A deposit dispute is won or lost on move-in day, a year or more before anyone disputes anything. Move-out photos prove condition; they say nothing about change. A small claims judge wants the comparison: the same line on the same form, coded and signed by both parties at both ends of the tenancy. A signed baseline next to a signed exit report can be read without believing either side.
I self-manage a small portfolio from two time zones away, so my inspection records have to stand without me. The checklist below is built to that standard: room-by-room condition codes filled in twice, a photo protocol with counts, timestamps, and file names, and signature blocks for both inspections.
This is a documentation template, not legal advice. Inspection and deposit rules are state-specific: some states require handing the tenant a condition report at move-in, some give the tenant a right to a pre-move-out inspection, and return deadlines commonly run 14 to 45 days. Read your state's statute before you rely on any template, this one included.
The checklist
One document, used twice. Code each line at move-in, code it again at move-out, and the two columns become the comparison every deduction has to survive.
Move-in / move-out condition report
Running the move-in inspection
Do it at key handover, while the unit is empty: bare rooms photograph honestly, and furniture hides the surfaces that get argued about later. Walk the rooms in the form's order, with the tenant beside you, and put a code on every line. A column of blanks reads later like an inspection that never happened.
Record the trivial defects and invite the tenant to add their own; a tenant who notes the chipped tile at move-in cannot be charged for it later, and you cannot be accused of inventing the baseline. Both parties sign, the tenant gets a copy the same day, and you keep proof of delivery. If the tenant declines to participate, inspect anyway, send the copy, and note the refusal on the form; the same habit runs through documenting tenant interactions.
The photo protocol
Most checklists stop at the grid. Cases are decided on the photos:
- Coverage. Four corners of every room, inside each appliance, and a close-up of every line coded F, P, or D. A two-bedroom unit comes out around 60 to 80 photos; if you took 20, you skipped rooms.
- Timestamps. Verify the device clock before the first shot and keep the originals. EXIF data dates a photo more credibly than your testimony can, and cropped or edited copies surrender that.
- Naming. Unit-room-item-date ties each file to a checklist line, and the photo number column ties the line back. An unlabeled camera roll of 70 images is evidence you cannot find.
- Delivery. Send the tenant the full set the same week. Evidence shared on day one rarely gets contested on day 400.
The move-out walkthrough
Schedule it for the day the keys come back, after the belongings are out, and walk the same rooms in the same order. The OUT column gets coded against the IN column, not against new. Carpet that went from new to traffic-worn over three years is aging you absorb; carpet that went from good to pet-stained is damage. Where that line sits is its own guide: normal wear and tear vs damage.
Two parts of the signature block carry weight. The forwarding address is where the deposit return letter and your state's deadline both run, so collect it while the tenant is standing in front of you. The move-out signature acknowledges condition without waiving deposit rights, language that keeps tenants willing to sign. Everything coded D becomes your make-ready scope; the walkthrough is also the first step of turnover.
Mistakes that lose deposit cases
- No signed baseline. Move-out evidence alone proves the unit's condition; it cannot prove the tenant caused it. Most landlord losses in small claims trace to this gap; if a dispute is headed to court, prepare for it deliberately.
- Uniform codes with no notes. A straight column of G entries above an empty notes field looks like a form filled in at the kitchen counter in minutes. Specific small notes are what make the big entries credible.
- Deducting for ordinary aging. Faded paint, small nail holes, and traffic-worn carpet are the cost of having a tenant; charging for them invites the counterclaim.
- A scattered record. The checklist in a glove box, photos on a retired phone, receipts in email: each is fine alone; together they are unproducible. This document opens the deposit paper trail and should stay with the rest of it.
Where the record lives between inspections
A condition report only settles arguments if you can still produce it years later, and a multi-year tenancy gives it time to disappear. I built rents.ai because spreadsheets kept dropping this kind of record: it stores documents against a property or a tenant (the signed checklist, the dated photo set, receipts, files up to 25 MB each) alongside a deposit ledger that runs from held through itemized deductions to returned. It will not run the inspection for you; there is no inspection module, and nothing fills in the codes. What it does is keep the record attached to the right tenant, intact, when the deduction letter needs exhibits.
The inspection costs an hour, twice a tenancy. The record it leaves does the arguing for years.