move in walk through (apartment, rent, house)

[heshdog]

landlord did not do an initial walk in we moved in right after the previous tenant and never did a walk through or signed anything about the condition of the house on move in..after being burned by my last landlord.. i took pictures of all damage with date stamp...I have emailed the landlord to come by and do a walk through to sign off on pre existing damage but the emails are not responded to...will my pictures be enough proof of the condition on move or do i need him to sign and agree on the condition..I do not want any deposit withheld or used to fix damages that were here prior to us moving in...i'm in northern VA renting a house

[ICS67]

When we rented a house, the property manager was a real ***** (we nicknamed her "the property Nazi") who looked at us like we were white trash because we were renting, even though we owned a house out of state and probbaly had twice her income. Since I didn't trust the Nazi as far as I could spit, I made a detailed list of every single problem or damaged item in the house that we found upon moving in and sent it to her. If you have a mailing address for the landlord, I'd suggest you likewise send him a letter by certified mail, return receipt requested, itemizing each such damaged item and with an accompanying photo for each. Needless to say, keep a copy of the letter for your own records for when you move out. It may be overkill, but at last this way you're covering yourself.

[weezycom]

I agree with what ICS67 said before. And with each rent check, keep sending the list if Landlord hasn't signed off on it. They can't claim they didn't know about it if they cash your rent checks.

[pseudo]

When I moved into my last place the property manager only provided me with a checklist to fill out and return to her. No walk through together. I went over the apartment with a fine toothed comb, and recorded everything. I also noted on this check-in list that I was not a professional and that I expected to find more items as my residency continued. I was unimpressed with the property manager's attitude and was going to cover my bases. I moved out last November and the list never came into play. My interpretation of the VA Landlord-Tenant act appears to be biased toward the landlord; another reason to take all of the precautions I could.