Move-In Move-Out Inspection Checklist | Word & PDF

The document is a two-state condition record. One column captures each room, fixture, appliance and surface when the tenant takes possession; the second captures the same items when possession returns. Both parties sign both columns, and the gap between them is what a court treats as tenant-caused damage. Nothing in the form creates a claim by itself. It creates evidence, and in these four states its absence is usually fatal to a landlord hoping to keep any part of a deposit.

Two neighboring documents get confused with it. The initial inspection under California Civil Code section 1950.5(f) is a statutory event, requested by the tenant in the last two weeks of the tenancy, producing a list of curable deficiencies; the checklist is the form used to conduct it, not a substitute. The itemized statement of deductions is the accounting document sent after the tenant vacates, governed by hard deadlines in every state below.

No federal statute governs rental condition reports. Authority sits in state security deposit codes, which have moved sharply toward mandatory documentation. In California, Civil Code section 1950.5(g) requires photographs at three points: at or immediately before inception for tenancies beginning on or after July 1, 2025, then, for every tenancy since April 1, 2025, once possession is returned but before any repair or cleaning, and again after that work. Those photographs travel with the itemized statement, due within 21 days of surrender under section 1950.5(g)(1). Unobscured deficiencies never listed in the initial inspection statement cannot be deducted at all, under section 1950.5(f)(4).

Texas is penalty-driven instead. Texas Property Code section 92.103 fixes a 30-day refund deadline running from surrender plus a written forwarding address under section 92.107, and section 92.104 demands a written description and itemized list of every deduction, which is what our security deposit return letter drafted to state itemization rules produces. Bad-faith retention costs one hundred dollars, three times the portion wrongfully withheld, and the tenant's attorney fees under section 92.109. Florida runs on notice mechanics: Florida Statutes section 83.49(3)(a) allows 15 days to return the deposit in full or 30 days to send a statutorily worded claim notice, and missing that window forfeits the claim.

New York legislates the inspection itself. Under General Obligations Law section 7-108(1-a)(c), the landlord must offer a pre-occupancy inspection, and any defect recorded in the resulting signed agreement can never support a deduction. Paragraph (d) creates a pre-vacating inspection right; paragraph (e) imposes a 14-day itemization deadline whose breach forfeits the entire deposit. The statutory text sits in the New York State Senate record of General Obligations Law 7-108 on tenant inspection rights. Washington and Michigan go further, making a written checklist a precondition to holding a deposit at all under RCW 59.18.260 and MCL 554.608.

The obvious trigger is the first day of a tenancy, before keys change hands and before a deposit is banked. The second is a landlord who has just realized there is no move-in record for a unit about to turn over, a recoverable position if the move-out side is documented with rigor. A pre-vacating walkthrough is the third, and in New York it is not optional once either party gives notice of termination.

Mid-tenancy events matter more than most owners expect. A roommate substitution, a partial assignment, or a new occupant added to a state-specific residential lease agreement should trigger a fresh condition record, because the departing occupant is entitled to know what they are being released from. Sales and management transfers raise the same problem: a buyer taking a building with tenants in place inherits every deposit obligation and every undocumented scratch.

Two edge cases justify extra care. Furnished and corporate-let units need a contents inventory alongside the condition grid, since missing furniture is a chattel claim rather than damage. And a unit under a housing choice voucher has already been inspected by the housing authority; that inspection covers habitability, not deposit liability, and it does not replace your own condition report.

• The identification block names the premises by street address and unit number, every adult occupant in possession, and the landlord or managing agent with a service address. Naming only the lease signatory creates a gap when a roommate causes the damage and denies signing anything.
• The room-by-room condition grid breaks each space into walls, ceiling, flooring, windows, doors and hardware, lighting, outlets and built-in fixtures, using a standardized condition code rather than free text. Kitchens and bathrooms carry extra appliance and plumbing rows, each with a repair-estimate column left blank at move-in.
• The photographic and video annex logs a file reference and capture date against each defect, which is what Civil Code section 1950.5(g) now requires California landlords to produce with their itemized statement.
• The normal wear and tear acknowledgment reproduces the statutory definition, tracking Texas Property Code section 92.001(4), so both parties sign against the same standard. Faded paint and traffic patterns in carpet sit on one side of that line; burns, pet stains and holes on the other.
• The keys and access inventory counts keys, fobs, garage remotes, mail keys and gate codes, with a replacement cost line completed at move-out only. It pairs with the written notice of intent to vacate that starts the inspection clock in most states.
• The attestation and signature block carries dual signature lines, a date field per column, and optional wording tracking General Obligations Law section 7-108(1-a)(c) so a New York move-in record functions as the written agreement the statute contemplates.

California is the most documentation-heavy state in the country for this document. Civil Code section 1950.5 requires written notice of the tenant's option to request an initial inspection within a reasonable time after either party gives notice of termination, and that inspection cannot occur earlier than two weeks before the end date. The resulting statement of deficiencies gives the tenant a right to cure before vacating, and anything visible and unlisted cannot later be deducted. The photographs required by section 1950.5(g) must be taken before any cleaner or contractor touches the unit, because a mopped floor destroys the baseline the statute exists to preserve.

Texas imposes no inspection procedure, which makes the private checklist proportionally more important. Everything turns on section 92.104: a written description and itemized list, delivered inside the 30-day window that opens when the tenant surrenders the premises and gives a written forwarding address. Because section 92.109 presumes bad faith when that deadline slips, a modest deduction can become a treble-damages judgment. The clock starts on actual surrender, not the lease end date.

Florida is a notice state. A landlord claiming anything must send written notice under section 83.49(3)(a) by certified mail to the last known address, or by email where the parties signed the electronic delivery addendum under section 83.505, within 30 days, in the statutory form, telling the tenant they have 15 days to object.

New York treats the inspection as a right. Beyond the pre-occupancy inspection, section 7-108(1-a)(d) obliges the landlord to give written notice of the pre-vacating inspection right, schedule it between one and two weeks before the end of the tenancy, and give at least 48 hours written notice of the appointment. The landlord bears the burden of proving the reasonableness of anything retained under paragraph (f), and a willful violation exposes them to punitive damages of up to twice the deposit. Owners running several buildings through an entity should file these records beside their business formation and governance templates for US landlords.

You begin by selecting the state where the property sits, and the form adjusts the deadlines, the wear and tear wording, and whether a pre-vacating inspection notice is generated alongside the checklist. Next you describe the unit: address, unit number, bedroom and bathroom count, and whether it is furnished, which controls whether the contents inventory appears. You then add each adult occupant, and the signature block builds itself from that list.

The room builder comes next. You keep or remove standard rooms, add unusual ones such as a basement, garage or balcony, and the grid populates with the right rows. The photographic annex is generated as a numbered schedule you complete on site, so file names in your phone match line items in the document. At the end you choose the move-in column, the move-out column, or both on one form, then download in editable Word and signature-ready PDF alongside the rest of the catalogue of US legal document templates.

The most damaging entry in any condition report is the word "good". A tenant who signed a form describing an entire apartment as good has effectively signed nothing. Write the defect, its location in the room, and its approximate size. The second failure is undated photography, or photography taken after cleaning, which in California now risks losing the deduction entirely. The third is a single signature: a form the tenant never countersigned is a landlord's own memorandum, and courts treat it as one.

Two mistakes belong to the move-out side. Landlords routinely mail the completed checklist and assume they have satisfied the itemization requirement, but the checklist records condition while the statute demands a costed statement of deductions supported by receipts or estimates. The two documents are not interchangeable in any of these four states. Deducting for wear and tear is the other classic error. Carpet has a depreciable life, paint fades, drawer runners wear out, and charging for them turns a defensible deduction into a bad-faith finding.