£65. It then makes it easier for a tenant to keep it clean.

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Reader

19:25 PM, 26th March 2013, About 12 years ago

Unfortunately your descriptions need to be phrased objectively rather than subjectively. “All surfaces free from gease , carbon and deposits“ would provide an objective standard

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13:40 PM, 27th March 2013, About 12 years ago

House letting agents. Having read your article on letting agents I would like to share my experience in Newark. I am a disabled man and now live in sheltered accomodation in Newark, after trying to live alone, in an adapted house. Being, eventually forced to live in care I approached several letting agents to let my house, which had been adapted for .me. One agent Belvoir kept telling me that it was unoccupied, but I later found that they had let it, knowing that I was unable to visit and check and they kept the rent. I tried Hallam and Co. who charged a lot for unnecssary repairs, for things that had been renewed whilst I lived there. I then went to Martin and Co in Newark, and they have been very honest and fair with me, taking full control of the property. I was a Detective in Greater Manchester Police and should have seen the wrongdoing, but was in and out of hospital with many injuries.

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Mary Latham

18:08 PM, 27th March 2013, About 12 years ago

I love Oven Pride and when used with care it can restore even the worse oven to its former glory with no effort and little cost. At the moment a similar product call Mighty Oven is for sale at Poundland for £1. I bought all the stock my local Poundland had because I offer it to tenants before they move out to save us falling out over a dirty cooker. I also offer, bleach cistern blocks, emulsion, paint and brushes,weed killer, Limelite, limescale cleaner - great on tiles and my favourite drain and pipe and sanitary wear cleaner Coke. I also loan them a steam mop for the floor tiles. Making it easy for tenants to leave a property clean is better than falling out over deposits and losing rent while you clean/fix up.

My tip of the week to landlords is to go to Poundland and stock up

Follow me on Twitter@landlordtweets

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2:08 AM, 13th April 2013, About 12 years ago

Hi Syd, what solutions do you usually use to remove the marks for an old oven?

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12:30 PM, 16th April 2013, About 12 years ago

Over cleaning doesn't have to be an issue at all. Simply hire someone, or a service to do it for you at a reasonable cost. Its a growing trend and many people are doign it right now.

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Expert Oven Cleaning

19:52 PM, 25th October 2013, About 11 years ago

As the gentleman from Derby said, Oven Cleaning does not have to be such a big issue. Use an Oven Cleaning Service. Hire a Expert Oven Cleaner. It's a great service and when you consider the time and the effort it will take you to do it yourself... And even then you will never get it close to how a professional oven cleaning service does. It is well worth the money to bring your oven back to a new appearance.

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Jeremy Smith

1:17 AM, 8th February 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by " " at "16/04/2013 - 12:30":

So if the Landlord gets an oven cleaning company in to do it, who pays ?

Is it proportional, depending upon the level of cleaning the Tenant has done ?

Obviously, if the Tenant has done none at all, then they should pay the whole fee,
but if the Landlord is just a perfectionist and calls them in when the oven is "Clean to a Domestic Standard" , and therefore quite acceptable, should the Tenant still be charged ?

I'm very interested in the answer, since I'm a perfectionist, and ideally I would want the oven cleaned perfectly every time.

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19:29 PM, 1st May 2015, About 10 years ago

@Jeremy Smith

I currently work for estate agents across Birmingham and I have came across this problem many times. As you are already aware, new tenants kick up a fuss over very quickly when the property has an unclean oven. 90% of the time i have encountered this issue the landlord has paid upfront, which they then charge to the previous tenant. Although this situation can become almost a stalemate, leaving the costing down to the landlord. At times i have seen this type of outcome the money has been deducted from the deposit before being released.

Hope this helps.

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Elaine Hassall

20:16 PM, 2nd May 2015, About 10 years ago

We had a tenant leave, when I checked the fridge the icebox was solid with ice, once defrosted I found a pukka pie one year out of date. You never know what you'll find once the tenant moves out - we didn't eat the pie 😉

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Oven Cleaning is one of the biggest issues in a rented property