Cleaning Between Tenants: Ontario Condo Investor Guide
Ontario's condo investment market — particularly in the GTA, where tens of thousands of investor-owned units are leased and re-leased annually — has a well-established cleaning workflow between tenancies. Here's how experienced Ontario condo investors manage the cleaning transition.
The Tenant Turnover Cleaning Standard
When a tenant vacates an Ontario condo, the investor/landlord is responsible for the unit being in rentable condition for the next tenant. The outgoing tenant is responsible for returning the unit to "broom clean" condition (the RTA standard). In practice, there's almost always a gap between what the outgoing tenant considers clean and what's actually required — and the investment to professionally clean the unit between tenants protects the asset and justifies higher rents to the incoming tenant.
What to Include in a Turnover Clean
- Full kitchen deep clean: oven, fridge, microwave, cabinets, counters, sink
- All bathrooms: tile, grout, fixtures, toilet, floor
- All hard floors: sweep, vacuum, mop
- Windows (interior surfaces and tracks)
- All closets, any storage areas
- Balcony or terrace if applicable
Timing and Cost
Schedule the professional clean after the outgoing tenant vacates and before the incoming tenant's access date — ideally with 2–3 days buffer for any touch-up or maintenance work that the cleaning reveals. A GTA condo turnover clean typically costs $200–$420 inclusive of Ontario HST (13%), depending on unit size and condition.