July 1 in Montreal: getting the end-of-lease clean right

Montreal has the unusual habit of moving all at once. On July 1, tens of thousands of leases change hands on a single day, and everything around it — trucks, lifts, staircases, cleaning services — books out weeks ahead.

Book the clean before the truck

This is the most common mistake. People book movers in April and think about cleaning on June 28. By then very little is available, and what is left is priced accordingly.

• Ideally: book in May for a date between June 28 and July 3.
• The move-out clean happens once the flat is empty and the furniture has gone.
• The move-in clean happens before the truck arrives, not after.

An empty flat cleans twice as fast and twice as well. Every piece of furniture still in place is a surface nobody can reach.

What landlords actually check

After enough end-of-lease cleans, the list is remarkably consistent. It is almost never the floors that cause the argument.

• Oven interior and hob, including racks and the drip tray
• Fridge interior, door seals and underneath the appliance
• Inside cupboards and drawers, shelves included
• Bathroom: grout, taps, extractor fan, under the seat
• Marks behind furniture that has not moved in a year
• Skirting, sliding-door tracks and the tops of door frames

These are exactly the items a rushed clean skips, and exactly why an end-of-lease clean takes longer than routine maintenance and costs more.

July 1 logistics

• Outdoor staircases: on the Plateau, in Villeray or in Verdun they decide what equipment we can bring up. Tell us in advance.
• Parking: most streets are permit-only. A reserved space saves twenty minutes.
• Power and water: the clean needs both. Do not cut services before the date.
• Keys: tell us how we get in if you will not be there. We put that in writing.

And photograph every room once the clean is done. It is the simplest evidence to produce if the deposit becomes a discussion.

Our move-in and move-out cleaning →

End-of-lease cleaning on the Plateau →