Print both reports and put them side by side before you price a single repair. Not the photos first, not the contractor quotes first. The two reports, line against line. Every deduction you can defend comes out of a line that reads differently on the second page than it did on the first.
This guide assumes you have a move-in report. If you do not, the comparison cannot be run and the honest answer is usually to return the deposit. That is a painful lesson once; see the move-in checklist that settles most deposit disputes before the next tenancy starts.
Step 1: Line the two reports up before you look at anything
Same order, same room names, same fixture names. If your move-out report has “bath” where the move-in report has “bathroom 1,” fix the labels before you start. Mismatched labels are how a landlord ends up charging for the wrong room.
Do this before you form an opinion about the tenancy. A comparison run after you have decided the tenant was careless is not a comparison.
Step 2: Score each line as matched, changed, or missing
Three marks only. Resist the urge to add a fourth for “sort of.”
Matched means the line reads the same on both reports. Close it. A closed line never appears again, and closing lines is most of what makes the final statement credible: a tenant looking at 42 matched lines and 3 changed ones argues about 3 things.
Changed means the condition is different. Note what changed in plain words, and pull the two photos, move-in and move-out, that show it.
Missing means there is no move-in entry for that line at all. A missing baseline is not evidence of damage. It is evidence of an incomplete move-in report, and it goes on your list of things to fix, not the tenant’s.
Step 3: Separate what changed from what is chargeable
Every changed line now goes into one of three piles, and only one pile can be billed.
Ordinary wear. Faded paint, thinning carpet in a traffic path, small nail holes, a worn door strike. This is what living in a place does. California states the principle bluntly, and the reasoning is the same nearly everywhere:
Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5(e)(2)(A)
a landlord may not claim against the deposit for ordinary wear and tear, whether it preexisted the tenancy or occurred during it, or for the cumulative effect of ordinary wear across one or more tenancies.
Landlord responsibility. A failed water heater, a roof leak stain, mold from a building envelope problem, a door that never had a stop installed. Changed, yes. Chargeable, no.
Tenant responsibility. Damage beyond ordinary use, or cleaning needed to get back to the move-in standard. This is the only pile that reaches the itemized statement.
If a line is genuinely ambiguous, the burden usually sits with the landlord to show the amount claimed was reasonable. That is worth remembering before you write a number next to a question mark. The line-by-line version of this sorting is in normal wear and tear versus damage.
Step 4: Price the changed lines
For each chargeable line, pick one of three pricing bases and write down which one you used.
- An invoice. Work already done, by someone who sent a bill. Strongest.
- A written estimate. Work not yet done. Fine, and several states allow a good-faith estimate with the statement so long as the real documentation follows.
- Your own labor and materials. Legitimate in most places, but write the hours and the rate. “Two hours at $35 plus $18 in supplies” survives a question; “cleaning: $200” does not.
Then depreciate anything with a useful life. A five-year-old carpet with a ten-year life is worth half its replacement cost, and half is what you can defend. Paint, blinds, and appliances work the same way. Cleaning does not depreciate, but it also cannot be charged when the unit came back at the move-in standard.
Step 5: Turn the comparison into the itemized statement
The statement is the comparison, reformatted, with prices attached. Nothing new should appear at this stage. If a line shows up on the statement that was not marked changed in step 2, go back and find out why.
Order the statement the way the reports are ordered, room by room. A tenant reading it can then follow along with their own copy of the move-in report, which is the fastest way to end an argument before it starts.
Attach, in this order: the two condition reports, the photographs for each changed line, and the invoices or estimates. Then check your state’s deadline, because the best statement in the world is worthless if it arrives after the window closes. The full drafting walk-through is in how to write a security deposit deduction letter.
What this looks like when it goes right
A worked example, with round numbers rather than a real tenancy. Four years, a two-bedroom unit, reports carrying 48 lines. Forty-one match and close. Two are missing a move-in entry and get dropped. Three are ordinary wear: carpet traffic path, faded paint in the south-facing bedroom, a worn kitchen drawer glide. One is a landlord item, a stain from a slow supply-line leak. That leaves one chargeable line, a cracked bathroom vanity top, priced from a written estimate.
One line. A tenant who receives that statement, with 41 closed lines in front of it, almost never files anything. That is the whole return on doing the move-in report properly.
Condition reports in LeaseRooster run this comparison for you and hand the changed lines to the deposit worksheet as suggested deductions. Nothing is applied until you accept it and set the amount, which is the correct default: software should not be deciding what a scuff is worth.
This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change and local ordinances vary. Confirm current requirements with your city, county, or an attorney before you act.