Move out cleaning prices in Vancouver and what the landlord checks
An empty two-bedroom condo is $240 — six billable hours, at $40 per hour, per cleaner. A three-bedroom house is $280. Below is the table by size, and the nine things an inspection actually stops at.
- A move-out clean is not a deep clean. It follows the inspection list, not the home
- An empty home takes longer than a furnished one. Nothing is hidden any more
- You get a dated invoice for your file — the piece of paper that settles arguments
What a move-out clean actually costs
Same sum as everything else we do: rate × billable hours, at $40 per hour, per cleaner. No call-out fee and no travel surcharge anywhere in Metro Vancouver.
| Property | Rooms | Empty | Still furnished |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-bed condo 1 bathroom, kitchen, living |
4 · 5 h | $200 | add about an hour |
| 2-bed condo 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living |
6 · 6 h | $240 | $280 |
| 3-bed house 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining, living |
8 · 7 h | $280 | add one to two hours |
| 4-bed house 3 bathrooms, kitchen, dining, living |
10 · 8 h | $320 | add two hours |
Why empty costs less than furnished, and still takes longer than you expect. With the furniture gone there is nothing to work around, so the hours drop — but every surface is now reachable, and an inspection goes to all of them. Behind where the sofa was. Inside the cupboard nobody opened in two years. That is the work.
The nine things an inspection stops at
In fifteen years of final cleans in Metro Vancouver, these are the points that come back. Not the carpet in the middle of the room — the edges, the insides and the undersides.
Inside the oven
The single most common deduction. Racks, door glass, the seal and the base, down to the enamel. A degreaser needs dwell time, which is why a rushed clean never gets it.
The range hood filter
Almost nobody cleans it while living there, so two years of grease is sitting in a metal mesh in plain sight above the hob.
Inside the fridge and freezer
Shelves and drawers out, washed and dried, including the seal around the door and the drip channel at the back.
Inside every cupboard and closet
Emptied, vacuumed and wiped: kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, bedroom wardrobes, the hall closet and the shelf above the rail.
Window tracks and frames
In Vancouver these hold condensation all winter, so the track is where the black marks are. Interior glass, frame and sill, and the track scraped out.
Bathroom seals and grout
The silicone at the base of the shower and the grout lines. Discoloured sealant reads as neglect even in a bathroom that is otherwise spotless.
Baseboards and door frames
The horizontal top edge of every frame and the full run of baseboard, including behind where the furniture stood and the scuffs along the hallway.
Floors to the edges
Not the middle. The perimeter, the corners, under the radiators and the strip of floor that lived under the bed.
Balcony, storage and parking stall
The three that get forgotten because they are not technically in the suite, and the three that are easiest for an inspector to photograph.
What they can hold it for, and what they cannot
Worth knowing before you agree to anything, because the two lists are not the same and the difference is usually money.
Dirt you leave behind
- Grease in the oven, the hood filter and behind the hob
- Food residue in the fridge, the cupboards and the drawers
- Limescale, soap build-up and mould on the seals
- Dust and debris in the tracks, the baseboards and the corners
- Anything you left in the suite, the storage locker or the balcony
The place simply being lived in
- Carpet thinned along the walking line after several years
- Paint faded, or small marks from normal use
- Minor nail holes from hanging pictures, if your agreement allowed it
- Appliances or fittings that aged out during the tenancy
- Grout that has greyed with age rather than with neglect
In British Columbia a landlord cannot simply keep a deposit for reasonable wear and tear, and there are rules about what they must do and by when. We are cleaners, not advisers — if you end up in a disagreement, the Residential Tenancy Branch is who tells you where you stand. What we can give you is the thing that makes the conversation short: a dated invoice and photographs.
Why this is a different service, not a thorough clean
Written for rentals in Metro Vancouver. Rates and worked examples updated 14 October 2026.
A deep clean will not pass an inspection, and that surprises people
A deep clean is organised around making a home good to live in. A move-out clean is organised around a list that someone else wrote. They overlap heavily, and they are not interchangeable.
The difference shows up in the places a deep clean has no reason to go. Nobody deep-cleans the inside of a wardrobe while you still live there, because your clothes are in it. Nobody empties the kitchen drawers. On a final clean those are mandatory, because the inspector will open them.
The gap is $36 against $40 per hour, per cleaner, plus a couple of hours. Set against a deposit, that is not a close decision.
Book the move-out clean, not the deep clean. If you are handing the keys back, the service you want is the one that follows the inspection list. We have had people book the cheaper one to save forty dollars and lose several hundred.
Empty first, then clean. Never the other way round
The single most expensive scheduling mistake is booking the clean before the movers. Every box that moves afterwards leaves dust, every piece of furniture dragged out marks the floor, and the team has to work around whatever is left, which adds hours you are paying for.
The order that works: movers out, then us, then the walkthrough. Ideally the clean happens the day before the inspection, not three days before — an empty suite still collects dust from the hallway, and a suite cleaned on the Friday for a Monday inspection has had a weekend to settle.
If you are moving within Metro Vancouver, the mover and the cleaner can usually be booked for the same day with a few hours between them. Ask us and we will hold the afternoon.
Carpets are a separate job, and often the deciding one
If the suite is carpeted, most tenancy agreements in BC expect professional carpet cleaning at the end, and a vacuum does not count. That is hot-water extraction at $42 per hour, per technician — two rooms and a hallway is around $126.
Booked on the same visit as the move-out clean it is one trip instead of two, and the carpets get the drying time they need before the walkthrough. Booked afterwards, separately, it costs more and the floors are still damp when the inspector arrives.
Get it in writing, with a date on it
This is the part people skip and then wish they had not. Ask for an invoice that names the property, the date and what was done. If there is a disagreement later, the conversation stops being your word against theirs.
We photograph the areas we clean on every move-out job and the photos are yours on request. They are stored under Canada’s privacy rules and never published without your written permission — the full photo policy is on the site.
Moving in is the same service, and almost nobody books it
A move-in clean is the identical job at the identical rate, done before your furniture arrives rather than after it leaves. It is the only moment in years when every cupboard, every track and every corner of that home is reachable.
It is also the cheapest a clean will ever be for that property, because there is nothing to work around. If you are taking over a place that the last tenant cleaned to the minimum, four hours now saves you a deep clean later.
In one line. Movers first, then us, then the walkthrough. Book the move-out clean and not the deep clean. Add the carpets to the same visit. Keep the dated invoice. That sequence is worth more than any individual thing we scrub.
Book it, or check the rest
Pick the day you hand back the keys, get your fixed quote
Four steps, a real time slot and a written total — usually the same day.
Move-out cleaning: your questions
How much does move out cleaning cost in Vancouver?
An empty two-bedroom condo is six rooms, which is six billable hours: $240 at $40 per hour, per cleaner. An empty one-bedroom is $200, a three-bedroom house $280 and a four-bedroom house $320. If the home is still furnished, add roughly an hour per bedroom. There is no call-out fee and no travel surcharge anywhere in Metro Vancouver.
Is move out cleaning the same as a deep clean?
No, and booking the wrong one is expensive. A deep clean is organised around making a home good to live in; a move-out clean follows the landlord’s inspection list. The difference is everything that is only reachable once the home is empty: inside every cupboard and closet, inside all appliances, window tracks and frames, and floors cleaned to the edges. A deep clean has no reason to open your wardrobe. An inspection does.
Do I clean before or after the movers?
After, always. Cleaning before the move means every box that leaves afterwards brings dust back, furniture dragged out marks the floors, and our team has to work around whatever is still there, which adds hours you pay for. The order that works is movers out, then us, then the walkthrough — ideally the day before the inspection rather than several days before.
Does an empty home cost less to clean?
Less than the same home furnished, yes, because there is nothing to work around. But it still takes longer than people expect, because with the furniture gone every surface is reachable and an inspection goes to all of them: behind where the sofa was, inside the cupboard nobody opened, the strip of floor under the bed.
Do carpets need to be professionally cleaned when I move out?
Most tenancy agreements in British Columbia expect it where the suite is carpeted, and a vacuum does not satisfy that. It is hot-water extraction at $42 per hour, per technician — two rooms and a hallway is around $126. Book it on the same visit as the move-out clean: one trip instead of two, and the carpets get time to dry before the walkthrough.
Can a landlord keep my deposit because the place was dirty?
They can claim for cleaning you did not do, but not for reasonable wear and tear — carpet worn along the walking line, faded paint, fittings that aged out during the tenancy. In British Columbia there are rules about what a landlord must do with a deposit and by when, and the Residential Tenancy Branch is who settles a disagreement. We are cleaners, not advisers, but we give you the thing that shortens the conversation: a dated invoice naming the property and photographs of the work.
Do you do move-in cleaning too?
Yes, it is the same service at the same rate, done before your furniture arrives instead of after it leaves. It is also the cheapest a clean will ever be for that property, because nothing is in the way, and it is the only moment in years when every cupboard, track and corner is reachable.
Tell us the keys date, we will hold the slot
The size of the place and the day of the walkthrough. You get a written total that does not move, and a dated invoice for your file.
Or call (604) 754-8039 — we answer the same day.