The Importance of Taking Note of Previous Damage

Many apartments have you fill out a form to assess the damage so you aren’t held responsible for what previous tenants did.

When you’re moving into your new apartment the last thing you’ll want to do is take note of the damage, unfortunately, it’s something you’ll have to deal with anyway.

Typically these forms will list the rooms and every piece in the apartment that you would have to worry about. You want to make sure to be as detailed as possible; check the walls, the doors, and the furniture if it’s a furnished apartment. If there are scratches on the desk or if the
chair doesn’t feel sturdy you want to write that down. You want to be careful to make sure that you don’t miss anything that you could possibly be charged for.

The best way to deal with this evaluation is after you’ve moved all of your stuff in, have a good look around the apartment. You’ll have to turn that form in pretty early after you move in so they know that you weren’t responsible for the damages and they can replace anything that’s broken. Even if the apartment itself doesn’t have any form for you to fill out you still probably will want to take note, or even take pictures, of any damage that you see.

The unfortunate downside to this situation is that you still might miss something even if you’re careful.

When you move out your apartment will be looked over to check for any damages. They’ll refer back to the form you filled out and if they find anything not described in the form you could be held accountable for it.

Being sure to pay close attention to the damages when you move in is important to make sure that you don’t have to pay for something someone
else did.

Have any questions on noting previous damage? Comment below. 

About the author:

Kathryn Hill was born and raised in Houston, Texas. She is a senior English student at Sam Houston State University. Kathryn has written for the blog and social media of the educational website Curriculum café.