Post Tenant Security Deposit Review

[Simond Wong]

As a landlord, what is your approach to reviewing your property after the tenant has moved out.

What do you look for specifically?

What have you overlooked and now you will not in future cases?

Finally how do you assess the cost so that you can communicate it to the tenant?

Thank you everyone

[Kyle J.]

Use a good, thorough move-in checklist on the front end and make sure everything is working and in good condition. I go through the entire house interior & exterior, check every single room, appliance, wall/door/window/etc, top-to-bottom, marking the checklist off line-by-line. Then when I’m done I have the tenant sign it to acknowledge that we agree on the condition.

On the move-out, I simply use the same checklist to ensure I don’t miss anything. And that way there’s no dispute about what the condition was when the tenant moved in since we both signed that document back when it was created. (Plus I take tons of photos at the move-in and move-out.)

Assessing the costs are easy. If there’s any damage, I just charge them what it costs to repair the damage. I don’t make any money on the repairs. If a vendor charges me $217.37 to repair damage found in the home during the walk-through, that’s the exact amount that’s going to be deducted from the tenant’s security deposit. 

Once I’m done making any deductions (if there are any), I mail the tenant a detailed, itemized accounting of these deductions along with a check for the balance of their security deposit.