Skip to content
Habitia Help

Move-out

A move-out has two parts: closing out the lease (the financial and contractual side) and turning over the unit (cleaning, repairs, re-listing). Habitia handles both. This article walks the lease side; the turnover side is its own feature.

The quickest way: Record move-out

On the lease’s Overview tab there’s a Record move-out button. It’s the recommended way to handle a move-out because it does the bookkeeping for you:

  1. Open Leases, click the lease, and on Overview click Record move-out.
  2. Enter the move-out date:
    • A future date records notice only — the move-out date is saved and rent stops generating after that month, but nothing else changes yet.
    • A date of today or earlier confirms the move-out: the lease flips to Expired, the unit is vacated (if no other lease occupies it), and a turnover is created automatically so the make-ready clock starts. You’re taken straight to the new turnover.
  3. (Optional) add a note for your records.

This is the same outcome a tenant triggers when they confirm move-out from their portal, and what the nightly job does when a lease reaches its end date with no renewal — so a turnover gets seeded no matter which path the move-out comes through.

The manual route below still works if you’d rather edit the lease yourself.

Lease ends naturally vs. early termination

Two ways a lease ends:

  • The end date passes. No action required — the lease automatically flips to Expired at the end of its term. This is the path for tenants who didn’t renew but stayed through the full term.
  • You terminate the lease early. Used when the tenant moves out before the end date, by mutual agreement or under your local laws. You change the lease status to Terminated.

Ending a lease early

  1. Open Leases, click the lease.
  2. Click Edit lease.
  3. Change Status from Active to Terminated.
  4. (Optional) Update End date to the actual move-out date so reports and the ledger reflect reality.
  5. Click Save lease.

Note: Terminating a lease stops new monthly rent charges from posting on the next due day. It does not cancel charges that have already been posted — those still show in the ledger. Settle them via Recording an off-network payment or by issuing a credit (Understanding the ledger).

Settling the final balance

Before you call the lease closed, the ledger should reflect what’s actually owed (or owed back):

  1. Outstanding rent or fees — the tenant owes you whatever remains as the current balance. Collect it or write it off; in either case, the ledger should end at zero or a small positive.
  2. Security deposit — Habitia tracks this as a separate line on the lease. When the tenant moves out, you decide how much to return based on the move-out inspection. Refund via your bank/Zelle/check (Habitia doesn’t process refunds directly) and record the deposit-return entry on the ledger so the running balance settles.
  3. Damage charges — if the move-out inspection turns up damage beyond normal wear, post the charge via Add charge on the ledger, deduct it from the security deposit, and refund the remainder.

The ledger after move-out should end with Balance due: $0.

Preparing the unit for the next tenant: Turnovers

The other half of move-out is getting the unit ready. Habitia has a Turnover workflow for tracking this — clean-out, repairs, re-paint, re-listing, etc.

  1. Click Turnovers in the left sidebar.
  2. Click Create turnover.
  3. Pick the property and the unit that’s emptying out.
  4. Optionally link the outgoing lease so the turnover history is connected to who lived there before.
  5. Set a target ready date — when you want the unit available for the next tenant.
  6. Set a budget estimate (rough, for planning).
  7. Save.

The new turnover lands in Draft status. From there, the Turnover detail page tracks the checklist (deep clean, fixtures, paint, key change, etc.), associated work orders, and progress toward Ready to list → Ready to occupy → Completed.

Tip: You don’t need to use Turnovers. If the unit just needs a quick clean and is ready immediately, set its status to Vacant on the unit detail page and re-list. Use Turnovers when there’s actual make-ready work to track.

What happens to the unit’s status

  • If you used Record move-out (or the tenant confirmed, or the lease auto-expired), the unit is set to Vacant automatically — no manual step.
  • If you instead edited the lease to Terminated by hand, the unit’s Status does not change automatically. Update it yourself:
    • Set to Vacant if the unit is ready for the next tenant.
    • Set to Maintenance if there’s work to do before re-listing.
  • The unit’s Listed for rent flag is independent of all of this — turn it on when you’re ready to re-list publicly (the turnover flips it on for you when it reaches Ready to list).

What happens to the tenant’s portal

When the lease ends, the tenant’s portal switches to a read-only view of their ledger and history. They keep access to their old receipts and payment records — they just can’t submit new maintenance requests or pay rent against this lease anymore.

If the tenant signs a new lease with you on a different unit later, the same portal account picks up where they left off.

What’s next

  • Renewals — for tenants who aren’t moving out.
  • Publishing a unit on the public listings site — to re-list once the turnover is done.