What is the requirement when cleaning your flat yourself when moving out? We live on the 4th floor with floor to ceiling windows. We have access to clean the inside of the windows but some of the outside windows are not accessible. Are we required to pay the extra money to hire someone to clean the windows from the outside? Also the shutters? For some reason, I feel it's not our responsibility if we can reach them....what do you think? We're trying to reduce costs.

Thanks for any pointers

I think there might be a way to clean those windows from the inside. Check them for screws and hinges. Some of my windows have a little lever you click then they turn inside out. Believe me, you will be responsible for everything being spotless, if it isn't they will bill you at premium price if they bring someone in.
Good luck.

Thank you. Unfortunately, they don't even open from the inside so no hinges available. I just can't imagine how much it will cost for someone with a big ladder to come up to the 4th floor to do this. It's not our fault they built the flat in a way they we can't clean ourselves....it's just annoying but understand the implications if we don't do 110% effort..

Depends on how big of a prick your Hauswart is and how many brownie points he's trying to chalk up with the rental agency. I've seen Hauswarts remove the faceplate from light switches to point out the hidden dirt on the button..!! I spent 3 days cleaning a place I had once and the idiot still found things to complain about.
Good luck..!

We have the same problem ! Our rented house has 4 floors and the 3rd and 4th floor windows are huge and cannot be opened fully to wash them either.
Do they not have window cleaners out here?
I was considering getting a long window cleaning pole and risking hanging out half way to clean them with hubby hanging on to me ( I think....I trust him !!) .That said I will never be able to clean the blinds either. So you have my sympathy

The cleaning requirements pretty depend on how picky the real estate agent will be. Your best bet is to make the apartment as spotless and gleaming as possible.

When my boyfriend moved out of his apartment, we decided to clean the apartment ourselves instead of paying the ridiculous sums quoted by numerous cleaning agencies (upwards of CHF 1,000!). We thought that, even if the real estate agent wanted some further cleaning done, it would cost much less to have a professional cleaner tackle only one or two spots than the whole apartment.

We spent a good 3 days or so cleaning the apartment. The rooms requiring the most attention were the bathroom and kitchen. All stainless steel parts had to be gleamed and free of calcium spots. The stove and oven had to look practically brand new.

The windows were also very time-consuming. We had to clean them when there was light outside so we could see any streaks, etc. Some of the windows didn't open, so it required some tricky maneouvres on the outside to lightly clean them. We only gave the shutters a quick wiping, hoping that the real estate agent wouldn't inspect those.

To our delight, the apartment passed the inspection and we were not required to do any further cleaning.

That said, we didn't have much luck when moving into our current apartment. We were not exactly happy with the condition that the previous tenant left it in. We knew that the previous tenant had also cleaned the apartment herself, but her standards were much lower than ours! However, the real estate agent was very carefree and kept saying that the problems we were complaining about were normal because the apartment was old.

So it's a flip of a coin as to whether you get an over-zealous agent, or a very relaxed one.