Getting Your Deposit Back After an Apartment Move

Deposit disputes are rarely about whether damage exists. They are about whether it existed before you did, and that is decided by documentation rather than by argument.

Just-In-Time Moving handles apartment moves across Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County.

The photographs, twice

The whole game.

When you move in, photograph every room, floors, walls, doorframes, worktops, appliances and any existing mark, before anything of yours is inside. Keep them somewhere you will still have them in two years, not only on a phone you will replace.

When you move out, photograph everything again once the unit is empty and cleaned, from the same angles if you can.

Time-stamped photographs from both ends make almost every dispute short. Without them it is your recollection against theirs.

Read the agreement before move week

Specifically what condition the unit must be returned in and what cleaning is required. Requirements vary considerably: some specify carpets, some specify appliances, some specify a professional clean.

People discover this in the last few days, which is exactly when it is most expensive to satisfy.

Where the damage actually happens

On move-out day, and always in the same places: doorframes, the corner where a hallway turns, walls at the height furniture is carried, and carpet from a day of traffic through a propped door.

Floor runners go down before the first item moves and tight corners get protected. Point out anything you are particularly worried about at the walkthrough and we will take extra care there.

The part after the truck leaves

Leave time and access for cleaning, and do not plan it for the same hours as the move.

Whatever does not fit on the truck will be standing in the empty rooms, and anything left behind is usually removed at a price the landlord sets. A clear-out booked for the day after works far better than the same day, because the pile is not final until the last box is loaded.

Do a final walk of every room, closet and balcony, and the assigned storage space if you have one.

Then, if you can, be present for the inspection or ask when it will happen. Buildings usually walk a unit after you have gone, and a deduction decided in your absence is one you find out about weeks later in a statement. Being there, or at least knowing the date and asking for the findings in writing, turns it into a conversation you can have while the evidence is fresh rather than a line item you are contesting from memory.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.