Apartment turnover (make-ready) checklist for Central Florida

What order should a make-ready follow?

Suppose a resident hands in keys on the last day of the month. The unit is empty for the first time in a year, and the temptation is to send in whoever is free first. A painter who arrives before the drywall patch behind the toilet is finished paints a wall that will be opened again. A cleaner who arrives before the flooring crew cleans twice.

The order that prevents this is old and unglamorous: top to bottom, dirty to clean, and each trade finished before the one that would cover its work.

1. 1The manager inspects the empty unit with the move-in report and its photos, running every faucet, appliance, fan and light, and photographing each room from the doorway and each defect up close.
2. 2The manager writes the scope, one line per task and one trade per line, marks anything chargeable to the deposit separately, and checks the year the building went up (the lead section below explains why).
3. 3A haul-out crew removes everything the resident left, down to the food in the refrigerator.
4. 4Repairs follow: plumber, electrician, HVAC and appliance technicians, a handyman for doors, hardware, blinds, caulk and drywall patches, and pest control while the cabinets are bare.
5. 5The painter comes once every patch is dry and primed, and before any new flooring, so drips and ladder feet land on the floor that is leaving.
6. 6The flooring installer or carpet cleaner follows the paint.
7. 7The cleaner goes last, because every trade before leaves dust.
8. 8The manager walks the unit again with the same checklist and takes a second set of photos from the same doorways.

Confirm licenses for the plumbing, electrical and HVAC work before anyone starts; our guide to vetting a maintenance vendor in Florida covers how. Written down, the sequence looks obvious. It is the order, not the list, that a busy week tends to break.

If you would rather send the whole turn as one request, 1Stop takes it as Scheduled work, the category its request form uses for turns and other planned jobs with a date. Its coverage page is exact about where: Lake and Polk counties take scheduled work only, turns included, while Orange, Seminole and Osceola also take urgent and standard work in every trade.

What deadlines does Florida law put on a turnover?

Florida's security deposit rules are in section 83.49(3) of the Florida Statutes, and they run on the calendar rather than on the make-ready. If the landlord does not intend to claim any part of the deposit, the deposit goes back, with interest if interest is otherwise owed, within 15 days after the rental agreement ends. If the landlord does intend to claim, it has 30 days after termination to send the tenant written notice of the claim and the reason for it, by certified mail to the tenant's last known mailing address or by e-mail.

The statute supplies the wording that notice must substantially follow, including a warning that the tenant has 15 days after receiving it to object in writing. Without a timely objection, the landlord may deduct the claim and must send the balance within 30 days after the date of the notice. A landlord who misses the 30-day notice window forfeits the right to claim against the deposit, though it may still sue for damages after returning the deposit.

E-mail is the newer route. Section 83.505, added in 2025 by chapter 2025-16, allows e-mailed notices only when both parties have signed an addendum to the rental agreement agreeing to them and have each given a valid e-mail address. Either side may revoke that agreement at any time.

For the make-ready, the consequence is about timing. The notice needs a dollar figure and a reason, and both come out of the inspection and the scope. A scope written in the fourth week leaves very little calendar for the notice. The inspection on day one is doing double duty.

Room-by-room make-ready checklist

Use this list twice: at the inspection to build the scope, and at the final walk to close it. What a landlord must maintain during a tenancy is a separate question, covered in our guide to Florida's section 83.51.

Entry and living areas

• The front door closes, latches and locks, and the deadbolt throws fully.
• Nail holes, anchors and dents are patched; scuffs are marked for paint.
• Windows open, close and lock, and screens and blinds are intact.
• Every light, ceiling fan, switch and outlet works, and every cover plate is on.
• Smoke alarms sound when tested.

Kitchen

• Each burner and the oven heat; the range hood fan and light run.
• The refrigerator cools and its door gaskets seal.
• The dishwasher runs a full cycle and leaves no water underneath.
• The disposal runs, the sink drains freely, and the supply lines and shutoff valves are dry.
• GFCI outlets near the sink trip and reset.
• Cabinet doors close, drawers slide, and the caulk at the backsplash and sink is intact.

Bathrooms

• The toilet flushes, refills, stops running and does not rock.
• Tub and shower caulk and grout are intact, and the drain empties at a normal pace.
• Faucets and shower valves do not drip.
• The exhaust fan runs and pulls air; a tissue held to the grille should stick.
• Under the vanity there are no drips and no soft or stained cabinet floor.
• GFCI outlets trip and reset; towel bars and the mirror are secure.

Bedrooms and closets

• Closet doors stay on their tracks, and rods and shelves are secure.
• Window locks work, and the carpet is marked for cleaning, repair or replacement.

Mechanicals

• A new HVAC filter is in, the condensate drain line runs clear, and the drain pan is clean and dry.
• The thermostat calls for cooling and the system answers.
• The water heater shows no leaks or corrosion, and its relief valve discharge line is in place.
• The dryer vent is clear and the washer hookups are dry.
• Breakers are labeled and the main water shutoff is reachable.

Patio, balcony and exterior

• The sliding door glides and locks, and its security bar or pin is present.
• Railings are tight and exterior lights work.
• Patio drains are clear.

Keys and handover

• Locks are rekeyed or changed, and mailbox, amenity and gate access is reset.
• The final photo set is taken from the same doorways as the inspection set.

Does the EPA lead rule apply to your turn?

Start with the year the building went up. In housing built before 1978, EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule covers paid work that disturbs paint, including painting preparation, carpentry, plumbing and electrical work. Since April 22, 2010, the firms doing it, in-house maintenance staff included, have had to be EPA- or state-certified and use certified renovators who follow lead-safe work practices, according to EPA's summary of the rule. EPA's guidance for contractors names residential rental property owners and managers among the firms covered.

Florida does not run its own version. It is absent from EPA's list of states authorized to administer the program, so firms working here certify with EPA directly.

The rule exempts minor repair and maintenance that disturbs 6 square feet or less of paint per room inside, or 20 square feet or less outside. It also leaves out housing built in 1978 or later, zero-bedroom units such as studios, and housing for elderly or disabled residents (those last two unless a child under six lives there or is expected to), along with components tested and declared lead-free under the rule.

What does that mean for a manager? EPA's page for property managers frames it as a fork. A company that performs, offers or claims to perform this work in pre-1978 housing must become a Lead-Safe Certified Firm; a company that does not should hire only certified firms for maintenance, repair or painting that could disturb lead-based paint. Scraping and sanding one whole wall goes past 6 square feet on its own.

Why does Central Florida humidity change the turn?

Picture a unit closed up in August with the thermostat switched off while it sits empty. Nothing is pulling moisture out of the air, and the slow drip under the kitchen sink that nobody reported has had weeks to work.

EPA's brief guide to mold and moisture gives the numbers that matter. It advises keeping indoor relative humidity below 60 percent, ideally between 30 and 50 percent, and notes that a humidity meter costs $10 to $50 at many hardware stores. Wet materials dried within 24 to 48 hours of a leak will, in most cases, not grow mold. The same guide says to keep air-conditioning drip pans clean and drain lines flowing.

On a turn, that becomes a few habits. Leave the system running at a set temperature. Put the condensate line and drain pan on every scope. And treat damp drywall or a swollen cabinet floor as something to dry and repair before paint, because paint over wet drywall hides the problem for exactly as long as it takes the next resident to move in.

If mold covers more than about 10 square feet, EPA points to its separate remediation guidance rather than a do-it-yourself cleanup. Our post on water intrusion and mold after a Florida storm walks through that case.