Free Puerto Rico Move-In / Move-Out Inspection Checklist

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A room-by-room move-in and move-out inspection checklist built for Puerto Rico. Document the unit at the start and end of the tenancy, then download a signable multi-page PDF. Governed by the 2020 Civil Code (Ley Num. 55-2020), which sets no deposit cap, no return deadline and no itemization duty — all three come from your lease, and the checklist is the evidence behind them.

Puerto Rico 2020 Civil Code No Deposit Statute Free PDF 2026 Edition

A Puerto Rico move-in / move-out inspection checklist is a written, room-by-room record of a rental’s condition at the start of the tenancy and again at the end. That documentation is the evidence that separates deductible damage from non-deductible ordinary wear and tear — and it is what supports the itemized statement of deductions a landlord should furnish when the deposit is returned. Puerto Rico is unusual here, and it is the point most pages get wrong: the 2020 Civil Code (Ley Num. 55-2020) contains no security-deposit provision at all — no cap, no return deadline and no itemization duty — so the lease supplies every one of those terms, and the checklist supplies the proof behind them. Complete the same checklist twice: once at move-in to set the baseline, once at move-out to compare. A signed checklist paired with parallel photographs is the single strongest protection for the security deposit on both sides.

Complete the fields below to generate a room-by-room Puerto Rico move-in / move-out inspection checklist as a multi-page PDF. Choose the inspection type (move-in, pre-move-out, or move-out), rate each area, and add specific notes for anything other than Good. Pair every walkthrough with date-stamped photos. When you are done, download the signable PDF and give the tenant a copy. If you are also placing a new renter, start with thorough tenant screening — the cleanest move-outs come from tenants screened carefully at move-in.

The generated document is built to be walked through and signed on the spot. It opens with a cover block capturing the inspection type, date, property address, the parties, and the lease dates, followed by a short reminder that Puerto Rico fixes no deposit cap, return deadline or itemization duty and that the lease supplies all three. Then it lays out each room as its own section with the four-level condition rating you selected (good, fair, poor, or damaged) and your specific notes, a dedicated block for the common safety items (smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, HVAC, water heater, locks and keys), a photo-log reference line, an additional-notes area, and dual signature lines for the landlord and tenant. Rooms left blank are skipped, so the finished PDF only prints the areas you actually inspected — keep the file with your photographs as a single evidence package.

A Puerto Rico Move-In/Move-Out Checklist is the comprehensive document a landlord and tenant create at the start of the tenancy and again at the end to record the property’s condition. It is the universal best practice in Puerto Rico residential rentals — not a specific statutory form — and it matters more here than on the mainland, because the 2020 Civil Code (Ley Num. 55-2020) does not regulate the security deposit at all. There is no statutory cap, no statutory return deadline and no statutory itemization duty, so the deposit decision rests entirely on the lease terms and on the property’s condition at move-out compared to its condition at move-in — and only the checklist records that condition.

The document accomplishes three things at once. First, it creates the contemporaneous baseline of property condition. The room-by-room inspection — walls, floors, ceilings, windows, doors, fixtures, appliances, exterior areas — captures the state of the unit at a specific point in time, signed by both parties and supported by photographs. Without this baseline, the landlord at move-out has no way to prove that damage existed when the tenant left but not when they arrived.

Second, the checklist protects both parties. The tenant gets a record that pre-existing conditions cannot be charged against the security deposit. The landlord gets a record that move-out damage is documented against a known baseline. When the document is completed contemporaneously, signed by both parties, and supported by parallel photographs, it is the strongest evidence either party can produce in a later dispute.

Third, the document drives the security deposit return decision. The landlord returns the deposit, less any allowable deductions, and should provide an itemized statement of those deductions after the tenant vacates — on the timetable the lease sets, because no Puerto Rico statute sets one. The move-in/move-out checklist is the foundational evidence for any deduction — it is what proves that damage existed at move-out and not at move-in. Without it, deductions are exposed to claims of unsupported retention.

Puerto Rico’s residential lease relationship — including the security deposit — is governed by the 2020 Civil Code (Ley Num. 55-2020), the code that replaced the 1930 Civil Code and now sets the rules for arrendamiento (lease) and fianza (deposit/guarantee) obligations. Note what the Code does not do. The word depósito appears nowhere in its twenty lease articles (Articles 1331 to 1350, Sections 10101 to 10173 of Title 31): there is no cap, no escrow or trust duty, no return deadline, no itemization requirement, no interest mandate and no statutory penalty. A Puerto Rico security deposit is a contractual fianza governed by the lease itself, by the general law of obligations, and by the good-faith duty at Article 15. The move-in/move-out checklist is not itself a required form either — but because the statute supplies nothing, the whole return-and-itemization question rests on the lease terms and on the condition baseline the checklist establishes.

Return window — whatever the lease says. Puerto Rico fixes no statutory deadline for returning a residential security deposit. The thirty-day return-or-itemize window quoted so confidently on English-language Puerto Rico pages is a mainland figure with no source in Puerto Rico law: it is not in the 2020 Civil Code, and it is not in the desahucio chapter of the Ley de Procedimientos Legales Especiales either. The consequence is practical rather than permissive. Because the statute is silent, the lease is the only instrument that can create a deadline, and a lease that says nothing leaves both sides arguing after the fact about what a reasonable time was. So write the period into the lease — a thirty-day return-or-itemize clause is a perfectly sensible drafting choice borrowed from mainland practice, and it binds because the lease says so. Where the lease is already silent, return the balance with a written accounting within a reasonable time after surrender of possession — measured from the day possession actually comes back, not from the lease-end date or the date notice was given — and keep proof of delivery. Withholding without an accounting still exposes the landlord to a claim for the withheld amount; what it does not do is breach a statutory deadline, because there is none to breach.

The ten-day and fifteen-day figures. Some Puerto Rico pages describe a shorter window — on the order of ten days — for a full refund where the landlord makes no deductions, and roughly fifteen days for the tenant to request copies of any expense receipts. Neither figure is Puerto Rico law. They are the same class of import as the thirty days: mainland numbers, repeated confidently, attributed to a Code that never mentions deposits at all. Treat all three as drafting options rather than obligations — if you want them, put them in the lease, where they become enforceable terms; if they are not in your lease, do not assume a court will supply them for you. Before withholding or returning any amount, read the lease, not a deadline chart.

Itemization — contractual, not statutory. No Puerto Rico statute requires an itemized statement, so the duty exists only where the lease creates it. Create it anyway: a landlord who deducts without an accounting has no documentary answer to a claim for the withheld amount, and the standard a court applies in its place is the good-faith duty at Article 15 of the Code. When the landlord makes deductions, the return should be accompanied by an itemized statement. Each deduction must be specifically described with the amount and the underlying property condition. Generic descriptions (“cleaning”) without specifics (“oven cleaning per attached invoice”) do not satisfy the itemization purpose — and the move-in/move-out checklist plus photographs is what makes each described deduction provable. When it is time to return the deposit, pair this checklist with a Puerto Rico security deposit itemization form so each charge traces back to a documented, photographed condition, and read the full Puerto Rico security deposit laws guide for the deduction and timing rules in context.

Habitability baseline. Independent of the deposit framework, every Puerto Rico residential rental must meet the lessor’s habitability obligations under the 2020 Civil Code. Conditions noted at move-in that fall below the habitability standard create a separate landlord obligation to repair, regardless of what the checklist documents. The checklist captures the condition; habitability law controls whether that condition is acceptable for habitation.

Fair housing. The federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. Section 3601 et seq.) and Puerto Rico fair housing law prohibit deposit-handling decisions that target tenants based on race, religion, national origin, familial status, disability, or other protected characteristics. Disparate-impact analysis can also reach facially neutral patterns of deposit deductions that disproportionately affect a protected class.

The checklist is used at three distinct points in the tenancy: move-