Free move-in/move-out inspection checklist

Schedule the inspection when the unit is empty and well lit. Bring the printed checklist, a phone with a charged battery, a flashlight for inside cabinets and under sinks, and a tape measure for describing damage. At move-out, also bring the signed move-in copy and your move-in photos.

• Go room by room in the order the checklist prints, and rate every row. Write NA for items the unit doesn't have.
• Open and run things: every faucet, the toilet, the dishwasher, the oven, the range hood, the garage door opener.
• Take a wide photo of each room from the doorway, then close-ups of anything rated F, P or D with something in the frame for scale. Number the photos and write the numbers in the notes column.
• Let the tenant write their own comments. A record that includes the tenant's notes is more credible than one that doesn't.
• Count keys in front of the tenant and have them initial the alarm tests.

Write notes that will still make sense in two years

The move-out columns are only useful if you compare them to the move-in columns honestly. As a practical rule of thumb, wear and tear is the gradual decline that comes from ordinary living over time; damage comes from an accident, misuse, neglect or an unapproved change. The lists below are common examples, not legal definitions. How your state treats a particular item, and what you may deduct for it, is covered on the security deposit laws pages.

Two things help keep this fair. First, consider how old an item was when the tenant moved in: carpet that was already near the end of its life at move-in is not the tenant's to replace. Second, separate dirt from damage. An oven that just needs cleaning is a cleaning issue, not a broken appliance. The more specific your move-in notes, the easier both calls become.

• Give or send the tenant a copy of the completed form and keep the original, the photos and the lease together.
• For each item rated worse at move-out, keep the estimate, invoice or receipt for the repair or cleaning. Tie each charge to a row on the checklist and a photo number.
• Use the forwarding address on the form for the deposit return. Deadlines and itemization rules are set by state law; look yours up on the security deposit laws page.
• Before the next tenant arrives, change or rekey the locks, test the alarms and print a fresh checklist.

Turnover repairs in buildings built before 1978

If you will repaint, patch or otherwise disturb painted surfaces between tenants in a home built before 1978, EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) program applies to paid work in that housing, and it covers landlords and property managers. EPA says property managers who do that work themselves must be Lead-Safe Certified firms, and otherwise must hire one (EPA guidance for property managers). Very small jobs are excluded as “minor repair and maintenance”: under 40 CFR 745.83, that means disturbing 6 square feet or less of painted surface per room inside, or 20 square feet or less outside, with other limits on work practices and window replacement. Note peeling or chipping paint on the checklist so you know where the work will be.