Move In Inspection Checklist (Free Printable)

A move in inspection checklist is the walk you do before the boxes arrive: what shape each room is in today, what the meters read, and which keys you actually got. These two printable pages hold all of it on paper. Page 1 is a 12-row room-by-room condition table with a photo-taken box on every line, plus a meter readings box for electric, water and gas. Page 2 is a keys log, a landlord notes box and sign-off lines. Print it, write on it, reprint one set per move. The full 16-page Renter Deposit Kit is linked at the bottom.

The two-page move in inspection sheet

The rooms and items on the table come straight from the kit's own move-in inspection: walls, floors, fixtures, appliances and windows, room by room. The condition lines stay blank on purpose. This sheet records what the place looked like on day one, in your handwriting, with your photos next to it.

The room list and the five items per room come from the kit's move-in inspection, which pairs a move-in sheet with a move-out sheet built from the same rooms in the same order, so both walks cover the same ground. The condition column stays blank because the point of the sheet is what you observed on day one, not what anyone expected to find. A photo checkbox sits on every line because a written condition note and the photo that matches it work as a pair.

4 opinions on running this walk

1. Walk it before the boxes arrive. (Opinion.) The kit's own instruction is to do this before anything moves in, and it holds up: an empty room shows every wall, floor and window in one look, while a room stacked with boxes makes each condition line a guess. Twenty minutes on day one buys every line on page 1 for free.
2. Date-stamp the photos. (Opinion.) Turn the timestamp on before the walk, shoot each room wide first and then close up, and keep the shots in a folder named for the move. The kit pairs every inspection line with a photo-taken box for this reason: a condition note plus a dated photo of the same spot is a much stronger pair than either one alone, and the date is what separates move-in pictures from everything your phone has taken since.
3. Photograph the meter displays, don't just copy the digits. (Opinion.) Transcribing a meter by hand is how one wrong digit turns into a bill that needs untangling later. The kit's move-in page tells you to photograph the meter readings too, and that's the habit worth keeping: the written number on the sheet is for quick checking, the photo is the record.
4. Leave page 2 signed by everyone who walked the place. (Opinion.) The kit's inspection pages carry an inspection date and a who-was-present line, and the reason is plain: two people looking at the same sheet on day one agree on what it says. Put agreements in writing, as the kit's own about page puts it, and a signed copy each side is the simplest version of that.

What the Renter Deposit Kit adds

This page is the move-in walk in two sheets. The full product is a 16-page paper system for one tenancy, from the README:

"A 16-page printable paper system for one tenancy, from the day you get the keys to the day the deposit comes back. Nothing in it is dated by year, so it works for every move." - the product README

• Move-in inspection (pages 3-4): eight room blocks across two pages, walls, floors, fixtures, appliances and windows for each, with a "photo taken" checkbox on every line. This page's sheet is the short version; the kit's is the full one.
• Move-out inspection (pages 5-6): same rooms, same order, done before you hand back the keys, noting what changed since move-in and the photo number that shows it.
• Deposit tracker (page 7): landlord, amount, date paid, the return date from your lease or local rules, then every deduction claimed on one line each, with totals and the balance due to you.
• Repair and cleaning to-do (pages 8-9): thirty lines across two pages, every nail hole and smudge with a row: what, room, who fixes it and the cost.
• Photo evidence log (pages 10-11): twenty numbered rows (photo number, room, date, what it shows) so any claim can be matched to a picture in seconds.
• Utility transfer checklist (page 12): ten rows for stopping services at the old place and starting them at the new one, with meter readings and confirmation numbers (last 4 digits only).
• Walkthrough request letter (page 13): a plain, fill-in letter asking for the move-out walkthrough, a copy of the inspection notes and an itemized deduction list, plus a send-and-reply log.
• Notes (pages 14-15) and about page (16), plus both PDFs in A4 and US Letter, same content in both.
• License, verbatim from the README: "Personal use. Print as many copies as you need for your own household and your own move. Don't resell or republish the files."

The other half of this walk lives on the move out cleaning checklist page, which covers the hand-back side. The rental walkthrough checklist runs a full visit room by room, the rental property inspection checklist takes the landlord's view, and the new home checklist starts the week the boxes arrive. The full catalog lists everything else.

one-time · 16 pages, PDF A4 + US Letter · instant download · paperwork organizer, not legal advice