Pre-Existing Damage

Full Definition

Pre-existing damage is any defect, deterioration, or damage to the rental property that was present before the current tenant took possession. A landlord may not deduct the cost of repairing pre-existing damage from the departing tenant's security deposit, because that tenant did not cause the damage. The tenant's best protection against pre-existing damage claims is a signed move-in condition report documenting the state of the unit at move-in, ideally supplemented by date-stamped photographs. If the tenant documented damage at move-in (a crack in a wall, a stained carpet, a broken cabinet) and the landlord signed off on it, the landlord cannot later claim the same damage was caused by the tenant. States like Michigan require landlords to provide a move-in checklist, and a landlord's failure to do so in states with this requirement may prevent them from making any damage deductions at all. If a move-in report was never completed, tenants should gather any other evidence of the pre-existing condition, such as photographs, text messages, or maintenance request records.