Help with moving out - move-out notice (apartments, tenant, renters)

[TexasResident]

I am finally moving out of this place. When I moved in the LL did not have / give me an inventory sheet. I used to get this in apartments and they would have me write down anything that needs to be fixed or that needed attention etc. He did not do this. But, I will want him to sign off on the walk through, stating that everything is fine. I know he will not do it, but it's important to me ( 500 Dollar deposit ).

I like this one:

Sample Letter: Giving Notice to Your Apartment Manager | Moving Today

But it dosen't include anything that's telling him I will want him to sign off on it. I do want to include it. I don't trust him. Does anybody know how I could write this? Just add " Please be prepared to sign off on the walk-through if everything is in the same condition as it was at move-in." ? Any ideas?
I know people say you also should take pictures. But I don't have a camera that will print the date on the picture. Even if I did, you can just change that date. How is this reliable ( as in holding up in court) ?

[ShaneSA]

If you found a vacate letter on line, find a move in/out condition report. Fill it out as you see fit. Include it in your vacate letter and send it certified return receipt with the vacate letter. Request a walk through on the date of vacating and have a copy of the previously completed condition report during the walk through. Have the LL make any notes on it if things are not as agreed or disouted.
There should be conditions and vacating terms listed clearly in your lease.

[bentlebee]

I have used dated pictures in court and for sure it holds up. The tenants tried to convince the judge that the pics were not from thay time and date but it was obvious that I was right.

You can hold up a paper in the picture with the date and even if the date is not readable in the pics if you can see certain arrticles then you bring the paper in court to prove it was that date.

A Landlord doesn't need to have you to sign off a sheet upon move in. We tell all our tenants to write down what they notice upon moving in since we have the property on Virtual Tour and dated pictures. We stopped to do the move in walk through since it was costing us too much time and now tell them to write down the first 2-3 days whatever they notice. Most items are similar to what we know since some homes are older and although they will be painted they are not new and on a rare occassion we might have missed an item that only people living at a property will notice and we get it fixed.

Tenants should do the same on move out, since we will compare the move in with move out pictures and our list...

We hardly have an issue. We rather give the security deposit back then having to deal with all the damage and cleaning.

[CptnRn]

Read about your rights and obligations under Texas law here Austin Tenants’ Council/Tenant-Landlord Fact Sheets

The landlord is not obligated to walk thru the residence with you at move out. Read the section on "Moving Out" here Austin Tenants’ Council/Tips for Renters

[Lacerta]

The most we will sign at a walkthrough is "The property appears to be in overall generally clean condition at time of walkthrough. The following damage was noted, but may not be a comprehensive list."

Which is really no protection to the tenant. But we don't open every single drawer and cupboard in the walkthrough, so sometimes the cleaning people find things we missed on a 10 minute walkthrough.

In most cases, we do not even do a walkthrough with the tenant. We do the walkthrough ourselves and call the tenant if there is a problem.

We have just had too many cases of things that are easy to overlook on a quick walkthrough, but are tenant damage and do have to be repaired.

[TexasResident]

Thank you all.
I sent him the notice via certified mail and return receipt requested. Nobody was home post office left a notice and he has not claimed it. Like once before. Told me now that he "not gonna go to the post office for a tenant." We got into an argument again but i tried to stay calm and objective ( email ).
I am pretty sure this will go to court because he will try to keep the deposit to get back at me. I doubt he would show up for a walk thru and I know he would not sign anything. The building is older and it wasnt perfect when i moved in. There was no inventory sheet at move in. The oven had some scratches and as mentioned in another thread here the fridge failed and i requested repair by sending him a letter and he never claimed it and they returned it. I will be able to show this in court though and if he claims the fridge was broken at move out i have something to show.