End of Tenancy Garden Clearance in South East London: What Landlords Need to Know (2026 Cost Guide)

You have got a tenant moving out, a new one moving in, and a garden that looks nothing like the inventory photos. This guide covers everything landlords need to know about end of tenancy garden clearance in South East London: the real 2026 numbers, who pays, how fast we can do it, and whether ongoing maintenance is cheaper than clearing up after every tenancy.

The Quick Version

• Cost: £160-£240 for a light tidy-up, £255-£680 for moderate to heavy clearance, £700+ for a full reset with turfing or fencing
• Rate: £85/hour, 2-person team, all tools included, waste quoted separately
• Turnaround: Quote within 24 hours, job completed in 1 day
• Who pays: Depends on the tenancy agreement and your inventory evidence
• Ready to book? Send photos and your postcode here, Whatsapp us or call 07760800457. Fully insured, 111+ verified Google reviews, serving SE London since 2014.

How Much Does End of Tenancy Garden Clearance Cost in South East London?

Here are our actual 2026 rates. These are not national averages. They reflect what you will pay for a fully insured, 2-person team working across SE London postcodes. Check out our pricing page for 

How our pricing works: We charge £85/hour for a 2-person team with all tools included. Garden clearance labour is the same rate whether it is end-of-tenancy or any other type of clearance. Waste disposal is quoted separately and confirmed before we start so there are no surprises. For a full breakdown of all our service rates, see our prices page or our complete gardener cost guide for South East London.

What Is Included in an End of Tenancy Garden Clearance?

A standard end-of-tenancy clearance covers everything needed to bring the outdoor space back to a presentable, lettable condition.

Always included in our service:

• Lawn mowing and edging to a clean finish
• Weed removal from borders, paths and paved areas
• Hedge trimming and reshaping to a tidy line
• Shrub and bush pruning
• Ivy trimming and cutting back from fences and walls
• Path and patio sweeping
• Green waste collection and disposal (quoted separately by volume)

Available as add-ons (quoted after photos or survey):

• Patio and driveway pressure washing at £4/m2 (minimum £140)
• Fence panel replacement from £230-£280 per panel
• Turfing if the lawn is beyond recovery (from £15-£28/sqm for natural turf)
• Stump removal, bamboo removal and invasive plant treatment (priced per job)
• Shed and outbuilding clearance

Most landlords need the standard clearance. The add-ons come into play when a garden has been badly neglected or when you are using the tenancy change as an opportunity to upgrade the property's kerb appeal before relisting.

What Affects the Cost?

Two things drive the final price more than anything else in an end-of-tenancy job.

How long the garden has been neglected. A garden that has been maintained monthly by the tenant and just needs a tidy is a 2-hour job. A garden that has not been touched since the tenant moved in 18 months ago is a 6-hour job. The gap between those two is £320 or more. This is the biggest variable, and you can usually tell from a few photos where it falls.

Access. Many SE London rental properties, particularly Victorian terraces and conversions, have no side access to the garden. Everything has to come through the house. If the property is empty this is straightforward. If it is mid-move with furniture and boxes in the hallway, it adds time and cost.

Who Pays for End of Tenancy Garden Clearance?

This depends on the tenancy agreement, and it is worth being specific.

Most standard ASTs (Assured Shorthold Tenancies) include a clause requiring the tenant to maintain the garden in a reasonable condition and return it in a state consistent with the inventory. If the garden was in good condition at the start and is now overgrown, the cost of returning it to that standard is the tenant's responsibility, and you can deduct it from the deposit through the tenancy deposit scheme (TDS or DPS) as long as you have the evidence.

What you need to make a valid deduction:

• Dated photos from the start-of-tenancy inventory showing the garden's condition
• Dated photos at end-of-tenancy showing the current condition
• A clear garden maintenance clause in the tenancy agreement
• An invoice from a professional service (like ours) showing exactly what was done and what it cost

Without those four things, deposit disputes get complicated fast. The most common gap we see is the inventory photos. If your check-in inventory says "garden in good condition" but there are no photos, the tenant can argue that "good condition" is subjective.

Practical advice from what we see on the ground: Many landlords just absorb the cost of a light tidy-up (£160-£240) as a turnover expense and only pursue a deposit deduction for heavier clearance work. The time and hassle of a TDS dispute over a £200 garden tidy often is not worth it. For £500+ clearance jobs where the neglect is obvious, a deduction is usually straightforward if you have the evidence.

How Fast Can You Get It Done?

Turnaround time matters between tenancies. Every day the property sits empty is lost rent.

Our typical timescales:

• Photo-based quote: within 24 hours of receiving your photos
• Scheduling: most end-of-tenancy jobs can be booked within 3-14 days, depending on the season
• The work itself: 1 day for most standard clearances, up to 2 days for heavy jobs or jobs that include add-ons like fencing or turfing

Peak season warning: Spring and summer (March through August) is when our schedule fills fastest. If you know a tenancy is ending in June or July, getting in touch a few weeks early means you are more likely to get your preferred date. Emergency turnarounds are sometimes possible but not guaranteed.

You do not need to be at the property for the work. As long as we have access to the garden and clear instructions, the team can complete the job while you or the agent handles other parts of the changeover.

End of Tenancy Clearance in Catford SE6

A letting agent in Catford contacted us about a 2-bed terraced property where the tenant had given notice. The rear garden had not been maintained in roughly 12 months. Lawn was knee-high, borders had been taken over by bindweed, the hedge along the back fence had grown well past the boundary line, and the small patio was green with algae.

What we did:

• Cut the lawn down to a clean, even height and edged all borders
• Cleared all weeds from the borders and along the fence line
• Trimmed the hedge back to within the boundary
• Cut back ivy that was starting to climb the rear wall
• Pressure washed the patio (roughly 15m2)
• Collected and disposed of all green waste

Time: 5 hours (2-person team) Cost: £425 labour + £120 waste disposal + £140 patio clean (minimum charge) = £685 total

The agent sent us the inventory photos from the start of the tenancy, we took photos after the work, and the landlord successfully deducted the cost from the deposit. The new tenant moved in four days later.

What If the Garden Needs More Than a Clearance?

Sometimes a clearance is not enough. If the lawn is dead, the fence is broken, or the patio is cracked, no amount of tidying will bring it back. In those cases, an end-of-tenancy clearance becomes the first step in a broader refresh.

Common add-ons landlords book alongside clearance:

• New turf when the lawn is patchy, waterlogged, or beyond recovery. Our turfing service starts from £15/sqm for natural turf including ground prep and laying. Some landlords switch to artificial grass for rental properties because it removes the maintenance issue entirely, read our artificial grass cost guide for a full price comparison.
• Fence replacement for blown-down or rotten panels. Our garden fencing service covers panel and closeboard from £230-£280 per panel installed. If storm damage is the issue, our guide on what to do when a fence blows down covers insurance, responsibility and costs.
• Full landscaping if you are repositioning the property at a higher rental price point. A well-designed outdoor space adds genuine value to a listing, particularly in areas like Greenwich, Blackheath, and Dulwich where tenants expect it. See our landscaping and design service for what is possible.

Ongoing Maintenance Between Tenancies: Stop Paying for the Same Clearance Twice

Here is the maths that most landlords do not run until the second or third turnover.

If you pay £500-£700 for a garden clearance every time a tenant leaves, and your average tenancy is 18 months, that is roughly £400-£500 per year in reactive clearance costs, plus the risk of a deposit dispute, plus the stress of rushing it between tenancies.

A regular garden maintenance visit costs £140-£200 depending on garden size. Even quarterly visits (4 per year, roughly £560-£800) keep the garden permanently presentable, which means:

• No clearance bill at turnover
• Viewings can happen at any time without a pre-viewing panic
• The garden clause in the tenancy agreement is actually enforceable because you are demonstrating the standard
• Tenants who inherit a well-maintained garden are more likely to maintain it themselves

We work with several landlords and agents across SE London on exactly this basis: regular quarterly or monthly visits, invoiced directly to the landlord or the managing agent, with photos after every visit so you have a record. If this sounds like a better approach than the reactive cycle, get in touch and we will set up a schedule that fits your property.

How to Get a Quote

Send us a few photos of the garden through the contact page or WhatsApp, along with the postcode and a rough idea of timing. We will reply within 24 hours with an honest cost estimate. No site visit needed for most standard clearances.

If the job includes add-ons like fencing, turfing, or patio work, we will arrange a free on-site survey. Written quote follows within 3 business days.

We cover all South East London postcodes including Lewisham, Greenwich, Eltham, Bromley, Woolwich, Catford, Blackheath, Sidcup, and all surrounding Bexley and Dartford postcodes.

Got a garden that needs sorting before the next tenant moves in? Call 07760800457 (Mon-Sat 9am-6pm), WhatsApp us , or send your photos here. We reply within 24 hours and can usually book within the week, sooner in quieter months.

If You Are a Tenant Reading This

Most of this guide is written for landlords, but tenants search for "end of tenancy garden" too, usually because checkout day is approaching and the garden is not in the condition it was when you moved in.

Here is the honest advice. Check your tenancy agreement for a garden clause and compare the garden now against your inventory photos. If there is a clear difference, your options are to sort it yourself before the inspection or accept that the landlord will likely deduct the clearance cost from your deposit.

If you are going to get it done yourself, the cheapest route is to do the basics (mow, weed, sweep) and leave it tidy. If the garden has gone past what a weekend of your time can fix, getting a professional clearance done before checkout is almost always cheaper than the deposit deduction, because the landlord will add the cost of their contractor plus the hassle of arranging it during a void period.

We do the same work for tenants as for landlords. Getting a professional clearance done before checkout is almost always cheaper than the deposit deduction. Send us your photos or WhatsApp us and we will give you an honest cost within 24 hours.

FAQ

About Urban Gardeners

Urban Gardeners is a local gardening and landscaping company based in Eltham SE9, serving South East London since 2016. We are a small, fully insured team that works directly with homeowners, landlords and letting agents across all SE London postcodes plus Bromley, Bexley and Dartford.

We hold a Gardening and Landscape Design Business Diploma and Certificate, and we have completed thousands of jobs across the area, from quick end-of-tenancy tidy-ups to full garden transformations. We currently have 111+ verified Google reviews at a 4.5+ rating.

If you want to see what our work actually looks like, browse our completed project portfolio or read more on our about page.