Moving Out of a Rental in Toronto: A Complete Tenant Move-Out Checklist

Every tenant’s move-out checklist in Toronto hangs off one date: the termination date on your Form N9. For a monthly tenancy or a one-year lease in Ontario, that notice has to reach your landlord at least 60 days ahead, and the date on it has to be the last day of a rental period, never earlier than the last day of a fixed term. Once that date is set, the rest lines up behind it: the service elevator, the movers, the last month’s rent deposit, the final clean, the keys and the hydro account.

What follows is general information current to October 2026, not legal advice. For your own situation, the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) takes questions at 416-645-8080 in the Toronto area.

Give notice on Form N9, and count the days properly

You end a tenancy in one of two ways: written notice to your landlord, or an agreement with them. The Landlord and Tenant Board’s brochure on how a tenant can end a tenancy sets out both. Notice goes on Form N9, Tenant’s Notice to End the Tenancy, and these are the rules that catch people out:

• Monthly tenancy: at least 60 days’ notice, and the termination date must be the last day of a rental month. If rent is due on the 1st and you hand over the N9 on August 15, the earliest date you can write on it is October 31, not October 14.
• Fixed-term lease: the same 60 days, and the termination date can’t come before the lease’s last day. Leaving at the end of the term still takes a notice. Without one, the tenancy continues on the same terms, as a monthly tenancy if you pay rent by the month.
• Counting: leave out the day you deliver the notice and include the termination date. For an August 31 move-out, a hand-delivered N9 has to reach your landlord by July 2.
• Mail: add five days, so 65 instead of 60. A mailed notice for August 31 needs to go out by June 27.
• February and March: because February is short, notice given by January 1 works for an end-of-February move, and notice given by February 1 works for an end-of-March move.

Deliver the N9 to the address your lease lists for notices. Email only counts if your lease says you both agreed to it and the board’s rules allow that notice by email. Keep a copy and proof of how and when it went in.

One more caution. Once your notice is in, you have to be out by that date unless your landlord agrees you can stay, and if you don’t leave, the landlord can apply to the board to evict you. Serve the N9 after your next lease is signed or your closing date is firm, not before.

Leaving before your lease is up

Halfway through a one-year lease, a 60-day notice won’t end it early. The same LTB brochure lists the exits: an agreement with your landlord, assigning the lease to someone else, an order from the board, a lease that isn’t on Ontario’s standard form once you’ve demanded the standard one in writing, or a separate 28-day notice on Form N15 for a tenant leaving because of sexual or domestic violence.

An agreement is the simplest. You and your landlord can settle on any end date, and the board’s optional Form N11 records it. A verbal deal is possible, but put it on paper. Assignment means a new tenant takes over your lease on the same terms. You need your landlord’s consent, and if they refuse or don’t reply within seven days of your request, you can give an N9 within 30 days of asking, with at least 30 days’ notice.

Walking away without proper notice is the expensive route. You can owe rent until the unit is re-rented or until the earliest date a proper notice could have ended things, whichever comes first. Leave eight months into a twelve-month lease and nobody moves in, and that can mean four more months of rent.

Your last month’s rent deposit, its interest and the key deposit

An Ontario landlord can collect two deposits and only two: a last month’s rent deposit and a refundable key deposit. The province’s guide to the standard lease is plain about the rest. You don’t have to pay a damage deposit or a pet deposit, and if you paid one anyway, you can apply to the board to get the money back.

The rent deposit can’t be more than one month’s rent, and it goes toward the rent for your final month. The LTB’s guide to the Residential Tenancies Act says it can’t be used for anything else, repairs included. Your landlord also owes you interest on it every year, at the same rate as the provincial rent increase guideline. When the rent goes up, the landlord can ask you to top the deposit up to match, and the lease guide says the interest can be used for that top-up.

Two practical points. If rent comes out by pre-authorized debit or post-dated cheque, confirm with your landlord in writing that the deposit covers your last month, then stop the payment that would pay for it a second time. And ask for a receipt showing how the deposit and any interest were applied. A landlord has to give a former tenant a receipt at no charge if asked within 12 months after the tenancy ends.

The key deposit works differently. Whatever you paid for keys, fobs, remote entry devices or access cards comes back when you return them at the end of the tenancy. Extra keys you asked for along the way are a separate charge, capped at what they actually cost.

Showings and entry in your last 60 days

After notice is given, your landlord can bring prospective tenants through between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. without written notice, though they have to try to tell you before they come. Any other entry, such as a repair visit or an inspection to see whether repairs are needed, still requires 24 hours’ written notice that gives the reason and a time within those same hours. Both rules come from the same LTB guide.

Showings in a half-packed apartment go better with a little setup. Stack boxes against one wall so each room reads clearly, keep a path to every window and closet, and put documents, medication and anything valuable out of sight. If viewings keep landing at dinner, ask your landlord to group them into a couple of set times a week. They aren’t required to agree, but it’s a fair request.

Book the building before you book the truck

In an apartment tower or a condo rental, the building decides when and how your things can leave. Expect a service elevator reserved for a set window, approved moving hours, a designated loading area, a move deposit, and a requirement that your movers send a certificate of insurance ahead of time. If you rent a condo unit, your standard lease commits you to the condominium declaration, bylaws and rules your landlord gives you, so the move rules bind you as much as the owner.

Reserve the elevator as soon as your termination date is fixed, then book movers to fit the slot, not the other way round. You make the booking with your building, and we help: we tell you what to ask for and can talk to the building if something needs sorting out. Month-end is when leases turn over and slots vanish, and weekend times tend to go before weekdays. When you call the property manager, ask:

• which elevator you get, for how many hours, and what happens if you run over
• how much the move deposit is and what has to happen for you to get it back
• whether the building hangs elevator pads or expects the movers to bring their own
• where the truck loads, whether a dock, a laneway or the front drive, and any height limit
• exactly what the certificate of insurance has to say and who it must name
• where keys, fobs and parking remotes go on the last day

Walk-ups over shops on Queen, College or the Danforth have the opposite problem: no elevator to book, but narrow stairs, a tight door and a truck parked on a main street. Read the posted signs on the block a few days ahead, and ask your landlord whether the laneway behind the building can be used.

For condo and apartment moves, we send your building the certificate of insurance it asks for, naming the building, before move day. If your new building wants one too, we produce both. The crew works inside your booked window and protects the hallways and the elevator cab. For a fuller rundown of bookings, deposits and building rules, see our guide to condo elevator bookings and building rules in Toronto.

What movers cost for a rental move-out

Moving Co. charges $149 an hour for two movers and a truck, which works out to $50 an hour per mover plus $49 an hour for the truck. That rate applies on select non-peak dates, and peak-period pricing may vary. The first hour is the minimum, and after that billing runs in 15-minute increments. The truck, blankets, dollies, straps and standard insurance are included. Stairs and elevators cost nothing extra, and a move within the city carries no separate truck, fuel, equipment or trip fee.

Standard coverage is $0.60 per pound per article, the industry standard, and a full replacement-value upgrade is available. Typical rental moves look like this:

Treat these as planning ranges from our published rate card, not a quote. What pushes a rental move to the top of its range is usually time spent not carrying anything: waiting on a shared elevator, a long walk from the unit to the dock, a storage locker three levels down, boxes still being taped when the crew walks in. A quick video walkthrough gets you a real estimate. Send one through our quote request page, or call (905) 752-7787, which is answered 24 hours a day.

Deal with what you’re not taking

Every piece that goes on the truck costs time, so sort first and pack second. Sell or give away what won’t suit the new place; our room-by-room decluttering guide helps with the hard calls. Boxes don’t have to cost much, and we’ve listed where to find moving boxes around Toronto. If you buy materials from us, they’re at cost, about $3 to $5 a box.

Don’t count on leaving things for the landlord to sort out. Under the LTB’s rules on property left behind, when you move out under your own notice or an agreement to end the tenancy, the landlord can in most cases sell, keep or throw out whatever you leave, straight away. If you mean to leave something on purpose, such as a dresser the next tenant wants or a window air conditioner, get the landlord’s agreement in writing first, including how long it can stay.

Ask the property manager how the building takes mattresses and furniture before anything goes near the garbage room. If you’d rather it all went at once, our junk removal service takes unwanted furniture and household junk away.

Cleaning and damage: the legal standard and the practical one

The legal bar is ordinary cleanliness. The LTB guide describes it as the standard most people would consider normal, unless your lease makes cleaning the landlord’s job. You’re responsible for damage caused by you, a guest or someone living with you, on purpose or through carelessness, and that includes common areas such as a hallway, elevator, stairway, driveway or parking area. You aren’t responsible for normal wear and tear: a carpet worn thin by years of ordinary use isn’t yours to replace. The standard lease also lets you hang pictures and other decorations without asking, subject to any reasonable limits in its additional terms.

The common-area point matters on move day. A gouged elevator cab or a dented hallway corner is damage a landlord can pursue, which is why buildings insist on pads and an insurance certificate. And because the rent deposit can’t be spent on repairs, a landlord who believes you caused damage has to raise it with you or apply to the board.

The kitchen and bathroom take the longest. Leave the fridge empty and wiped, with the freezer defrosted the day before, and clean the oven, the range hood filter, the inside of the cupboards, the tub, the toilet and the sink. Sweep the balcony, empty the storage locker and the parking spot, and pull the last of the mail. Then film a slow walk-through of every room, including inside the fridge, the oven and the closets, and keep it with your move-in photos. If a dispute comes up later, that video is your evidence.

Close your accounts and change your address

Give every account an end date that falls after you’ve moved out, not before. Keep the power on through the final clean and the walk-through.

• Electricity. Toronto Hydro’s start, stop and move page lets you transfer service to a new Toronto address or close the account from your online account. Without an online account, call 416-542-8000, Monday to Friday between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. If your building bills hydro through a submetering company instead, close that account too.
• Gas. If the gas account is in your name, the Enbridge Gas online moving form asks for your new address and your move-in and move-out dates. A new property brings a one-time new account charge and a new account number, so update the payee in your online banking after the first bill.
• Mail. Canada Post Mail Forwarding can start as early as five days after you buy it online, or three days if you buy it at a post office, so order it at least a week out. It doesn’t forward parcels, so change your address with anyone who ships to you.
• ID. By law you have six days after your address changes to update your driver’s licence and vehicle permit, and 30 days for your health card. All three changes cost nothing, and the details are on Ontario’s change of address page.
• Everything else. Internet, tenant insurance, your bank, your employer and the Canada Revenue Agency. Tell your insurer the move date so the policy follows you to the new place.

Move-out day and the key handover

The day before, confirm the elevator booking and the loading spot with the concierge or the superintendent, and get the crew’s arrival window in writing. On the morning, walk the crew through what goes and what stays, keep your documents, medication and valuables with you rather than on the truck, and stay reachable by phone.

When the truck is loaded, do a last sweep with every cupboard door open: under the sinks, the dishwasher, the freezer, the top shelf of each closet, the balcony, the locker and the parking spot. Then hand back every key, fob, garage remote, mailbox key and locker key, and ask for a short written note listing what you returned and when. That note is what gets your key deposit back without an argument. Leave a forwarding address in writing too, so a receipt or anything else about the deposit can reach you.

A Toronto tenant move-out timeline

Work backward from your termination date. Our week-by-week Toronto moving checklist covers the packing side in more detail.

Once your N9 is in and the elevator is booked, call (905) 752-7787 at any hour and we’ll fit the move inside your window.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much notice does a tenant have to give to move out in Ontario?

For a monthly tenancy or a fixed-term lease, at least 60 days’ written notice on the Landlord and Tenant Board’s Form N9. The date you choose must fall at the end of a rental period, and on a fixed-term lease it can’t come before the term ends. Weekly and daily tenancies need 28 days. When counting, skip the day the notice is delivered but count the termination date, and add five days if you mail it.

Can my landlord use my last month’s rent deposit for cleaning or damage?

No. In Ontario the last month’s rent deposit can only be applied to the rent for your final rental period, and a landlord can’t collect a separate damage or pet deposit at all. If a landlord believes you caused damage beyond normal wear and tear, they need to take it up with you directly or file an application with the Landlord and Tenant Board. You’re also owed interest on the deposit every year, at the provincial rent increase guideline rate.

Can you leave furniture in a rental when you move out?

You can, but you give up control of it. When a tenant leaves after giving notice, or after agreeing with the landlord to end the tenancy, the Landlord and Tenant Board’s guidance says that, in most cases, anything left behind may be sold, kept or thrown out by the landlord right away. If you want to leave a piece for the landlord or the next tenant, or collect it later, agree on that in writing before you go.

My lease ends before my new place is ready. Where do I put my furniture in Toronto?

Store it with your mover, so your things are loaded out on your termination date and delivered when the new place is ready, with no second company in between. If you need something before the new place is ready, you can pick it up or we can bring it to you; call ahead either way. Moving Co. offers short-term and long-term storage that is climate controlled and monitored, with everything inventoried. You pay for the space and the time you use, and nothing goes to a third-party warehouse. Our moving and storage page explains how the hold and the redelivery work.

What should a landlord check when a tenant moves out?

A landlord’s move-out checklist should compare each room, appliance and fixture against the move-in record, separating damage from normal wear and tear, and confirm every key, fob, remote and card has come back so the key deposit can be refunded. It should also apply the last month’s rent deposit to the final month, settle any interest owed, and provide a receipt if the tenant asks within 12 months of the tenancy ending.

Can my landlord show my apartment after I give notice?

Yes. Once either side has given notice, or you’ve agreed to end the tenancy, the landlord can bring prospective tenants in from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. with no written notice, as long as they make a reasonable effort to tell you first. Entry for anything else, such as repairs or an inspection, still needs 24 hours’ written notice stating the reason and a time within those hours.

What happens if I move out without giving proper notice?

You can owe rent until the earlier of two dates: the day the unit is rented to someone else, or the earliest termination date a proper notice could have given. On a one-year lease, leaving after eight months can mean paying the last four months if the unit sits empty. If you need to go early, ask your landlord for a written agreement to end the tenancy, or ask to assign the lease.

How soon do I have to change my address on my Ontario driver’s licence?

Within six days of your address changing, and the same deadline applies to your vehicle permit. Your health card address has to be updated within 30 days. All three changes cost nothing through a ServiceOntario account, although a photo health card that shows an address has to be changed in person, and the vehicle permit is exchanged at a ServiceOntario centre. The new licence arrives by mail in four to six weeks.