Move-In Inspections for Renters

This is an idea I've had for awhile now. I am not presently aware of anyone else who does this.

Many people are renting right now whether they want to or not. Many people won't get their deposit back.

The reason for this has to do with how things are stacked against the average person, and how landlords are often favored by courts. This is certainly the case in Maricopa County, where the judges aren't even lawyers.

I've seen so many landlords make things up to avoid giving deposits back.

It's not just deposits though. There are all sorts of issues that could come up between a tenant and a landlord that would make this kind of service useful.

The basic concept is that someone from DEL (it will likely be me, ha ha) will come to your new apartment or rental home and document the condition in detail with pictures, video and a written report.

This is not a home inspection. In fact, I thought about bringing a couple of home inspectors in to do this but in talking to a couple of them, they don't want to bother with this kind of service.

There is so much emphasis on homeowners and while that's fine, there are increasingly larger numbers of renters. It makes sense to offer services like this that are tailored to them. There are fewer protections for tenants in many states and it's up to the renter to CYA in many instances. But no one tells you that, and then a dispute comes up and you have no leverage.

We'll give you a copy of everything from the inspection, and we'll keep a copy for you in case you lose yours, or in case you need someone to testify on your behalf about the condition of the premises later.

I wrote a post recently about how more people will self-represent in litigation because they are fed up with the corruption.

I have a friend who just moved into a new-to-her apartment. She asked the landlord point blank if there were roaches in the building. He deflected and said, "Every apartment has roaches."

It sounded to her like he was generalizing but I wonder if he was literally telling her that every one of his apartments has roaches!

She signed the lease and began moving in, and the roaches are horrible.

This is just one of the ways this kind of inspection can help you.

There's obviously no guarantee that this inspection will win a court case, but when in doubt, facts, evidence and neutral third party definitely won't hurt if you wind up in a dispute with your landlord over rented premises.

This is limited to the Phoenix area. We're just starting out and I'd love to help some people for very low cost while we're getting started and working out the process.

Please e-mail me if you're interested in this service. christine [at] Desert Edge Legal dot com.