The way I see it (as a landlord) is that I’m going to get a deep clean between tenancies regardless.

I still want my tenant to do the minimum. Food in the microwave and a thick greasy range hood should absolutely be sorted.

The cleaner will get things like a total cupboard clean and wipe down, giving the floors and carpets a solid clean and wash, the oven a proper scrub and clean, a deep shower and hopefully descale the glass on the shower door etc. no way I’d want to rent a place that hadn’t had a deep clean.

But still, if the vacuuming, benches and microwave hadn’t been cleaned by the outgoing tenant… I’d be calling them back to say “yo, this isn’t reasonable, sort your shit”

In all reality, I’d probably cave in a dirty tenant. The opportunity cost of spending hours arguing with someone isn’t worth my time. But that also sets a bit of precedent.. so who knows. I wouldn’t be too happy though