Rental Property Inspection Checklist: Every Room, Every System, One PDF

A rental property inspection checklist records the condition of a unit at a moment in time: living areas, kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, exterior and the safety systems. A complete walk is 39 checks across six areas, each one rated Good, Fair or Poor with a note beside it, plus photographs. It takes 25 to 45 minutes for a typical two-bedroom.

That is the answer. The rest of this page is the checklist itself, plus the thing that actually decides whether it holds up: the notes box next to each rating.

The rule that makes the whole thing work

Move-in and move-out must be the same document.

Not a similar document. Not one built from the same checklist. The same form, with the same fields in the same order, so that "Kitchen → Countertops" on the way out sits directly opposite "Kitchen → Countertops" on the way in.

This is the single most common failure in rental inspections and it is fatal. A landlord who used a one-page move-in form and a detailed move-out form has not documented damage — they have documented that they looked harder the second time. Every deposit dispute where that comes up goes the same way.

The template has a Inspection Type field at the top with three options — Move-In, Move-Out, Periodic — for exactly this reason. Same 39 checks every time. What changes is the date and the answers.

The periodic one matters too, and it is the one most landlords skip. A mid-tenancy inspection every six or twelve months is how you find the slow leak while it is still a repair rather than a replacement, and it is also the only evidence that a problem appeared during the tenancy rather than at the end of it.

Section 1 — Property information (6 fields)

Six fields, ninety seconds. The tenant's name is on here because this document is only worth anything if the tenant has seen it — more on that at the end.

Section 2 — Living areas (7 checks)

Each item gets a rating and a note. The rating is for sorting; the note is the evidence.

• Walls — scuffs, nail holes, crayon, previous patch repairs, damp patches
• Floors — scratches, burns, stains, lifting boards, worn traffic paths
• Ceiling — stains, cracks, sagging. Look up, which almost nobody does
• Windows — cracked panes, failed seals (misting between panes), locks, sticking sashes
• Doors — handles, hinges, closing properly, holes, painted-over locks
• Light fixtures — present, working, bulbs, covers
• Outlets — present, secure, undamaged faceplates, and test one

On outlets: test one in each room with a phone charger or a plug tester. "Outlets — Good" recorded without testing anything is the kind of claim that collapses the first time it is challenged, and it takes ten seconds to be true instead.

Photograph: one wide shot from the doorway showing the whole room, then a close-up of anything rated Fair or Poor.

Section 3 — Kitchen (10 checks)

The most expensive room in the unit and the one that produces the most disputes.

• Countertops — burns, cuts, chips, lifting laminate, stone sealant
• Cabinets — doors aligned, hinges, handles, water damage under the sink
• Sink — chips, staining, drainage, leaks underneath
• Faucet — drips, spray function, aerator, loose base
• Stove — burners all light, knobs present, glass intact
• Oven — heats, door seal, interior condition, racks present
• Fridge — runs, temperature, seals, shelves and drawers all there
• Dishwasher — runs a cycle, drains, door seal, racks
• Microwave — runs, turntable, interior
• Flooring — separately from the living areas; kitchen floors take different damage

Run the appliances. Not "look at" — run. Turn each burner on. Start the dishwasher and come back to it at the end of the walk. Open the fridge and feel it. An appliance recorded as working at move-in that turns out to be broken is a repair you are now paying for, and the tenant is right.

Under the sink is the most valuable ten seconds of the entire inspection. Open the cabinet, look at the base, feel the pipe joints. Slow leaks live there, they are invisible from standing height, and by the time they announce themselves the cabinet floor and often the subfloor have gone.

Photograph: each appliance, the countertop run, inside the cabinet under the sink.

Section 4 — Bathroom (7 checks)

• Toilet — secure to the floor, no rocking, flushes, no running, no leak at the base
• Sink — chips, drainage, leaks underneath, stopper
• Tub / shower — chips, staining, grab rails, diverter, water pressure
• Tiles — cracked, loose, grout condition, sealant around the tub
• Ventilation — a fan that actually moves air, or an opening window
• Mirror — chips, desilvering, fixings
• Cabinets — doors, shelves, condition inside

Sealant and grout are the two to be specific about. They are the boundary between a cosmetic item and a structural one. Failed sealant around a bath lets water into the floor for months before anything shows, and at move-out the argument is always about whether it was already like that. "Sealant around tub intact, no gaps, no mould" in the note at move-in ends that argument before it starts.

Ventilation: hold a sheet of paper to the extractor. If it does not hold, the fan is not working regardless of the noise it makes. Bathrooms without working ventilation grow mould, and mould disputes are the most expensive kind.

Photograph: the sealant line around the tub, the grout, any chip or crack, the fan.

Section 5 — Bedrooms (5 checks)

• Walls — as living areas; look behind where furniture stood
• Floors — as living areas
• Closets — rails, shelves, doors, tracks. Sliding closet doors come off their tracks constantly
• Windows — opening, locks, seals. Bedroom windows are often the fire escape route
• Doors — handles, privacy locks, condition

Do each bedroom separately and say which one in the note — "Bedroom 2, rear" — rather than averaging them into one rating.

Section 6 — Exterior (5 checks)

• Front door — condition, weather seal, threshold, closing and latching
• Locks — every lock operated with the actual key, plus how many keys were handed over
• Patio / balcony — surface, railings, drainage, anything left behind
• Parking — space allocated, condition, access
• Landscaping — condition at handover, so responsibility is clear

Count the keys and write the number down. Keys, fobs, garage remotes, mail keys. It is the single most commonly disputed item at move-out and it is a number, which makes it the easiest thing in this entire document to be certain about.

Section 7 — Utilities and safety (5 checks)

These are Working / Not Working rather than a condition grade, because there is no partly.

• Smoke detectors — present in the required locations, and tested
• CO detectors — where required by your jurisdiction, and tested
• Fire extinguisher — present, in date, gauge in the green
• Thermostat — operates, and the heating actually responds
• Water heater — operates, no leaks, temperature, and note the age if visible

Press the test button on every detector, every single time. This is the one section of a rental inspection that is not really about the deposit. A detector recorded as working when nobody pressed the button is the kind of record that becomes very important in a way nobody wants.

Note the date on the detectors too — most have a manufacture date and a ten-year life, and a detector that will expire mid-tenancy is a job you can schedule now instead of discovering later.

Section 8 and 9 — Summary and signature

Overall summary — a few sentences in plain language. What state is the unit in, what needs doing, and by when. This is the part anyone reads first.

Inspector's signature — and, critically, get the tenant to sign or acknowledge it too.

The notes box is the whole document

Every check above has a rating and a note. Landlords fill in the ratings and skip the notes, and then wonder why the report did not help them.

Here is why it matters. Two records of the same wall:

Walls — Fair

Walls — Fair. Three nail holes above the fireplace, approximately 4cm scuff to the left of the doorway at knee height, small patch repair beside the window that has been painted over in a slightly different shade. No damp, no cracking.

At move-out, the first one supports no claim at all, because "Fair" at move-in and "Fair" at move-out is no change, and "Fair" at move-in against "Poor" at move-out is one person's opinion against another's. The second one is a description of specific, locatable, countable things. New damage is whatever is not on that list.

Three rules for a note that works:

1. Count things. "Three nail holes", not "some nail holes".
2. Locate things. "Left of the doorway, knee height", not "on the wall".
3. Write the absence too. "No damp, no cracking" is doing real work — it forecloses a later claim about something that was not there.

Photographs: fewer, better, timestamped

The instinct on a rental inspection is to photograph everything. Resist it. Two hundred photographs of a two-bedroom flat is a folder nobody will ever go through, including you.

What actually gets used:

• One wide shot per room from the doorway. Establishes the whole room in one frame.
• A close-up of every item rated Fair or Poor. These are the ones that will be argued about.
• Under the kitchen sink, always.
• The meter readings, if you take them.
• Anything already damaged — photograph it at move-in so it can never be attributed to this tenant.

Make sure the timestamp survives. A photograph with no date is worth very little in a dispute, and a photograph exported through a messaging app has usually lost its metadata entirely.

Where the rules actually differ

The 39 checks are the same everywhere. What changes is the legal machinery around them.

Two things worth knowing wherever you are:

In the UK, the adjudicator decides on documents alone. Nobody visits the property. The check-in inventory, the check-out report and the photographs are the entire case. This is the purest demonstration of why the notes box matters — the adjudicator cannot see what you saw, only what you wrote.

In Australia, the entry condition report has a statutory deadline and the tenant gets a copy to amend and return. We cover that document specifically in a separate piece on the RTA entry condition report.

The mistake that costs the deposit

A landlord walks the unit at move-out, finds damage, and writes it up carefully. The claim fails anyway.

Why: nobody can show the tenant ever saw the move-in report.

A condition report the tenant has not acknowledged is one party's account of a property the other party then lived in for two years. Deposit schemes and tribunals treat it accordingly.

So the final step is not producing the PDF. It is:

1. Send it to the tenant the same day, while the walk is fresh.
2. Give them a window — usually seven days — to disagree in writing.
3. Keep their reply, including "looks fine", because that is the acknowledgement.
4. Keep silence too, with proof of sending, if your jurisdiction lets silence count.

A signed or acknowledged move-in report is worth more than a perfect unacknowledged one.

Doing the walk without typing

Every checklist in this category assumes a clipboard or a keyboard. Watch what actually happens: the inspector walks the unit taking photographs, then sits in the car or at a desk afterwards and writes it all up from memory and the camera roll.

That gap is where the notes get thin. "Three nail holes above the fireplace, 4cm scuff left of the doorway at knee height" is what you can say while standing in front of it. An hour later it is "walls — fair", because that is genuinely all you remember.

Speak while you walk, and the document the law or the client wants writes itself.

Related

• Move-in / move-out inspection — the tenancy-change version
• Apartment inspection — multifamily units
• Commercial property inspection — offices and retail
• HVAC inspection report — the plant-room detail this form only summarises

Choosing software rather than a form? The best property inspection apps in 2026, ranked by what they do without signal.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a rental inspection take? 25 to 45 minutes for a typical two-bedroom if you are running appliances and testing detectors properly. Larger or furnished units take longer. A ten-minute walk-through has not tested anything.

Do I need a move-in inspection if the tenant is renewing? No, but a periodic inspection is worth doing anyway. A renewal without any interim record means the next move-out is compared against a document that could be several years old.

Can the tenant do the inspection themselves? Some products are built around exactly that, and for a small portfolio it is a reasonable trade. The risk is consistency: a tenant photographing their own move-out has an interest in the outcome, and their move-in and move-out records may not be comparable.

What if the tenant refuses to sign? Send it anyway, in writing, with a stated window to object. Document that you sent it and what they said. In most jurisdictions a report sent promptly and not disputed carries real weight even unsigned — but the sending has to be provable.

How many photographs should I take? Roughly 15 to 30 for a two-bedroom: one wide shot per room, a close-up of each Fair or Poor item, and the standing extras like under the sink. Hundreds of photographs is not more thorough, it is just unusable.

What is normal wear and tear? The deterioration you would expect from ordinary use over the length of that tenancy — worn carpet in a hallway, faded paint, small scuffs. Not holes, burns, stains or breakage. The distinction is judged case by case, which is precisely why the move-in notes have to be specific enough to show what changed.