How to get your deposit back as a tenant.

All land lords have heard this line, " Its cleaner and in better shape than when we moved in". While this may be true from time to time, from experience this almost always means that in fact we as Property Managers will have some work to do.

So the question is, "How do I get as much of my deposit back as possible?"

Let’s go through a few things that will help.

1. Don't move into a house with obvious cleaning and maintenance needs. If the house is not ready it’s not ready. Moving in to somewhere before its ready leaves questions at the end as to what was actually done at the time of move in.

2. Take dated pictures when you take possession BEFORE you move your belongings in. A video is even better. Keep this safe until move out and turn it in with your keys.

3. Most Property Managers/Land lords will ask you to fill out a property condition report. DO IT!! And turn in a copy. Again keep a copy for yourself.

4. Know your lease!! So many times issues come up with tenants that could have been solved if they had just read their lease. This should tell you expectations that you will be held to pertaining to your deposit.

5. Pay someone to clean. Often tenants will budget a set amount of time to move and a set amount of time for cleaning. What happens is moving always takes longer than expected and that cuts into cleaning time. Also you are tired after moving and after a couple hours of cleaning it "looks better than when we moved in".


In general be realistic. Most move-outs require a little work and a few charges to the security deposit. Keep good records and give yourself plenty of time to take care of issues and you should get most if not all of your deposit back.