Move Out Inspections With the Tenant

The Request

Property managers are often faced with situations where a tenant wants to be present during the move out inspection. They might demand to be present during the move out inspection, or they might even tell you that it's the law. Well, it's not the law, and it's not recommended. Think about this little scenario, and you could think about whether you're making a mistake doing the move out inspection with the tenant present.

How It Goes

Here you are, doing the move out inspection. The tenant is following you around the house, and you're trying to determine whether there's any damage. You're intimidated. You're rushed. You feel like there's some pressure there because if you were to find something, it could cause an argument. So you're looking around and everything "looks fine to you".

So you tell the tenant they will get their security deposit back. A week later, your maintenance tech is in the unit, cleaning or doing whatever they do to get the unit ready for the next tenant. Your maintenance tech smells something odd, goes over to the corner of the room, lifts up the carpet, turns out there's urine damage from a cat.

A cat that you didn't even know the tenant had. On top of that, they're getting bit by fleas. Turns out there's fleas in the unit. Now you're going to incur pest control expenses. Then the maintenance tech looks at the wall and sees that your tenant used the wrong kind of paint to touch up some scuff marks or some holes in the wall.

Now you're faced with telling the tenant that they are not going to receive their security deposit back. You're going to send out a notice of intention to impose a claim on security deposit with the bad news. The bad news is that you're charging for pest control. You're charging potentially for carpet replacement.

You're charging potentially for repainting or partial repainting of the room. Now the tenant blows up. They fully expect that they were going to get their security deposit back and now they get the bad news that you're keeping their security deposit. Do you see the problem here? You need to say no when a tenant asks to be present at the move out inspection.

Why is the tenant even asking? The tenant's asking because it's quite possible that the place where they lived prior to your place, the landlord took their security deposit. So they think you're going to do it as well. They're uncertain. They're scared. They think that you're going to take their money and sure enough, you are. But you have legitimate reasons why now. But you told them they would get their money back.

A Written Policy

You need to have a written policy and possibly put this in your tenant's manual. Tenant's manuals or tenant's handbooks are good ways to let a tenant know what to do. You expect of the tenant and what the tenant should expect of you. Have your office policy from this point on be that you will never do a move out inspection with the tenant present. If they request it, you tell them no. You tell them that if they want to protect themselves, they can take their own pictures, their own video, and that you plan on taking pictures, video, and doing a good, detailed inspection after the tenant moves out.