Move-In and Move-Out Inspections in Nova Scotia: The Condition Report That Decides Your Deposit Claim

A deposit claim is won or lost on evidence from the first day of the tenancy, not the last. By the time a unit comes back with a gouged floor, the question is no longer whether the floor is damaged. It is whether you can show it was not damaged when the tenant moved in, and whether the damage is more than the tenant living there for the length of the lease. Both answers come from one document, and it is a document Nova Scotia does not make you create.

This guide covers that document: what the law requires (less than most landlords think), what the province recommends (more than most landlords do), and how to run both inspections so the record holds up when you need it.

The short version: optional, and the evidence Form R asks for

Start with what is not there. The Residential Tenancies Act, as consolidated to 3 October 2025, contains no requirement to inspect a unit at move-in or move-out, and the phrase "condition report" does not appear in it.

The province fills that gap with guidance rather than law. Its guide to the Standard Form of Lease (Form P, version 2026-05) puts it this way:

Form P guide: The Residential Tenancies Program recommends all landlords and tenants do an inspection of the unit when the tenant moves in, and again when the tenant moves out. The program provides a written inspection report the landlord and tenant can use. Attach the inspection report to the lease.

Then, in the guide to the Security Deposit Claim Form (Form R, version 2024-05), it tells you why it matters:

Form R guide: You may include proof that you are entitled to retain the Security Deposit. Evidence, such as Rental Unit Condition Report and photographs are acceptable and may be attached to this form.

So the inspection is optional in exactly one sense. Nothing happens to you for skipping it until the tenancy ends and you want to keep some of the deposit, at which point the thing you skipped is the evidence the province names first.

Why the move-in report carries the claim

Two sections of the Act do the work here, and they are worth reading together.

Section 12A(3): A claim for damages from a security deposit must not include any costs associated with ordinary wear and tear of the residential premises.

Section 2(k): "wear and tear" means the usual degree of depreciation or deterioration caused by living in a residential premise, relative to the duration of the lease.

The last five words are the ones that matter. Wear and tear is not a fixed list. It is measured against how long the tenant lived there, which means a claim has to answer two questions: what did the unit look like at the start, and how long was the tenancy? The lease answers the second. Only a move-in record answers the first.

What the tenant is responsible for comes from Statutory Condition 4, which applies to every residential lease in the province:

Statutory Condition 4: The tenant is responsible for the ordinary cleanliness of the interior of the premises and for the repair of damage caused by wilful or negligent act of the tenant or of any person whom the tenant permits on the premises.

That gives you two categories a claim can properly rest on: cleanliness and damage from a wilful or negligent act. The province's form tracks both, with condition codes (broken, damaged, missing, scratched or marked, good) and separate cleanliness codes (clean, dirty, stained). Record both at move-in. A unit you handed over "clean" with nothing written down cannot later come back "dirty" in any way you can prove.

The risk of skipping it: the tenant's inspection becomes the only one

The province's guidance does not only speak to landlords. The same Form P guide tells tenants what to do if you do not bother:

Form P guide: Tenants: If a landlord does not wish to do an inspection, do one on your own. Use the form provided by the program, or something similar. Have a witness sign the inspection report, take pictures, or both.

Read that from the other side of the table. A landlord who skips the move-in inspection has not avoided a record. They have handed the tenant the only one, written by the tenant, witnessed by the tenant's friend, and photographed on the tenant's phone. If that record notes a scratched floor you do not remember, it will be the only evidence of that floor on day one.

The province's form, and what it leaves out

The Rental Unit Condition Report is free on the province's residential tenancy forms page. It is four pages: room-by-room rows for the kitchen, dining room, living room, stairwell and hall, bathroom, three bedrooms, the exterior and the basement, each with a comment and a code for the start of the tenancy and again for the end. Its last page carries three optional sections: repairs the landlord agrees to complete at move-in, the tenant's agreement to specific damages at move-out, and the tenant's forwarding address.

Use it. It is the document the province names as evidence. But know its limits, because it is marked revision 01/02, and it reads like 2002:

• No smoke or carbon monoxide alarms. The first thing you would want recorded as working on the day a tenant takes possession.
• No keys, fobs or garage openers. The count you will argue about at move-out.
• No laundry, so a washer and dryer supplied with the unit have no row.
• No meter or oil tank readings, which matter when utilities change hands on the move-in date.
• One bathroom and three bedrooms. A four-bedroom house or a second bathroom does not fit.

The form anticipates this. Its own note reads: "If a room or feature is not covered in this form but you think this important, then include it on an attached page or on another copy of this form." Our Move-In / Move-Out Inspection Pack is built as that attached page. It is not a replacement for the province's form.

Running the move-in inspection

1. Do it before the tenant moves anything in, ideally at the key handover. An empty unit is the only time every wall and floor is visible.
2. Do it together. The province's page says both the landlord and tenant should be present, both should sign, and both should receive a copy. The form's own distribution line gives the original to the tenant and a copy to the landlord.
3. Write specifics, not verdicts. "Good" is a verdict. "Two nail holes above bed, 3 cm scrape on floor by closet door" is a fact, and facts are what a comparison at move-out can use.
4. Photograph as you go, and log what each photo shows. A photo with no date, room or note attached is weaker than it looks. The province accepts photographs as evidence; an organised set of them is far easier to rely on than 200 unlabelled images on a phone.
5. Record what you agree to fix. The form's optional "repairs to be completed by landlord" section lets you both sign a list and a date. A repair promised verbally at move-in and forgotten is a very poor start to a tenancy.
6. Attach it to the lease, as the Form P guide recommends, so it is filed with the document it belongs to.

Periodic inspections are entries, and need notice

Between move-in and move-out, the tenant has possession. An inspection then is an entry, and Statutory Condition 7 sets what the notice must contain: in writing, a stated purpose that is reasonable, a date and time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., given at least 24 hours and not more than 30 days before, and delivered by a permitted method. The only exceptions are the four in Statutory Condition 7A, including the tenant's consent at the time of entry or up to thirty days before it.

The same applies to a pre-move-out walkthrough, which is worth doing a week or two before the end date: it gives the tenant a chance to fix or clean something before it becomes a claim, and it gives you an early start on quotes. The full rules, and a notice that meets all five requirements, are in the landlord entry notice guide.

Running the move-out inspection

The move-out inspection is the move-in inspection repeated, against the same rows, ideally with the same form. Two differences make it harder.

The clock. Once the tenancy ends, section 12A gives you ten days to do one of three things: return the deposit with interest, get the tenant's written consent to keep some or all of it, or file a security deposit claim (Form R) with the Director and send a copy to the tenant. Miss it, and section 12A(5) says you are not permitted to apply to retain the deposit at all. The deadlines, the service rules and the traps are in the security deposit guide.

The tenant may already be gone. Book the inspection before the last day, ideally for the last day itself, and do it together if you can. If the tenant will not attend, inspect anyway, promptly, and photograph everything against the move-in rows.

Three sections of the province's form are worth using at this stage:

• The tenant's agreement to damages. The optional end-of-tenancy section lets the tenant list the damages they agree to pay, the cost of each, and how much comes out of the security deposit, and sign it. Section 12A(2) only requires a Form R where the tenant does not consent in writing, so on our reading a signed agreement there covers the amounts it lists. Anything else still goes on a Form R inside the ten days.
• The forwarding address. Section 12A(4) requires a copy of any Form R claim to be sent to the tenant's new address if you know it, or electronically if the lease carries an electronic address. Getting the forwarding address in writing at the inspection is what makes that simple.
• The condition codes. Mark every change from move-in, and nothing else. A move-out report that re-describes the whole unit makes the comparison harder to follow, not easier.

If the damage is more than the deposit, the province's Form R page notes that the landlord can apply for a hearing with Form J for the rest. The same move-in report is your evidence there too.

Where this goes wrong

• The move-in report was never signed by the tenant. A report only you signed is still a record, but it is a weaker one. Offer, and if the tenant refuses, note the refusal and the date.
• "Good" everywhere. A move-in report with no detail cannot show a scratch was new. The inspections that hold up are the boring ones, full of centimetres and nail holes.
• The photos exist but cannot be matched to anything. Number them and log them against the room and the row.
• The move-out inspection happened on day six. That leaves four days to get quotes, decide, and file. Book it before the tenancy ends.
• Claiming for age. Paint that has gone flat over a four-year tenancy is the unit being lived in. Section 12A(3) keeps it out of the claim however much it costs you to repaint.

Doing this yourself, or not

Done properly, an inspection means walking every room with the tenant at each end of the tenancy, and the move-out one starts a ten-day clock the moment the tenancy ends. For an owner with one unit in town, that is manageable with the province's form, a phone and our pack. For an owner with several units, a job that does not bend around a tenant's move-out date, or a home in Halifax and a life somewhere else, it is the part of being a landlord most likely to slip, and the part where slipping costs the most.

It is also part of what we do. Under our published fees, the move-in inspection is part of tenant placement, and periodic and move-out inspections are part of monthly management. Each one is documented room by room, with notes and images, filed and shared with you. Tell us about your property and we will take it from there.

Sources

• Residential Tenancies Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 401, sections 2(k), 12A and Statutory Conditions 4, 7 and 7A (s.9(1)), as consolidated to 3 October 2025, Nova Scotia Legislature.
• Government of Nova Scotia, Rental Unit Condition Report Form page and form (revision 01/02), novascotia.ca, retrieved 21 September 2026.
• Government of Nova Scotia, Form P: Standard Form of Lease, version 2026-05, guide page G3 ("Inspection"), from the residential tenancy forms index, retrieved 21 September 2026.
• Government of Nova Scotia, Form R: Security Deposit Claim Form, version 2024-05, guide page G2, and the form's information page, retrieved 21 September 2026.

This guide describes the rules and the province's guidance as published, and is not legal advice.