Move Outs

Move Outs (/admin/move-out-notices)

Everything about residents leaving. Two tabs: Move Outs (active departures) and Security Deposit Settlements (the money side after departure).

Move-out notices

A notice is created when a resident files one from their portal, or by staff on the resident's behalf. Each notice records the notice date and the move-out date.

Move-out time. Each notice also records a two-hour move-out time window (09:00–11:00 through 17:00–19:00): roughly when the resident will return the keys and leave. Use it to plan the key handover and the room check.

Residents must choose one when they file from their portal.
Staff may leave it blank when recording a notice on a resident's behalf. It shows as "Not specified" in the Create / Edit form and on the move-out card in the reservation drawer.
Automatically created notices, and notices filed before this field existed, have no time.
Where the time shows:
- in the list's Slot column, next to the Move-Out Date;
- on the move-out card in the reservation drawer;
- on the move-out calendar event, as a "Move-out time:" line in the description (the event itself stays all-day);
- in both notice emails.
Changing the time in the Edit form updates the calendar event. It never affects billing or penalties.

Resident notes. A resident can add free-text notes when they file from the portal, such as how they will return the keys or a forwarding address. The notes show:

on the move-out report, under the resident details;
on the move-out card in the reservation drawer;
in the staff notification email.

They are the resident's own words and staff cannot edit them. Use Admin Notes for your own notes.

Refund details. A resident filing from the portal chooses how their deposit refund should reach them and gives the details: a bank account (bank, branch, account type, account number and holder), a PayPal email, a Wise recipient, or the card they paid with before. They can change these from their move-out page until the report is finalized. Staff can record or change them in the Create / Edit form. The refund method and these details show on the move-out card in the reservation drawer, so you can check where the money goes without opening the form.

Departure checklist. The confirmation email the resident receives includes a departure checklist: what to do before leaving the room. What it says, and which buildings get which checklist, is set under Departure Checklists. The rest of that email is fixed.

Notice-period rules:

The required notice period depends on the contract — a genuinely short contract carries the shorter period, a full calendar month or longer carries the longer one, and a resident who was already month-to-month when they filed owes the longer period regardless of their original contract length. Your workspace configures the actual values. Notice is counted including the move-out day itself: under a 30-day rule, filing on June 1 for a June 30 move-out is exactly 30 days — OK.
The month-to-month escalation turns on whether the resident was already month-to-month on the day they filed — and month-to-month begins when the notice window opens, which is one notice period BEFORE the contract end date, not after it. A resident who filed before their window opened keeps the contract's base period even if the move-out date they choose falls past the contract end; a resident who filed inside the window owes the longer period even if the contract had not technically ended yet. A manual month-to-month flip dated on or before the filing counts the same way.
The "MTM at Submission" column on this screen is the same test the penalty uses, so the badge and the charge always agree. If the badge says Yes, the longer period was applied.
Fill in "Notice Received" when back-filling a past move-out. Left blank, the system falls back to the notice's creation date, and only then to today. It will not charge more than it would have with the date supplied, but the recorded basis is more accurate when you set it.
Less notice than required → a short-notice penalty is charged for the missing days.
Leaving before the contract end can trigger an early-termination penalty per the contract terms.
Waiving a penalty. Staff can waive the penalty as a goodwill decision: tick Waive penalty in the Create or Edit move-out form and give a reason (required). The notice then records no penalty: no penalty charge is billed, an unpaid one is cancelled (together with its card payment link), and a later change to the dates keeps it waived. The resident simply sees no penalty. The reason, who waived it and the amount that would have been charged show on the reservation drawer's move-out card and on the move-out report. Untick Waive penalty to charge that amount again.
- If the resident has already paid or started paying the penalty — paid, part-paid, a transfer proof still awaiting your review, or a card payment already taken — the charge is left in place and you see a warning when you waive. Waiving does not refund or remove it, and until you settle it (confirm and refund, or cancel) it still counts in the deposit settlement.
When staff enter a move-out date, the dashboard previews the financial impact (prorated rent, penalties) before saving — review it with the resident's situation in mind.
A move-out notice always wins over the contract end date for billing: rent is billed through the notice's move-out date, even if the resident had continued month-to-month past their contract end.

On the list you see each notice's progress: room check scheduling, report status, and settlement state. + Filter narrows it by Property (it offers every building on the tab, even one the other filters hide) and Type (normal vs minpaku); on Move Outs also by Move-out from (a pill that starts two weeks back) and Room check, and on Security Deposit Settlements by a Move-out date range, Report status and Unread. Filters apply to the whole tab, not just the page on screen.

Room checks

Each departure gets one room check (inspection) per turnover. It is scheduled from the notice — or, with automatic room checks on (Settings ▸ Automation), created for you and attached to the notice the same way, so the notice shows it as scheduled and the cleaner's calendar invite gives the move-out date. Deleting an automatic check frees the notice, so you can schedule one yourself. The check appears on the housekeeping calendar, and the inspector records condition and any damage. If you change a move-out date late in the process, double-check the room check afterwards — rescheduling a departure can affect an already-scheduled or completed check, so confirm it still looks right.

The move-out day itself is fine. A resident who leaves in the morning can have the room checked that afternoon. Moving a move-out date onto the day of a scheduled check keeps the check; moving it past the check removes it.
Resident left earlier than the notice says? In the Schedule Room Check dialog, set the Actual Departure Date. It is saved to the notice when you schedule, and the room check can then sit on that day. Billing and penalties stay on the move-out date.
Already done in this room. If the room check was recorded as an ordinary task on a cleaning event (for example "Move-out cleaning"), the dialog lists the room's tasks around the move-out. Use as room check makes that task the notice's room check and keeps its photos, issues and notes: the list then shows the check as done by that housekeeper, and the report shows its findings. A task dated before the departure date stays unavailable until you set the Actual Departure Date to that day or earlier. The same action is on the task itself — see Housekeeping.
Deleting a room check that was made from a task gives the task back as it was, photos and report included. Deleting any other room check removes its task.
A cancelled room check no longer blocks the move-out. When a check is cancelled (for example, a stay was booked over its date), the list shows Schedule again with "Previous check cancelled" underneath.
No room check needed. When a room needs no inspection (it is already clean, for example), open the resident's Move Out tab, click No Room Check Needed under Room check and give a reason. No room check is made for that move-out, even if someone is booked after it. A room check already scheduled for it is removed, and its cleaner is emailed; a completed one cannot be marked. The list shows Not needed (hover for the reason) and the move-out moves to the Settlement tab. Undo in the same place brings the room check back; scheduling a room check also clears the mark.

The move-out report

Every notice has a move-out report (it exists automatically — an empty section just means nothing has been entered yet). Open the notice → Report. The report collects:

Room condition and damage findings (from the room check). The report also shows the resident's move-in condition report to compare against — after a temporary stay, the one for the room they moved into, not the temporary room.
Deductions — cleaning, repairs, unpaid items — each with amounts.
The deposit settlement: deposit held − deductions = refund (or additional payment if deductions exceed the deposit).

The deposit amount on the report is an editable snapshot for this settlement — verify it matches what was actually collected before finalizing.

The Room Restoration Fee row is filled in for you from the resident's whole stay: every room they lived in during this tenancy, across room changes and co-occupant changes. A room whose fee was already paid adds nothing. A room whose fee was never billed is measured over the time actually spent in it and listed in the row's notes with its dates and amount. A fee that is still billed on an unpaid move-in invoice stays on that invoice and is not added to the row; the report shows a note naming the invoice, so you can collect it there or take it off that invoice and add it to the row by hand. A stay entered by staff (a rent-roll or admin import) counts an upfront fee as paid unless an unpaid invoice in the system bills it.

Publishing: when the report is complete, push it to the resident. That opens the report in their move-out channel — a shared thread they can reply in — and sends a short email nudge with the headline figure and a link. The full report lives in the channel, not the email.

Normal push gives the resident a 7-day contest window (a deadline to reply or dispute deductions).
Push as final skips the contest window — the settlement is immediately final. It is deliberately refused when the settlement carries charges the resident never agreed to (anything beyond the contracted room restoration fee, or an unpaid balance). Use it for a clean move-out.
Utilities Reconciled? For an apartment or house whose utility providers your company pays, either push first asks whether the utility bills for the stay are reconciled: Yes, reconciled, Not applicable, or Not yet: publish anyway, which needs a reason. Wait for the last bill when you can: once the report is pushed, the net is frozen. The answer, who gave it and when show under the published report, and a “publish anyway” also leaves a staff-only note in the channel. The question is not asked for a sharehouse room, a minpaku or owner-resident stay, a room or occupant change, or a resident who pays the providers directly. Above the answers, the dialog shows where the stay's bills stand, from the utility bills entered for the unit (see Properties for a unit's bills and overuse rule): each utility, and any days of the stay no bill covers yet; the overuse charged so far and how much of it is unpaid (unpaid charges are deducted in the settlement). While a bill is missing or two bills cover the same days, Yes, reconciled cannot be chosen; publish anyway with a reason instead. A unit whose bills are not set up shows a note, and the answer is yours to check by hand.
Residents are told about the wait. For the same stays, the resident's move-out notice form and the email confirming their notice say that the refund waits for the last utility bills covering the stay, which can take up to two months.
If an email fails to send, the report page shows the failure — resend from there rather than assuming it went out.

The resident's statement lists the deposit, each inspection deduction, and every other line that makes up the headline figure: unpaid rent, charges such as a move-out penalty, a forfeit, or deposit moved to another contract. Those lines are fixed as they stood when you pushed, like the headline itself — a payment the resident makes afterwards does not change the statement unless you push it again, which starts a new contest window. On a room or occupant change the inspection items are listed below the total as charged on the new contract instead: the deposit moves there with the change, and the items are billed as one charge on the new reservation once the report is final.

The report page has two tabs: Report (where you build the settlement) and Channel (the conversation the resident sees). The dot on the Channel tab is its status; a red count means unread resident replies.

Statuses

A settlement moves through:

Not started → Draft → Ready for review → Published (contest open) → [Disputed] → Finalized → Settled.

Not started — every notice has a report automatically, so an empty one is normal. It stays Not started until someone writes the report text or the message to the resident; correcting the security deposit or ticking findings on their own does not change it. Minpaku stays are auto-marked "Report not needed": they carry no deposit.
Draft — a report text or message to the resident has been written but not pushed; autosaves. The resident sees none of these figures, which are withheld server-side until you push.
Ready for review — optional checkpoint before anything reaches the resident.
Published · contest open — pushed; the resident can read, ask and dispute for 7 days.
Disputed — the resident disagreed. Auto-finalize stops while a dispute is open.
Finalized — the contest window closed with no dispute. A nightly job at 10:20 JST does this automatically. The resident can no longer dispute, and the figures stop changing — the conversation carries on, see below.
Settled — the money actually moved.

Finalized does not mean refunded. This is the single most common misunderstanding, on both sides of the conversation. Finalizing locks the figures so nobody can contest or change them — it moves no money and sends no email. The refund is a separate action (Close Out Deposit), and only that sets Settled. A settlement can legitimately sit Finalized for weeks while you wait on a repair quote.

Residents see this distinction too: their settlement page shows a Refund step after "Amounts final", which stays visibly open until a refund is recorded, then shows the date and method. So once you record the refund, the resident's page answers "where is my money?" on its own.

When the deposit did not cover the statement and the resident owes a balance, there is no refund to wait for: that step reads Balance to pay instead, the page makes no refund promise and asks for no payout details, and the step closes when you Settle Move-Out — so settle the move-out once the balance is collected.

The Security Deposit Settlements tab lists departures that still need money movement — work this list until each row reaches Settled/Refunded.

Closing out the deposit

Close Out Deposit on the settlement row records what happens to the deposit you still hold. In one step you can:

Refund part or all of it (date and method), and/or
Apply it to rent at the resident's other place with you, and/or pay their other bills there from it, and
whatever is left over is marked forfeited — the dialog shows that remainder before you save.

Applying the deposit to rent is for a resident who has moved from one of your units to another and wants the balance to go toward their next rent instead of a bank refund. The dialog offers their other current or upcoming reservations (matched by the same email address), and for each one the months that can take a credit, with that month's amount due. A month cannot take a credit if it is already paid, in the past, outside the contract (or after a move-out date the resident has told you about), billed on the move-in invoice, or has a card payment in progress — the dialog names the reason. A bank transfer or cash payment the resident has already reported for that month does not block it: the credit lowers what they owe, and you finish reviewing their payment against the new amount. You can spread the amount over several months, but no month's credit can be larger than that month's bill.

A stay that ended with a room or occupant change cannot use this: its deposit already moves to the new contract with the change.

The report must be finalized first. Applying the deposit to rent, or paying other bills from it, is offered only once the move-out report is finalized — the deductions are locked then, so the amount left is final. Before that, Close Out Deposit can still refund or forfeit.

What it does:

On the new reservation, each chosen month gets a line "Deposit applied from [old building and unit]", and the amount due drops by that much — the rent reminders and the resident's payment page ask for the reduced amount. A month the deposit covers in full is marked paid straight away — unless the resident has already reported a payment for it, in which case finish reviewing that payment.
On the old reservation, the row shows Applied to payments with the unit and what it went to, and the resident's settlement page says the deposit was applied to their payments there.
In the P&L, the rent for that month still counts in full once the rest is paid, and the management fee is charged on the full rent. The applied deposit is not income and not a discount; the forfeited remainder is income under Other charges, as with any forfeit.

The credit line on the new reservation is locked in Rent Adjustments. If you applied the deposit by mistake, use Undo Deposit Close-Out on the settlement row: it removes the credit, any refund and forfeit recorded in the same step, and puts the deposit back to held. It is refused once one of the credited months has been paid — undo that payment first.

A notice that was already closed out with Settle Move-Out shows Reopen Move-Out; reopen it first to get the Close Out Deposit action back.

If the resident later gives notice on the new place and a credited month gets shorter (or falls after their move-out), the credit is not moved for you: undo the close-out and apply it again to the months they will actually pay.

Paying the resident's other bills from the deposit

A resident who is still with you at another place may owe something there — a charge, the move-in invoice, a month that came up short. You can pay it from this deposit instead of refunding it:

From the payment: on the other reservation's Payments tab, Mark Paid and choose Security deposit, then pick which past deposit pays. The method appears only when the resident has a past stay whose move-out report is finalized, whose move-out is not yet settled, and whose deposit has something left. For a payment that came up short, add a settlement charge for the difference first, then mark that charge paid with Security deposit.
From the move-out: Close Out Deposit's Pay Other Bills section lists the other reservation's open charges and move-in invoice, each with Pay from deposit. Once nothing is left to refund, the dialog offers to forfeit what remains (the move-out deductions), which records it as income under Other charges.

The bill shows as paid with the method Security deposit and a note naming the deposit; the old move-out row lists each one as Paid from deposit, under Applied to payments. A partial amount leaves the bill short, like any partial payment. The bill's income counts in full, exactly as if the resident had paid it; the deposit used is not income.

To undo one, use Reset Payment on that bill: the money goes back to the deposit. A payment from the deposit cannot be edited in place — reset it and enter it again. If the old move-out has since been settled, reopen it first, so the money returns to a move-out that can refund it. Undo Deposit Close-Out never undoes these payments.

Some bills cannot be paid from a deposit: one that already has a payment of its own (money received, proof awaiting review, a cash appointment, a card payment in progress) until that payment is finished, and a move-in record that only holds a deposit because rent is billed monthly.

The channel is not the contest window

Two separate things, often confused because they sit on the same page.

The contest window is about the money: how long the resident has to dispute the deductions, and when the figures lock. Finalize closes it; Re-open contest window opens it again.
The channel is the conversation. It opens when the report is created and stays open — through Finalized, through Settled, indefinitely. A settlement often sits Finalized for weeks while a refund is arranged, and that is precisely when residents ask where their money is.

So never re-open the contest window just to answer a question. Re-opening un-finalizes the settlement: the figures unlock, the resident can dispute again, the nightly auto-finalize job starts watching the report again, and on a transition move-out a pending charge on the successor's account is cancelled. Just reply in the channel. To close the window again afterwards, use Finalize now — a re-opened report goes back to "contest open" with a fresh 7-day deadline, so the normal lifecycle simply resumes.

Muting a resident. If a thread stops being productive, Mute resident replies on the Channel tab turns off their composer. It does not stop you: you can still post, and a public reply still emails them. It deliberately does not take away their Dispute button while the contest window is open — contesting the figures is their right, and muting is only a noise control. Un-mute resident reverses it, and both actions are recorded in the thread with your name on them, so the history shows who decided what.

Minpaku settlements are different again: their channel is a record only, with no messages from either side, because those stays carry no deposit to argue about.

The channel composer has two tabs: Reply to resident and Internal note (staff-only; the box turns amber). ✦ Improve polishes either (same language, same meaning, ↶ Undo to restore), and Add to KB in the channel header suggests knowledge-base entries from the thread for you to review before anything is saved. Attach photos with the paperclip, drag or paste them in, or pick them from the housekeeping report with the photo icon. Hover over a message to Reply to it (the answer shows the quote) or React with an emoji; quoting an internal note switches to the note tab. A message or note you sent can be edited (the resident sees it marked Edited) or unsent (replaced by "Message unsent", its text and photos deleted) from the same hover bar; an email nudge they already received cannot be recalled. A record-only (minpaku) channel has neither.

Month-to-month departures

A resident past contract end with no notice is month-to-month and still occupied. When they finally file, the same 30-day rule applies from the filing date. Never advertise or promise an MTM-occupied unit until a notice exists.

Quick answers

"When can I re-rent the room?" — after the move-out date on the notice, plus turnover time (cleaning + room check). Check the housekeeping calendar.
"Resident wants to change their move-out date" — edit the notice's date; billing re-prorates automatically and the impact preview shows penalties. Re-verify the room check schedule afterwards.
"Where is the refund?" — notice → Report → settlement section; the Deposits tab in Rent Roll shows the deposit record itself. If the report is Finalized but not Settled, the refund has not gone out yet — that is a real outstanding action, not a display lag.
"The resident thinks their deposit is due because the report closed" — finalizing only locks the amounts. Their page shows the Refund step as still in progress until you record the refund; recording it updates their page with the date and method.
"The resident is moving to another of our units and wants the deposit to go toward rent there" — finalize the report first (that locks the deductions), then Close Out Deposit → Apply to rent, or pay their other bills there from the deposit.
"Can we take what the resident owes from their deposit while they still live here?" — No. A deposit pays other bills only after that stay's move-out report is finalized. Collect what is owed the usual way.
"The report is finalized and the resident has a question" — just answer it in the Channel tab. Both composers stay open after finalizing; you do not need to re-open the contest window, and you should not.

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