An estimated £5 million is wasted in the Private Rented Sector (PRS) each year as rental properties are not cleaned to a professional standard at the end of tenancies.

This is according to tenancy support firm Property Principles. It says that poor cleaning leads to around 60% of the 36,000 deposit disputes which are referred for adjudication each year.

The number of cleaning disputes also increased by 25% between 2014 and 2015, according to Property Principles.

The average cleaning dispute is over £220 per property.

“Large sums of money can be deducted perfectly correctly from a deposit if a rental property has not been cleaned to the standards expected,” says Joanna White, Property Principles’ managing director.

In January White launched a video called Clean Up which aims to educate landlords, letting agents and tenants on the cleaning standards required at the end of a tenancy.