A condition inspection report is the written record of what a rental unit looked like on the day the tenant took possession, and what it looked like on the day they handed it back. In British Columbia and Alberta it is also the document that decides whether you may keep any of the deposit. Skip a step and the damage is still real, but your right to claim against the deposit is gone.
This is the sequence, province by province, with the deadlines that quietly kill the claim.
The report protects your remedy, not your property
Landlords tend to treat the walkthrough as a formality: a quick look around, a handshake, keys handed over. Both provinces treat it as the precondition for deducting anything later. In BC, the right to claim against a security or pet damage deposit for damage is extinguished if you do not offer the tenant two opportunities to inspect, do not take part yourself, or do not complete the report and give the tenant a copy. In Alberta, deducting for damage without properly completed incoming and outgoing inspection reports is an offence, not a technicality.
The distinction matters because losing the deposit claim does not mean losing the debt. You can still pursue the tenant for the cost of repairs through the normal channels. What you have lost is the money you were already holding. Getting it back now takes a hearing and a former tenant who can pay.
British Columbia: two chances, seven days, fifteen days
- Collect no more than half of the first month's rent as a security deposit. A pet damage deposit is capped at the same amount, regardless of how many pets you allow.
- Do the move-in walkthrough on the day the tenant gets the keys, unless you both agree on another time.
- If the tenant does not show, serve a Notice of Final Opportunity to Schedule a Condition Inspection, form RTB-22. That second offer is what preserves your claim.
- Complete the report. Form RTB-27 comes from the Residential Tenancy Branch, and your own form is allowed as long as it carries the contents the regulation requires.
- Give the tenant their copy within 7 days of completing the move-in inspection.
- Repeat the same process at move-out. There the report copy is due within 15 days of the later of two dates: the day the inspection was completed, and the day you received the tenant's forwarding address.
- Once you have the forwarding address, you have 15 days to return the deposit or file a claim. Miss it and you can be ordered to pay the tenant double the deposit.
The forwarding address is the trigger for most of that clock, and a tenant can give it up to a year after the tenancy ends. Diarize from the date it arrives, not from the date they moved out.
Alberta: one week either side, and a copy on the spot
- Cap the security deposit at one month's rent and move it into an interest-bearing trust account within two days of receiving it.
- Inspect within one week before or after the tenant takes possession. The same window applies at the other end: one week before or after they give up possession.
- If the tenant will not attend, offer two inspection times on two different days, neither a holiday, both between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. If they decline or fail to appear, you may complete the report without them.
- Include the statements and signatures required by section 4 of the Residential Tenancies Ministerial Regulation. A report missing them is treated as a report you did not do.
- Hand the tenant a signed copy immediately after the inspection.
- Return the deposit and interest within 10 days of possession being given up, or return the balance with a statement of account listing damages, repair costs, cleaning charges and fees. The final statement and any money owing must reach the tenant within 30 days after the tenancy ends.
- Keep both reports for three years after the tenancy terminates.
Ontario landlords: this is not your problem, and that is the point
Ontario does not permit damage deposits at all. A landlord may collect a rent deposit of no more than one month's rent, and it can be applied to one thing only: the last rental period before the tenant moves out. It cannot be touched for damage. If you operate across provinces, do not carry an Ontario move-in habit into a BC or Alberta building. In Ontario the walkthrough carries no deposit consequence. In the other two it carries all of it.
The room by room list to copy
Whatever form you use, the report has to be specific enough that a third party reading it two years later can tell what changed. Walk the unit in a fixed order and record condition for each of these:
- Floors, walls, ceilings and trim in every room, noted separately
- Doors, door frames, locks and window hardware
- Windows, screens, and blinds or coverings
- Kitchen counters, cabinet interiors and drawer runners
- Every appliance, including oven interiors and fridge seals
- Bathroom grout, caulking, seals and drain flow
- Light fixtures, switches, outlets and the smoke alarm test result
- Furnace filter, water heater and any visible plumbing
- Balcony, storage locker, parking stall, and keys or fobs by count
Write "small scuff, lower left, bedroom two" rather than "wall damaged". Adjectives lose hearings. Locations survive them.
Three habits that make the report hold
Photograph everything on the day you sign. Timestamped photos attached to a signed report are far harder to argue with than either one on its own.
Record disagreement instead of avoiding it. A report the tenant signed while noting they disagree about the carpet is stronger than a report you never got signed at all. Both provincial forms leave room for that. Use it.
Do the move-out inspection after the unit is empty. A walkthrough done around a stack of boxes cannot tell you what is underneath them, and you get one attempt at it.
None of this depends on software. It depends on doing a short list of things in a fixed order on two specific days, and on someone diarizing the deadline that starts the moment a forwarding address lands in your inbox. If that reminder is the part that slips in your operation, fix it before you shop for a tool.