Free printable · for renters · before a single box comes in
Free Move-In Condition Checklist
A deduction from your deposit is hard to answer after the fact if nothing was written down on the day the keys changed hands. At move-out, two people look at the same worn carpet and one of them has a dated photograph of it from that first day: that person is describing a fact, and the other one is offering a recollection. This free printable is the hour that produces the photograph — 28 room-by-room checks in walking order, with a box for the condition and a box for whether you actually photographed it.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the files.
What it does
- Walks you through 28 room-by-room checks — flooring, walls and paint, caulk and grout, blinds, appliance parts, screens — grouped in the order you would actually walk them, so nothing gets skipped because you were tired of looking.
- Gives the photo column its own box, because that is the column that carries weight later. A condition you recorded but never photographed is a recollection; a condition you photographed is dated evidence.
- Ships pre-filled with a worked example, not a blank grid: the same fictional tenancy the full binder opens on, so you can see what a useful entry looks like — including the one row nobody photographed, which is how a deposit quietly starts leaking. The blank you print follows it.
- Includes the ten habits that make a day-one record worth something — empty room first, wide shot then close, floors low from two corners, keep the original timestamps, send the finished sheets to the landlord with proof that you sent them — and the standing rule that keeps a sheet safe to hand over: never write an account number, a door or alarm code, or a login anywhere on it.
- Prints and works with no spreadsheet at all — nothing to sign up for, nothing saved anywhere but your own copy.
Own it, don't rent it
One end of the tenancy is a page. Both ends is a binder.
This page records a condition. The binder compares two of them — which is the question at move-out, because the argument is rarely about what condition something is in; it is about what changed, and whose it is. All 70 checks rather than 28, scored again on the way out, with a verdict for every row: pre-existing and documented, pre-existing but with no photograph, no change, ordinary wear worth arguing, undocumented, or likely chargeable — decided by how far the item declined, whether you photographed it, whether it wears with normal use, and how long you actually lived there. Then it totals only the rows your evidence cannot defend against the deposit being held. Plus a notice-to-vacate deadline worked backward from your lease end, a repair log judged against response windows that vary by urgency, a rent ledger, an evidence index, and a deposit worksheet that answers their itemization line by line. Ten tabs across Excel, Google Sheets & LibreOffice, plus three PDF guides.
A one-time purchase you keep and own — your record of your tenancy, sitting between a free printable and a landlord portal you may lose access to once the tenancy ends.
A records aid you keep, not legal advice, and not an opinion about what your landlord may lawfully keep. Security-deposit limits, permitted deductions, itemization requirements, return deadlines, notice periods, and where the line between ordinary wear and damage falls are set by your state — sometimes your city — and by your lease; they differ enormously and they change, so look yours up rather than relying on this page. Where real money is at stake, a tenants' rights organization or a legal-aid clinic is the next call — many are free or low-cost, though legal-aid eligibility often depends on income. The worked example is fictional. Keep your filled-in copy with your other tenancy papers, and do not write an account number, a policy number, a door or alarm code, or a login on it. Free to use; please don't resell or redistribute.