Rental Property Inspection Checklist: Fill & Download for Free

A few years ago, my city sent workers around to inspect single family homes for safety hazards in the form of building code violations. The city said this was only fair, since multi-family rental properties had to endure inspections. Every homeowner was ordered to let them in.The inspectors literally had no experience in engineering, architecture or the building trades. They were given a two day course and a checklist. They would cite a house for missing smoke detectors, torn carpet, a missing cover from an electric outlet, peeling paint, or a hole in a wall, floor or ceiling, holes in screens, or cracked windows. Homeowners were given 30 days to correct the violation to avoid fines. If someone had a contractor scheduled to gut and remodel a room in 2 months, they still were supposed to fix the issue within 1 month.It was not all bad, but it seemed intrusive and petty. They only spotted things that were on their checklist and visible to the naked eye. They did not notice things a skilled home inspector would find, like overloaded electrical systems, low water pressure, clogged drains in floors, load bearing walls that had been removed, clogged gutters and downspouts, cracked heat exchangers in furnaces, mold, deteriorated and leaking roofs, rotten joists, insect or rodent activity, or flaking asbestos.Citizens called it intrusive, overbearing, and a makework project for unemployed adult children of city workers. The city heeded the uproar and cancelled the program.

Many years ago I was renting out a unit in a building I owned. The new tenant that moved in was very happy with everything, especially after going through a thorough inspection, using a checklist, of everything in the unit just prior to her moving in.Two days later the new tenant contacted me. There was one electrical outlet in the main bedroom that didn't work, having plugged in a floor lamp. I checked the circuit breaker which was fine as well as the other electrical outlets in the room which worked fine. Many times these outlets are strung on the same circuit so if one doesn't work, chances are those other outlets "down line" won't work.I unscrewed the center wall plate screw and took off the cover. Smiling, I found the "problem!"The prior tenant had, evidently, removed the existing outlet box and installed a "Fake" outlet box that was used as a mini wall safe! Right there in that fake electrical wall box behind the realistic looking plug plate, she had hidden a watch and a safe deposit box key to a bank! The new tenant and I had a good laugh before I replaced the outlet with the proper two plug electric box and cover. The wires were behind the fake box and were capped off.In the end, I contacted the previous tenant and told her what I found. She had left a forwarding phone number and address for mail. I kept her items in my office until she came back to sign for and collect the two items.All's well that ends well!

I've created a template that I use myself and have shared with others on Google Templates to download which is a full 'application' in which the prospective tenant must answer a series of questions: https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0AoJnV03yE5N8dFNZdFpEZVFQNjdQT3F6QlA3T0lPR1E&mode=publicThen, once the tenant has moved in, I also created a "Move-In & Move-Out" Property Inspection Checklist (double column format in English and Spanish), which is also very important to prevent any disputes that could arise at the end of a rental contract: https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=1SJmilMY3-Z40XSNLjmm93cslUwo4KFaEgKY4nKWTBoE&mode=public