Office move-out cleaning checklist
When a commercial tenant leaves, the landlord inspects the suite against the lease. Anything left dirty becomes a line on a bill, and the tenant usually finds out after they have moved on and lost track of who did the cleaning. This checklist is built for that handover.
It covers an office suite from the workstations to the server closet and scores each area Pass, Fail or N/A. Before any of it, read the end-of-term clause in the lease. Some leases only ask for the space to be broom clean. Others require carpet extraction, patched walls, and every piece of tenant-installed cabling pulled out of the ceiling. The checklist is only as good as the list of requirements you write at the top of the work order.
Most of what goes wrong at a move-out comes from timing. The movers run late, the clean gets squeezed into the last afternoon, and the landlord inspects the next morning with no time left to fix anything. Book the clean for the day after the movers leave, and leave a day before the keys are due back.
Open Office and Workstations
- All furniture removed or left only where the lease or landlord says it stays
- Carpet under where desks and filing cabinets stood vacuumed, dents raised where possible
- Cable cutouts, power poles and floor boxes empty of debris, cords and zip ties
- Window sills, ledges and blinds dusted, blinds left fully down or fully up and even
- Tape, adhesive hooks and cable clips removed from walls and desks left behind
- No loose screws, staples, paper clips or keys left on the floor
Private Offices and Meeting Rooms
- Whiteboards cleaned with whiteboard cleaner, no ghosting from old marker
- Wall-mounted screens and brackets removed only if the landlord has asked for it
- Closets emptied and shelves wiped
- Door handles, frames and kick plates cleaned
- Light switch plates and outlet covers wiped
Kitchen and Break Area
- Fridge emptied, cleaned inside including the seals and crisper drawers, left unplugged with the door propped if the landlord asks
- Microwave, dishwasher and coffee machine cleaned inside or removed if tenant-owned
- Cabinets and drawers emptied and wiped inside
- Sink, tap and backsplash descaled and polished
- Garbage, recycling and organics bins emptied, washed and left dry
Washrooms (In-Suite)
- Toilets, urinals and sinks cleaned and descaled
- Mirrors and partitions cleaned
- Dispensers empty or left stocked per the landlord's instruction
- Floor and grout scrubbed, floor drain clear
Server, Storage and Copy Rooms
- Room empty of boxes, toner cartridges and old equipment
- Shelving dusted and wiped
- Dust removed from the floor where equipment racks stood
- No unlabelled chemicals or batteries left behind
Floors, Walls and Fixtures
- Hard floors swept, mopped and free of scuffs left by moving dollies
- Carpet vacuumed edge to edge and spot treated, extraction done if the lease requires it
- Walls spot cleaned of scuffs and marks, no nail holes left where the lease requires patching
- Light fixtures and diffusers free of dust and bugs
- HVAC supply and return grilles dusted
- Interior glass, sidelights and suite entry door cleaned on both sides
General checks (site-wide)
- Lease end-of-term clause read and the landlord's handover requirements written on the work order
- Before and after photos taken of every area for the handover
- Keys, fobs and access cards collected and counted
- Building told when the freight elevator and loading dock are needed
- Items left behind by the tenant listed and photographed, not thrown out without approval
- Damage found during cleaning photographed and reported to the tenant in writing
How often to inspect
| Before move | Read the lease handover clause, book the freight elevator, agree what furniture stays |
| Move day | Clean behind the movers: floors where furniture stood, cable cutouts, debris |
| After move | Full detail clean of every area, kitchen and washrooms, glass and fixtures |
| Handover | Inspection with the tenant or landlord, photos, key and fob count |
What inspectors actually check
Where the furniture stood
Pass: carpet vacuumed right to the wall where the filing cabinets were, dents raised where they will come up, no paper clips or staples in the pile. Fail: a rectangle of grey dust where a bookcase stood for ten years. The areas that were under furniture have never been cleaned by the nightly crew, and the landlord's inspector looks there first.
Cable cutouts and floor boxes
Pass: empty, vacuumed, covers back on. Fail: old patch cords, zip ties and a tangle of dust inside every desk grommet and floor box. It takes minutes per box and almost every move-out crew forgets it.
The kitchen fridge
Pass: empty, wiped inside including the door seals and drawers, dry. Fail: a fridge unplugged with the door shut and something left inside. A week later it is the worst smell in the building, and the landlord will charge to deal with it.
Walls and scuffs
Pass: walls spot cleaned of chair marks and dolly scuffs, and the holes and patching match what the lease asks for. Fail: a black stripe along the corridor wall from the move, left because nobody told the cleaner it was their job. Decide before the move who handles wall repair, the cleaning company or a painter.
Photos are the handover
Take photos of every area after the clean, wide enough to show the whole space. Add close-ups of anything you expect a question about, like an old carpet stain that would not come out or a cracked tile that was there before. Send them to the tenant the same day. When the landlord's bill arrives a month later, those photos are the only record of what the suite looked like when the keys went back.
Related checklists
For the incoming tenant's side of the same suite, the post-construction cleaning checklist covers the clean after a fit-out. The commercial cleaning inspection checklist is the standard for the regular nightly clean, and the floor care inspection checklist covers carpet extraction and hard floor work if the lease requires them. The guide to proof of service in commercial cleaning explains how to record work done when the client is not on site, and cleaning software with photo proof shows how photos attach to each scored line.
Common questions
What does an office move-out clean include?
Everything the regular nightly clean does, plus the places that only get exposed when the furniture leaves: carpet under desks and cabinets, cable cutouts and floor boxes, the inside of every cabinet and fridge, closets, storage and server rooms, and walls marked by years of chairs and moving dollies. Most leases also expect the suite to be empty of debris and tenant property.
Who pays for cleaning when a commercial tenant moves out?
Usually the tenant, through the lease. Most commercial leases require the space to be returned clean and in good condition, and the landlord can charge the cost of any cleaning or repair that was not done. Read the end-of-term clause before booking, because some leases also require carpet extraction, patching or repainting.
When should the move-out clean happen?
After the movers have gone, and with enough time before the lease end date to fix what the handover inspection finds. A day or two of buffer is far better than booking the clean for the morning the keys are due back. Many cleaning companies also send a crew on moving day to pick up the debris the movers leave behind.
How long does it take to clean an office after a move?
It depends on the size of the suite, how much was left behind and whether the lease requires carpet extraction or wall repairs. A small suite can be done in a day by a small crew. A full floor with a kitchen, server room and a lot of leftover furniture can take several days. Seeing the empty suite in person is the only good way to quote it.
Should the cleaner take photos at an office move-out?
Yes. Photos of every area after the clean, with the date on them, are the tenant's best protection if the landlord later says the suite was left dirty. Photos of damage found during the clean protect the cleaning company from being blamed for it.