Leave with proof: the move-out checklist.

• Re-read the move-out terms in your lease: required notice, cleaning expectations, key return, whether a walkthrough is offered.
• Confirm your notice was given properly, in writing, within the lease’s window. If you never sent written notice, send it now, certified.
• Ask for a joint walkthrough, in writing. If the landlord attends, you learn their deduction list while you can still fix things. If they decline, the request itself is on the record.
• Pull up your move-in records. Your move-in photos and condition report are the baseline every deduction gets measured against. No move-in records? Document extra carefully on the way out, and use the move-in checklist next time.

• Repair what you actually broke. Spackle the picture-hook holes, replace bulbs and dead detector batteries. Small fixes now beat inflated deductions later.
• Clean to broom clean or better: inside the oven and fridge, under appliances you can move, the bathroom, the floors. Keep the receipts if you hire cleaners.
• Empty everything: closets, cabinets, basement and storage areas, the porch. Hauling abandoned stuff is a classic deduction.

• Photograph every room the way you did at move-in: one wide shot per wall, close-ups of anything questionable, inside every appliance and cabinet, under the sinks.
• Photograph the meters (electric, gas, water) for final readings.
• Check the path your furniture took. Doors, walls, and floors are where moves leave new damage.
• Return the keys with proof: a dated receipt, a witnessed handoff, or tracked mail.
• Give your forwarding address in writing. The deposit can’t come back to an address the landlord doesn’t have. A certified letter makes the date you gave it indisputable.

In Massachusetts, the deposit plus interest, minus lawful itemized deductions, is generally due back within 30 days of the end of the tenancy (MGL c. 186, § 15B). Mark the date. If it passes, here is exactly what to do next, including the certified demand letter with the statutory wording.

Run the walkthrough wizard on the way out, the same as on the way in. It prompts room by room and files your photos as a timestamped condition report, next to your move-in report, so the before-and-after is one export. If the deposit doesn’t come back on time, the demand letter is one click from your dashboard: written, mailed certified, and tracked for $25.