Cleaning Clause Ontario Real Estate: MAINT-1 to -3

Published 11 September 2026 · By Jatin Dua, Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty

Last updated 11 September 2026. Written by Jatin Dua, Broker of Record at RE/MAX Quantum Realty, 799 The Queensway, Etobicoke · For Ontario registrants · 9 min read

The short answer

The maintenance clauses are the smallest in the OREA guidelines and they produce a wildly disproportionate share of closing-day arguments. MAINT-1 (Cleaning) sets a broom-swept standard, which is a low standard and the only one your buyer is owed. MAINT-2 (Equipment – Seller to Repair Damage on Removal) and MAINT-3 (Floors) both require the seller to fix specified things before completion, and both hang on a list that the agent has to fill in. The mistake almost everyone makes is assuming these promises survive the closing. Pre-closing obligations generally merge on completion unless drafted to survive, and once the deal has closed, a buyer’s position is very different from what they expect.

The biggest arguments come from the smallest clauses

I have never had a phone call at seven in the morning on a closing day about a title issue. Lawyers handle those and they handle them quietly. The seven a.m. calls are about a fridge full of food, a basement full of paint cans, four holes where a television bracket used to be, and a buyer standing in a hallway refusing to release funds.

The short version

These clauses create pre-closing obligations with no stated remedy. Getting the scope right in advance is the entire protection, because the mechanisms for fixing a breach after the fact are slow, expensive, and largely outside an agent’s control.

The three clauses, and what each actually requires

Pull the current wording from your own OREA member copy before you use them. This is the anatomy.

Code	What the seller must do	The blank or judgment call	How it fails
MAINT-1 (Cleaning)	Leave the premises, including the floors, clean and broom swept	None — and that is the problem	The standard is far lower than what your buyer pictures when they read the word clean
MAINT-2 (Equipment – Seller to Repair Damage on Removal)	Make good, at the seller’s cost and before completion, whatever damage removing equipment leaves behind in walls, ceilings, floors, doorways and around windows, in the places discussed with the buyer and written down	A list of locations, arrived at after an actual discussion	The list is left blank or vague, so nothing specific is owed and everyone argues on the day
MAINT-3 (Floors)	Before completion, at the seller’s expense, clean, repair or replace damaged floor covering in the sections the buyer indicates and that are listed	The same list problem, plus the seller’s choice of remedy	Clean, repair or replace is the seller’s choice, and the seller will choose the cheapest one that is arguable

Broom-swept is a low standard and it is the standard

When a buyer reads that the seller will leave the property clean, they are picturing a cleaning service. A broom-swept condition is not that. It is a trade standard and it describes a property emptied and swept out, not scrubbed. Appliances are not necessarily cleaned inside. Cupboards are not necessarily wiped. The garage floor is not going to be degreased.

If you are going to ask for more, ask for something measurable. A professional cleaning with a receipt produced before closing is measurable. A property left in a clean condition satisfactory to the buyer is not measurable and is a fight in a paragraph. And be careful what you promise on the listing side: describing a property as professionally cleaned before closing, when no such obligation exists, risks exactly the kind of wrong impression that RECO’s advertising guidance in Bulletin 5.1 is aimed at, and that guidance is clear that it does not matter whether every reader would be misled.

MAINT-2 and MAINT-3 live or die on the list

Both of these clauses contain a blank where the locations go, and both are framed around what the buyer has indicated or what has been discussed with the buyer. That framing is doing something and you should notice it: the obligation is tied to identified places. An empty blank is not a broad obligation. It is closer to no obligation at all.

So the work happens at the viewing, not at the drafting table. Walk the property with the excluded items in mind. Where is the wall-mounted television that is not included? Where is the projector, the shelving unit, the water softener, the workshop bench, the basketball net bolted to the garage? Every one of those is a hole in something after it leaves. List the rooms and the locations. Specific beats broad.

MAINT-3 has a second layer that agents miss entirely. The seller’s obligation is to clean, repair or replace the damaged covering. Three options, and the seller chooses. A buyer who pictures new flooring and gets a carpet shampoo has not been shortchanged under that wording — they have been given one of the three things the clause permits. If what your buyer actually needs is replacement, that has to be negotiated as replacement, and you should expect the other side to resist it because the cost difference is enormous.

AN EMPTY LIST IS AN EMPTY PROMISEMAINT-2 and MAINT-3 both tie the seller’s obligation to identified locations. If the list is blank or vague, you have a clause that reads like protection and delivers an argument. Walk the property with the exclusions in mind and write down rooms and locations before the offer goes in.

The inspection right built in, and what it does not give you

Both MAINT-2 and MAINT-3 give the buyer a right to inspect at a mutually agreed time to confirm the work was done — in MAINT-2’s case, in a good workmanlike manner. That is genuinely useful and it is more than most agents realise they have.

It is also all you have. Read what the clause does not contain. There is no holdback. There is no stated remedy if the work was not done. There is no mechanism that says the buyer may deduct the cost from the balance due on closing. The clause gives your buyer the right to find out, and then leaves them with whatever general remedies the law provides, which is a lawyer’s question rather than an agent’s.

Which makes the timing of the inspection the single most important operational decision on these files. Mutually agreed time is elastic. If you agree to a time at nine in the morning on closing day, and the repairs were not done, there is nothing anyone can do about it in the hours remaining except argue. If you inspect ten days out, the seller still has time to have somebody attend, and the lawyers still have time to negotiate a holdback between themselves if it comes to that.

This is also why a properly drafted pre-closing access right matters. INSP-14 (Right of Inspection Prior to Completion) lets you specify a purpose and a number of visits. INSP-15 (Right of Re-inspection Prior to Completion) gives a single further inspection on written notice. Without one of those in the agreement, your buyer’s walkthrough happens because the seller is being accommodating, and sellers stop being accommodating the moment a deal goes sour. I have set out how those access clauses are structured in home inspection condition wording.

Inspect early, not on the day

Get your buyer into the property with enough runway that a problem is still solvable. A defect found ten days out is a phone call between lawyers. The same defect found at nine on closing morning is a crisis with no good options, and the person everyone blames for the timing is the agent who scheduled it.

Merger: what happens to these promises on closing

The general position in an Ontario conveyance is that the terms of the agreement merge into the transfer on completion. A promise that was not drafted to survive is generally no longer available once the transaction has closed. These maintenance clauses are pre-closing obligations with no survival language attached, which means that if your buyer closes and then discovers the floor was never repaired, their position is materially weaker than it was the day before.

Whether merger applies to a particular obligation on particular facts is a legal question and it belongs to your client’s lawyer. But the drafting response is simple and cheap. If a repair genuinely matters to your buyer, attach a survival clause to it — REP/WARR-5 (Warranties – Survive Completion) is the plain one — so that the obligation is expressed to survive rather than merge. Adding that sentence takes thirty seconds at the drafting stage. Arguing about it afterwards takes months. There is more on how the survival options differ in representations and warranties in an Ontario APS.

Refusing to close over cleaning is a dangerous position

At some point a buyer will ask you whether they can refuse to close because the house was left filthy or a repair was not done. The honest answer is that it is a legal question, that it belongs to their lawyer, and that the reported Ontario record on lateness and technical default should make anybody cautious about betting a transaction on a small breach.

The cases run in both directions and that is precisely the problem. In More v. 1362279 Ontario Ltd. (Seiko Homes), 2023 ONCA 527, as reported, a party who was not ready, willing and able to complete could not rely on time being of the essence, and the court was unimpressed by pouncing on trivial delays. In 2511899 Ontario Inc. v. 2221465 Ontario Inc., 2024 ONSC 4159, as reported, where neither side was ready, neither could rely on the clause. But strictness cuts the other way too: in 3 Gill Homes Inc. v. 5009796 Ontario Inc., 2024 ONCA 6, as reported, a termination was upheld over a payment thirty-five minutes late, and in Correa v. Valstar Homes (Oakville Sixth Line) Inc., 2025 ONCA 156, as reported, nine minutes sufficed.

Your exposure is what you said, not what you drafted

The seller’s agent who says the sellers are lovely people, they will leave it spotless. The buyer’s agent who tells their client not to worry about the wall-mounted units because the sellers will patch everything. The agent who tells a buyer that if anything is wrong at the final visit, they just will not close. All three of those are promises about somebody else’s future conduct, made verbally, that will be repeated back with total confidence months later.

Where the other side is self-represented, the TRESA position applies with no softening. Confirm they intend to proceed unrepresented, deliver and explain the RECO Information Guide and the Information and Disclosure to Self-Represented Party form, tell them plainly that you represent your client and not them, and make reasonable efforts to obtain a written acknowledgement of that form. Then stay off their terms. Helping an unrepresented seller work out what standard of cleaning they should agree to, or which flooring remedy to accept, is advice on clauses and it is not available to you.

How I run the final visit

Build the access right into the agreement at the offer stage. Do not rely on goodwill for a walkthrough.
Walk the property before the offer with the exclusions in mind, and write down rooms and locations for the MAINT-2 and MAINT-3 lists.
Where a repair really matters, get it expressed to survive completion rather than leaving it to merge, and raise the possibility of a holdback with your client’s lawyer early.
Book the pre-closing visit with runway — a week or more out — not on the morning of closing.
Attend with the list in your hand, photograph what is not done, and send it to your client’s lawyer the same day rather than negotiating it yourself in the hallway.
If something is outstanding, let the lawyers deal with it. Do not tell your buyer they can refuse to close, and do not tell the other agent your client will not close.
Remember that if a deal does collapse, the deposit does not move on its own. A brokerage may release trust money only on a written direction signed by all parties, or on a court order.

One last thought about why this category is worth your attention at all. Maintenance clauses do not protect much money. What they do is set expectations in writing at a moment when both sides are still cooperative, so that the closing-day conversation is about a list everybody agreed to rather than about who remembers what. That is most of what good drafting does. It does not win arguments. It prevents them from starting.

Questions agents actually ask

What does broom swept actually mean?

It is a trade standard describing a property emptied and swept out, including the floors. It is not a cleaning service. Appliance interiors, cupboards and garage floors are not necessarily covered. MAINT-1 is still worth having, because it establishes that the property should be emptied and swept, but if your buyer expects more than that, the higher standard has to be negotiated into the agreement in measurable terms.

Why do MAINT-2 and MAINT-3 need a list?

Because both clauses tie the seller’s obligation to identified locations — what has been discussed with the buyer, or what the buyer has indicated. A blank or vague list is not a broad obligation, it is close to no obligation. Walk the property before the offer with the excluded items in mind, note where the television bracket, shelving, softener or garage fixtures are, and write down rooms and locations.

Can my buyer demand new flooring under MAINT-3?

Not under that wording. The clause gives the seller three options — clean, repair or replace — and the choice is the seller’s. A buyer expecting new flooring who receives a carpet shampoo has been given one of the permitted remedies. If replacement is what your buyer actually needs, it has to be negotiated specifically as replacement, and expect resistance because the cost difference is substantial.

Do maintenance obligations survive closing?

Generally not, unless drafted to. The default position is that the agreement’s terms merge into the transfer on completion, so a pre-closing repair obligation with no survival language attached is much harder to pursue afterwards. If a repair matters, attach a survival clause such as REP/WARR-5 at the drafting stage. Whether merger applies on particular facts is a question for the client’s lawyer.

When should the pre-closing inspection happen?

With real runway, not on closing morning. MAINT-2 and MAINT-3 give a right to inspect at a mutually agreed time, and that elasticity works against you if you agree to nine o’clock on the day. Ten days out, an unfinished repair is a phone call between lawyers with time to arrange something. The same finding at nine on closing morning has no good options left.

Can a buyer refuse to close because the house was left dirty?

That is a question for their lawyer and they should ask it the same day. What I will say is that the reported Ontario record on technical default runs hard in both directions, courts have been unimpressed by parties pouncing on trivial delays, and the downside of refusing to close is far larger than a cleaner’s invoice. Relief from forfeiture has its own demanding test and no safe percentage.

The clause checklist I make my own agents use

A one-page pre-submission check for conditions and schedules — the dates, the notice route, and the eight things that get missed. Built for Ontario agents. Free, and there is no drip campaign behind it.

Separately — if you have ever wondered what your last twelve months would have paid on a different split, run it through Quantum Leap. Six questions, no signup wall.

Closing-day fights are drafting failures

Almost every seven a.m. closing call I have taken traces back to a blank nobody filled in three months earlier. My agents get their agreements read before they go out, and the location lists are one of the things I actually check.

Book a 15-minute call or call or text 833-330-1925.

If the honest answer is that your current brokerage is fine, I will tell you that.

Cleaning, Floors and Damage on Removal: Ontario Maintenance Clauses