Everything a security deposit conversation will turn on is decided on day one. A move-in condition report fixes, photo by photo and room by room, the state of the property before the keys change hands, so that at move-out the question is what changed, not who remembers what. Here is what to document, what California law expects, and when to do it.
Day one is the only moment when the condition of the property can be recorded before anything is at stake. Every later conversation is measured against it.
General information about California law (AB 2801, Civil Code § 1950.5), not legal advice.
A move-in condition report is a dated, photo-documented record of the state of a rental at the start of a tenancy, room by room and element by element. It is the baseline: at move-out, the condition of the property is compared against it, and under California law the landlord needs it to justify any deduction from the security deposit.
Every room, every element in it, with a photograph and a note on its condition and cleanliness: walls, floors, ceilings, doors and windows, fixtures and equipment, plus the keys handed over, the meter readings and the safety detectors. The more systematic the record, the less room there is to argue later.
Walls and paint, floors, ceilings, doors, windows and their frames, baseboards and trim, in every room. Wide shots for context, close-ups for every mark, chip or stain.
Kitchen counters and cabinets, sinks and faucets, bathroom fixtures, the appliances present and their visible state. Presence and appearance, not performance.
A cleanliness level per room, because a landlord can only deduct the cleaning needed to bring the unit back to the level it had at move-in. Without a baseline, that level is a matter of opinion.
The keys and fobs handed over and their counts, the opening meter readings, and the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors present, photographed.
California requires a habitable unit: working locks, heating, hot and cold water, sound windows and doors, working detectors and, for leases signed, modified or renewed since January 1, 2026, a working stove and refrigerator. Noting their presence protects everyone.
Every photograph dated and tied to its room, and a continuous video walkthrough so nothing falls between two frames.
Since AB 2801, a landlord who wants to deduct anything from a security deposit at the end of a tenancy needs photographs of the unit taken at the start of it, for tenancies beginning on or after July 1, 2025. The rest of Civil Code § 1950.5 sets the frame around that record: what a deposit can cover, who has to prove what, and for how long the evidence matters.
General information about California law, not legal advice. Statute wording prevails over any summary.
Anyone can take photographs, and both parties should. But a record produced by one of the parties reads as that party's version of events. A record produced by a neutral third party, signed on site, is the one both sides can accept without arguing about who held the camera.
Your move-in photographs are the foundation of every deduction you may need to make. A record produced by someone with no stake in the deposit is harder to contest, and it is produced the same way on every unit, whoever is on your team that day.
Keep your own dated photographs too, whoever makes the official record, and check that what you see matches what was written. What is documented as worn on day one stays off your bill on the last day.
Who writes the record decides what it is worth. A document neither side authored is the one that ends the argument instead of starting it.
Ideally on the day the keys change hands or just before, while the unit is empty and clean, so the record shows exactly what the tenant received. A record made a few days later still fixes a date and a state; it simply carries less weight the further it gets from day one.
The unit is empty and cleaned. This is the cleanest moment to document: every wall is visible, every floor uncovered, and the cleanliness level is the one the tenant will be held to.
The record is made, the keys are counted, the meters are read, and everyone present signs. If the tenant is there, walk through together: a shared record is worth more than two separate ones.
Many leases give the tenant a few days to report pre-existing defects in writing. That window is set by the lease, not by the statute, so read yours and use it: anything raised then joins the record.
A record made after move-in is still a dated, photo-documented state of the property. It cannot prove what the unit looked like on day one, but it fixes a reference point for everything that happens after.
The move-in record only makes sense inside California deposit law. Two guides go further: the complete AB 2801 reference, with every deadline and figure, and the line between normal wear and deductible damage. A third defines the condition report itself.
Scoutmyplace produces independent move-in condition reports across Los Angeles: every room documented with timestamped photos and video by a trained scout with no stake in the deposit, signed on site, delivered within 24 hours and kept on file for four years.