Handing over the property: the move-in report and photos

A move-in inspection report describes the state of the property on the day the tenant gets the keys: meter readings, keys, the condition of every room, the furniture inventory and two signatures. This document decides who pays for what at the end of the tenancy. So write it for the inspection eleven months from now, when the tenancy has run out and you have to decide what happens to the deposit, not for the meeting you are standing in today.

What a move-in inspection report has to contain

The report covers the property and the parties, the date and time of the handover, the meter readings, the keys and access credentials, the condition of every room, the furniture inventory, the defects found, and the signatures of both parties.

Eight items, each with the rule that makes it useful later:

• Parties and property. Full names of both parties and the exact address with the floor and apartment number. An address with no apartment number does not point at a specific home when you later compare the report against a bill or against the tenancy agreement.
• Date and time. Both, not just the date. When the handover and the move-in happen on the same day, the time separates what the tenant found from the damage caused while the furniture was carried in.
• Meter readings. Always with the meter number. A reading without a number cannot be matched to a specific bill.
• Keys and access credentials. Write down how many of each type and what each one opens. Keys recorded only as a count are the most disputed line in the document.
• Condition, room by room. Every room gets its own entry, including the ones where nothing is wrong. If the entry is missing, either party can later claim the room was never inspected.
• Furniture inventory. Items with quantities and the room they stand in, and for anything with a motor or a heating element, a tested working condition as well.
• Defects at handover. A complete list. Its purpose is not to describe the damage but to establish what was sound.
• Photos. Listed by number inside the report itself, so the text and the photos cannot be presented separately.

The last item is the one owners skip. When the photos stay on the phone, the report stands on its own with no evidence attached to it, and that surfaces exactly when the evidence is needed.

Enter the report as a numbered annex to the tenancy agreement, so the two documents always travel together. The handover is the last step of letting the property and it comes after the listing is up, the tenant is screened and the agreement is signed; the whole sequence is set out in the guide on how to rent out an apartment.

How to describe the condition of each room so the record still works a year later

For every room, record which item or surface it is, where it is, what is wrong with it and how big that is. "In good condition" and "light wear" settle nothing at the end of the tenancy.

Every entry has four parts: the room, the item and its position, what is wrong with it, and the photo number.

Three entries, before and after:

• Weak: "Kitchen, in good condition." Useful: kitchen, worktop to the left of the sink, burn mark about 3 cm across, dark brown, close to the front edge, photo 14.
• Weak: "The parquet is a bit worn." Useful: living room, parquet along the line to the balcony door, two scratches about 15 cm long, the lacquer is intact, photo 8.
• Weak: "The bathroom is fine." Useful: bathroom, the silicone along the edge of the bath has yellowed along its full length but has not come away; the mixer tap runs, no leak at its base, photo 21.

Rooms with nothing to report also get a line: "no visible defects as at the handover date". A blank does not mean everything was fine, only that nobody wrote anything down, and either party can later claim the room was not inspected.

Do not write conclusions into the entries. "The tenant will be careful" and "normal for the age of the property" are opinions, and an opinion in the report is the first thing the other side will challenge.

How to photograph the property at move-in so the photos serve as evidence

Photograph every room wide first, then every defect close up with an object in the frame for scale. Keep the original files unedited and number the photos, so each one matches a specific line in the report.

The shots for every room:

• Two wide shots from opposite corners at eye height, so that the two overlap and together cover the room.
• The floor, in sections, including under and behind any furniture that stays.
• The ceiling corners and the wall around every window. That is where damp shows up, and exactly where nobody takes a photo.
• Every wall something will be hung on: a shelf, a TV bracket, a wardrobe.
• Every defect close up, with a coin or a tape measure next to it. A close-up without scale shows that the mark exists, but not how big it was.
• The inside of every appliance that opens: the washing machine drum, the oven, the fridge.

Keep the files exactly as they came off the phone or the camera. A cropped or brightened photo immediately raises the question of what was left outside the frame, and that question does not have to be justified to cost you the argument. Edit nothing, delete nothing, and keep every photo, including the failed ones.

A video walkthrough adds to the photos but does not replace them. Video shows well whether everything was covered and shows detail badly, and a line in the report cannot point at a moment in a video the way it points at photo number 14.

Number the photos and write the numbers into the lines of the report. If that is not workable on site, do it the same evening. Two days later, ninety photos of three identical white rooms can no longer be sorted reliably by anyone.

How to record meter readings, keys and access codes

Every meter is recorded with its number and its reading as at the handover date. Keys, fobs, remotes and codes are listed by count and by what each one opens, and you note whether anyone else holds a copy.

For the meters: number, reading and a photo of the display, numbered along with the rest. The number matters, because it is not unusual for one property to have two water meters in different risers. Record electricity, cold and hot water and heating wherever they are metered separately.

Keys are the most disputed line in the whole document. Count them by type and write what each one opens: the building entrance, the upper and lower lock of the apartment, the letterbox, the basement, the garage, the lift fob. "3 keys handed over" reads at the end of the tenancy as three keys nobody remembers the purpose of.

Access codes go in the same place: the entrance code, the alarm code and every other code you give the tenant. If a code changes during the tenancy, that is written up as a dated annex, not as a correction on the signed original.

That leaves the copies that are not with you. If a previous tenant, a neighbour, someone who cleans the property or an agency may still hold a key and you cannot account for every copy, change the lock before the handover and record the new count. Changing it afterwards means the count in the signed report was wrong from day one.

Should you record the damage that already exists

Record the existing damage in full. A detailed list does not weaken the landlord's position, it defines it: everything outside the list was sound at handover.

This is where owners hesitate, because a long list of defects sounds like an admission that the property is in poor shape. The risk actually runs the other way. A short list costs you nothing today and costs you the whole dispute later, because the tenant's answer to every claim is that the damage was already there, and a vague report cannot refute it.

Separate ordinary wear from damage while you write. Paint faded over a year, the worn patch in front of the sofa and the marks around the light switches are the property getting older. A cracked panel, a burn mark, a cupboard door off its hinge and a dead appliance are damage. The report does not have to settle who pays for wear, but it does have to describe the starting point precisely enough to keep the two from blending together.

A defect you intend to repair during the tenancy is recorded as it looks today, plus a line saying a repair is due. The finished repair is attached later, with a date and photos. A report written as though the repair had already been done describes a property that did not exist on the day of the handover.

Write wear and damage the same way and mark which is which. If that gets decided later, off a vague line in the report, you end up in exactly the argument you are describing the property to avoid.

Is the furniture inventory a separate document from the report

The furniture inventory can be a section of the report or an annex to it, but it must be signed together with it. It is the separate unsigned lists that go missing.

For every item, write what it is, how many, which room it stands in, what condition it is in, and the model or serial number if one is visible. With two identical armchairs in different rooms, always write which one stands where, or a claim about one of them holds for neither. What goes on each line and how each item is checked is covered separately in the article on the furniture inventory for a rental property.

For appliances, the condition is tested on site and that is noted. Run the washing machine on a short cycle, switch the oven on, check that the fridge cools and that the water heater delivers hot water. Record the result: "the washing machine completed a short cycle at handover, no leak". If the condition is merely written down and never tested, a breakdown three weeks later has no established cause, and nobody can say whether the appliance worked on the day of the handover.

Record what is deliberately left out of the inventory, too. The cleaning products in the bathroom, the opened bag of coal, the piece of furniture in the basement that belongs to the landlord: each of these is either handed over or it is not, and one line about it saves the argument over whether the tenant was entitled to throw it out.

Who signs the report, in how many copies, and how it attaches to the tenancy agreement

Both parties sign on the day of the handover, in two identical copies, and the report is named as an annex to the tenancy agreement. The photos are listed by number in the report and kept together with the signed copies.

Sign every page, not just the last one. In a document with a single signature at the end, a page can be added or swapped, and that objection takes no effort at all to raise. Number the pages: "page 1 of 6".

Both copies are originals and both are signed. A copy handed to the tenant is the weaker option, and the second original takes a minute to produce.

Enter the annex in the agreement itself with a date and a number, so the two documents point at each other: "Move-in inspection report dated [date], Annex No. 1 to this agreement".

When there are two tenants, both sign. When the handover is done by an agency on the landlord's behalf, the representative signs and the report states in what capacity. A signature with no stated capacity is the first thing questioned once the agency is no longer involved.

What to do if the tenant refuses to sign or disputes an entry

If the tenant refuses to sign or disputes an entry, do not hand over the keys. Record the disagreement on a separate line, agree wording both sides accept, and sign whatever comes out of that.

• A specific entry is disputed. The tenant says the scratch is longer than described, or that the mark is not a defect at all. Rewrite the line so both sides accept it, or add a line stating that the entry is disputed and how each side describes it. A disputed but recorded line stays useful. A line deleted for the sake of peace is simply not there.
• Signing gets postponed. "I will sign it tomorrow, once I bring my things over." By tomorrow the property has been lived in for a day, and for every defect found after that, both sides have an innocent explanation ready.
• A flat refusal. It happens rarely, and it tells you something in itself. Ask what exactly is unacceptable. If the answer is that no document is needed, you already know what the end of this tenancy will look like.

The keys are the only thing you hold that the tenant wants, and only until they are in their hands. Once they are inside with the keys, a signature on the report depends on their goodwill.

If no agreed version comes out of it, postpone the handover rather than sign a document you know is wrong. A report signed by both parties while they disagree about what it says is worse than a missing one, because it looks settled.

The handover itself, step by step

The handover runs in a set order: the meters first, then room by room with the photos, then the furniture inventory, counting the keys and recording the codes, reading the completed report together, the signatures, and only then the keys.

1. Prepare the document before the meeting. Fill in the parties, the address, the room names, the list of items and the page numbering in advance, so that only the condition entries, the readings and the counting are left to do on site.
2. Read the meters together. Number, reading and a photo of the display, while you are both still in the hallway and nothing has been moved.
3. Walk the rooms in the same order every time. One room is finished before the next one starts: the wide shots, the defects close up, then the written entry with the photo numbers.
4. Go through the furniture inventory. Item by item against the list, switching the appliances on and marking their condition as tested.
5. Count the keys and record the codes. Take out every key, count them together and write down what each one opens.
6. Read the completed report aloud with the tenant. A disagreement raised now is a change of wording. The same disagreement at the end of the tenancy is a claim.
7. Sign both copies, and only then hand over the keys. In exactly that order.

Allow more time than you think you need, especially for a furnished property and especially the first time. A handover done in a hurry produces exactly the report nobody can use afterwards.

How the move-in report connects to the move-out report

The move-in report only works together with the move-out report, in which the same rooms, the same items and the same photos are compared.

Keep the same order at both inspections: the same sequence of rooms, the same item names, the same shots, the same numbering. If the same wall is described in different words at move-out, the comparison turns into an argument about terminology and the conversation about the deposit starts from nothing.

Keep the record current throughout the tenancy. A repair, a replaced appliance, an extra key, a changed code: each of these becomes a dated annex, signed or at least confirmed in writing, and filed with the original documents. A report that was accurate on the day of the handover and untouched for a year describes a property that no longer exists.

This is exactly where most owners lose the record. At the end of the tenancy the report is an attachment in an old email, the photos are in the phone gallery among eight thousand others, and the annex for the replaced water heater is in a chat. Nothing has been deleted, and nothing can be found in the ten minutes before the move-out inspection.

So the record has to sit in one place, tied to the property, rather than scattered between the phone and the inbox. That is what damage management in Smarter Facility is for: damage is documented with photos and detailed descriptions, repair requests are logged and tracked, and every property keeps a complete history that is still in the same place eleven months later.

The test for the whole document comes down to one question: eleven months from now, standing in that same room opposite a tenant who remembers it differently, will the record settle the matter or start a conversation?