I gave notice on my lease and the acknowledgement pack from the agency arrived today. it includes a bill for something written as: 'gemäss mietvertrag wird ihnen die reinigungpauschale wie folgt in rechnung gestellt', charged by the square metre.

My friend said it looked like it was for cleaning. Do agencies normally do this? Their price way undercuts my three quotes for a move-out clean and I don't want to pay twice for the same thing.

Anyone got any ideas?

A lot of agencies do this and it seems they are offering you a flat rate for the final clean. If it is a good price then go for it but then you did not contact us ;-)

Thank you for your answer. Sorry about not getting you guys to quote for the move-out clean - I obviously didn't look hard enough for companies/individuals in the field.

And you're right, the agency price is 2/3 of my lowest quote to date and I figure they'll automatically find their own cleaning crew to be up to standard.

Good thing about your agency arranging the cleaning is that is the price you pay and there is no comeback. Having said that we and other legitimate cleaning companies offer a guarantee that if the cleaning service is not up to scratch then we would complete the job at no extra charge to the client. So far we have had no problems...touch wood!!

Be careful....they didn't come and look, right? I wonder if in the small print they will charge you extra because you have a dog and they claim there was more to clean. The end cleaning is almost always higher when there are pets.

That is a worry, yes. I emailed them earlier to ask if their cleaning is optional or not. I'm still waiting for a reply - it takes a while since I merrily email in English

I guess it could be a standard thing that's done regardless. So, on the other side of the coin, I could still get in a company to do my move-out clean and the agency might insist on 'their' people coming in after (and me paying for it).

Afterthought (via edit): Or I could just pay their bill, try their cleaning and report back whether they inflate the costs. They shouldn't - I've no pets, don't smoke indoors, never cook - so there's no 'build up' from any of that.

yes, a mover we talked to offered it as well as a friend's mover. they also offered a hand over guarantee, make sure that is included!