Four names on the lease, one kitchen, and a hallway full of boxes on the same August afternoon. A student apartment splits into your bedroom and your share of everything else, and the photo record should split the same way — before the futon goes against the wall and the first roommate claims the good closet.

Split the photo set the way the lease splits

  • Make two sets on a by-the-bed lease: your bedroom, which is yours alone, and the common areas, where your set records the condition on your move-in day.
  • Shoot your own common-area set even if a roommate already did — their photos document their arrival date, not yours, and staggered move-ins are the norm in student buildings.
  • Label rooms by position, not just a number — left bedroom, courtyard side still means something in May when everyone is gone.

Photograph the bedroom walls furniture is about to hide

  • Shoot every bedroom wall bare, especially the long wall the bed or desk will cover — that is where prior tenants' anchor holes, tape ghosts, and headboard scuffs hide until move-out.
  • Open the closet and photograph the rod, shelf, floor, and door track before storage bins go in, and note a sticky drawer or off-track sliding door while it is still demonstrably not your doing.
  • Photograph each window with its screen and the blinds raised: cracked panes, torn screens, and painted-shut sashes each deserve their own frame.

Cover the entry door, lock, and laundry closet

  • Photograph the apartment door from both sides, add close-ups of the deadbolt, strike plate, and peephole, and count keys and fobs in one frame — lock and key charges land on whoever can't show what they received.
  • Open the laundry closet if the unit has one and shoot the washer and dryer fronts, the supply valves and drain hose behind them, and the lint duct connection.
  • Add the hallway-side extras: mailbox and its key, bike or storage cage, and the assigned parking spot number if the lease lists one.

Send the shared spaces to their own checklists

  • Use the student apartment shared bathroom move-in photo checklist for the bathroom everyone shares — grout lines, vanity edges, exhaust fan.
  • Run the roommate shared kitchen condition checklist for the kitchen everyone cooks in: appliance interiors, cabinet shelves, and the counter burn that predates all of you.
  • Check the dorm mattress and furniture checklist when the unit comes furnished by the school or landlord — mattress seams, desk surfaces, and supplied-furniture counts.

Repeat the walk at move-out, in the same order

  • Photograph maintenance issues during the year as they happen — the radiator leak in November belongs in the record long before the May walkthrough.
  • Repeat the same room order at move-out with the furniture out and the walls bare again, so each frame has a matching move-in twin.
  • Save your bedroom set and your common-area set under one property record in door.lease, so the split you made in August is still organized when the move-out statement arrives.
Use this guide as documentation support, not legal advice. Local rules, lease terms, platform policies, and professional guidance may affect how a record should be used.