Document the condition before anything else
The single most valuable thing you can do at move-out is create a thorough, dated photographic and video record before any cleaning or repair begins. Deposit disputes turn on evidence, and evidence created afterwards is weaker than evidence created at the time.
Photograph every room, every surface, every appliance, and anything damaged, from multiple angles with good light. A walkthrough video covering the whole unit takes ten minutes and answers questions that photographs miss.
Do the same before the next tenant takes possession. Two records, at each end, resolve most disputes before they start.
The vacant period itself
An empty unit has the same risks as any vacant property, compressed into a few weeks and complicated by trades coming and going. Doors are unlocked during the day. Systems may be partly disconnected. Materials are on site. And in a turnover the owner is usually focused on getting it re-let rather than on the building.
Monitoring during the gap matters most in winter, when the unit may be sitting with heat turned down and nobody in it.
- Heat maintained appropriately, not turned off to save money
- Water checked, and shut off if the vacancy will run long
- Fixtures run to keep traps sealed — critical in a unit about to be shown
- Doors and windows secured after trades leave
- Monitoring visits through the vacant period
- Smoke and CO alarms tested and batteries replaced
- Filters replaced
The line you should not cross
In Alberta, advertising a rental, showing it to prospective tenants, screening and selecting them, negotiating leases, collecting rent and holding security deposits are regulated activities under the Real Estate Act requiring appropriate licensing.
This matters for owners engaging help. A service that offers to "handle the rental" while your unit is empty may be offering something it is not licensed to provide, and that exposure lands on you as much as on them.
Physical property care during a vacancy — monitoring, documentation, cleaning, maintenance coordination, contractor access — is not property management and does not require that licence. Know which one you are buying.
Getting it ready
- Move-out condition documented with photographs and video
- Cleaning arranged and verified
- Junk removal coordinated
- Repairs identified and scheduled with appropriate trades
- Non-trade tasks completed — bulbs, filters, alarm batteries, touch-ups
- Lawn or snow arranged for the vacant period
- Locks re-keyed
- Pre-occupancy walkthrough documented before handover