At a glance
- Broom-clean = empty and swept, not professionally cleaned.
- The cellar, attic, garage, shed and garden must be empty too.
- A lease or sales agreement can ask for more than broom-clean.
- Read those terms before you plan the clearance.
- Book a cleaner separately if the contract requires cleaning.
What does broom-clean mean exactly?
Broom-clean means the property is empty and the floors have been swept. No furniture remains, no belongings or waste lie around, and the floor is free of the dust and dirt a broom can remove.
What it does not include: washing windows, degreasing kitchen cupboards, scrubbing bathrooms or mopping. That is a cleaning job, and it is not expected at a broom-clean handover unless the contract says otherwise.
Broom-clean at the end of a lease
At the end of a lease the tenant returns the home in the condition it was received, allowing for normal wear and tear. What that means in practice depends on the lease and on the check-in report. Some contracts explicitly ask for a professionally cleaned home, others for broom-clean.
Read the contract before you plan the clearance. If the landlord asks for a cleaned home, plan a cleaner after the clearance and before the move-out inspection. For expats leaving the country, the full sequence is in clearing your home when leaving Belgium.
Broom-clean when a house is sold
When a property is sold, the sales agreement usually states that it is handed over empty and broom-clean at the signing of the deed or the handover of the keys. Empty then really means empty: the cellar, the attic, the garage, the garden shed and the garden included.
A buyer can check at a final visit whether everything is gone. Items left behind can lead to discussion, so plan the full contents clearance well before the date of the deed.
Which spaces are often forgotten?
At a broom-clean handover the same places are forgotten again and again, because nobody looks at them every day.
- the crawl space and the cellar box
- the attic above the loft ladder
- the top of built-in wardrobes
- the garden shed, the storage room and the space behind the garage
- the garden: old planters, tiles, wood and garden furniture
- in a flat: the cellar storage and the garage box
How a clearance delivers a broom-clean property
A clearance only ends when every space is empty and the floors are swept. That is why we ask for photos of every space up front, including the ones you rarely visit. Everything is then in the price and nothing is left behind after the day.
To see how the price is set, read house clearance prices. To know what happens to the belongings first, see what happens to your belongings.
Frequently asked questions
Is broom-clean the same as cleaned?
No. Broom-clean is empty and swept. Cleaned also means mopping, bathroom and kitchen cleaning and washing windows. We do not do the cleaning.
Do curtains and lamps have to go for broom-clean?
Loose items such as curtains and pendant lamps are usually part of the contents and go, unless the contract says they stay. Fixed elements stay.
What if the landlord or buyer says it is not broom-clean?
That is why every space should be part of the job. If the contract has specific terms, send them with the photos so we know what is expected.
Does the garden have to be empty too?
If the contract asks for an empty property, loose items in the garden usually count. Plants and trees stay unless agreed otherwise.