The student HMO summer changeover, planned properly

Most student tenancies end in late June or early July and the next cohort arrives for September, so the real working window is July and August. Every other student landlord in the city has the same window, which is why the trades you need are the ones that run out first. The changeover is a scheduling problem before it is a cleaning problem.

Book in spring

Cleaners, decorators and maintenance trades are effectively fully booked through July and August, and the good ones are reserved months ahead. Book the changeover slot in spring, before the tenancy has even ended, and confirm dates the week the students hand back keys. A landlord ringing round in mid-July is choosing from whoever is left, at whatever they charge.

The sequence

The single most common changeover mistake is cleaning before the trades go in, then paying to clean again behind them. The clean comes last. Everything else in the sequence exists to protect that.

The clean itself

After a year of student occupation the property needs a full end-of-tenancy standard clean, not a tidy: every bedroom reset, kitchens degreased including oven and extraction, bathrooms descaled, and the communal areas, hallways, stairs and shared kitchen brought back to the standard your HMO licence expects. On a whole house the difference between a domestic cleaner and a team used to HMO turnarounds is usually measured in days, and days are the thing the window does not have.

The deposit position

The clean is also where the deposit conversation is won or lost. A dated check-out inventory, photographs of the property's condition at handback, and an itemised invoice for the cleaning actually required are what a deposit scheme adjudicator wants to see. Without them, cleaning costs come out of your pocket regardless of how the property was left.