Moving out of a Swedish rental: what the inspection checks

A Swedish move-out ends with an inspection. Someone from the landlord, the housing association or the buyer's side walks through the empty home with a list and decides whether it has been left in the state the contract requires. If it has not, you pay for a second clean, and sometimes for their time too.

That inspection is the reason move-out cleaning is a separate service from an ordinary clean rather than a longer version of one. It costs from 1,980 SEK after the RUT deduction for a home up to 50 square metres, and 4,000 SEK for 121 to 140 square metres. The price is fixed per size, so it does not move if the job runs long.

What the checklist actually covers

The standard most inspections are judged against is the move-out cleaning checklist from Mäklarsamfundet, the Swedish estate agents' association. It is more specific than people expect.

Kitchen: inside and outside of every cupboard and drawer, the oven including racks and trays, the extractor fan and its filter, the fridge and freezer inside, and behind the appliances where they can be pulled out. Bathroom: tiles and grout, descaling of taps and the shower, the toilet including behind and underneath, and the floor drain.

Everywhere else: skirting boards, door frames, radiators, ventilation vents, inside wardrobes, light switches and sockets, and windows. Walls are spot-cleaned rather than washed. It is the ventilation vents and the inside of the extractor fan that most often fail an inspection, because almost nobody thinks of them.

The home has to be empty

Completely empty, including the storage unit if it belongs to the flat. A cleaner cannot reach a surface that still has a bookcase against it, and removing furniture or rubbish is not part of the service. A sofa left behind usually means the inspection is failed on the floor underneath it.

Make sure the electricity and water are still connected. They are turned off more often than you would think, and a cleaning cannot happen without either.

What the inspection is actually like

It takes 15 to 30 minutes for a flat. The inspector walks room by room with the checklist, opens cupboards, pulls out the oven drawer and looks at the window frames. Anything that does not meet the standard is written down, and you are told then and there.

The tone is usually practical rather than adversarial. The inspector is checking against a document, not judging your housekeeping, and a single missed vent is a note rather than a disaster. What matters is that someone fixes it before the next tenant arrives, and who pays for that is the whole question.

Ask to be present if you can. A remark you hear in person is easier to resolve than one that arrives by email a week later, when the home is no longer yours to get into.

When to book

Book five to seven days ahead, and longer over the summer and early autumn when most Swedish leases change hands. Then schedule the cleaning for the day before the handover rather than the same morning.

The reason is simple. If the inspection finds something, you want a day in hand to fix it. Cleaning on the handover morning leaves no margin at all, and you will be carrying boxes while someone tries to clean around you.

What is not included

Clearing the water trap, taking away furniture or rubbish, removing stickers, tape and hooks, filling holes, painting, and the garage or storage unit unless you add them. The shower drain is cleared. Windows are cleaned inside and out, which is included rather than an add-on. The full price list by home size shows what each size costs before you book.

Two cleaners usually do the job together, so a 90 square metre flat takes around eight hours of work but is finished in half a day. Under 40 to 50 square metres one cleaner is often enough, and you are told in advance which it will be.

If the home has been lived in hard, or if the windows have not been cleaned in a few years, consider adding window cleaning on the outside as well. Inside is included; outside is not, and a buyer walking through a flat with grey windows notices before they notice anything else.