End of Lease Cleaning in Ontario
End-of-lease cleaning in Ontario is governed by the Residential Tenancies Act and the Landlord and Tenant Board — there's a legal framework around what tenants owe and what landlords can claim that is more structured than in most Canadian provinces. Here's a complete summary for tenants.
What You Owe Under the RTA
Ontario tenants are legally required to leave a rental unit in "ordinary cleanliness" — a standard the LTB interprets as: clean by the standards of a reasonable person, accounting for normal wear and tear. What this means in practice:
- You must clean the unit. Leaving a dirty, greasy kitchen or a heavily soiled bathroom is a breach of your RTA obligation
- Normal wear and tear is not damage. Scuff marks on walls from years of furniture placement, minor scratches on hardwood from regular use, slight discolouration of grout from long-term use — these are wear and tear, not tenant damage
- You are not required to return the unit to its original move-in state if the original state was not professionally clean — but you must leave it in ordinary cleanliness based on what it was when you moved in
What Landlords Can and Cannot Do
- Cannot withhold your last-month's-rent deposit for cleaning — that deposit must be applied to your last month's rent, period. It cannot be redirected to cover cleaning costs
- Can file an LTB T2 application for cleaning costs — but must do so within 30 days of the tenant vacating, and must prove the costs were above "ordinary" cleanliness level
- Cannot charge for cleaning done by the landlord's own time without an arms-length estimate or invoice