Unit turnovers

A turnover is a short-lived project that ties together everything you do to get a unit ready between tenants: the move-out inspection, cleaning, repairs, marketing prep, and a final walkthrough.

The turnover itself is a thin container — the actual work (work orders, inspections, documents) lives where it always has. The turnover just gives you one place to see status across all of it.

When one gets started

Most turnovers now start automatically — Habitia opens one (in Draft, with the default checklist and a move-out inspection already linked) whenever a unit comes back to you:

A tenant confirms move-out from their portal.
You record a move-out on the lease (Lease detail → Record move-out with a date of today or earlier).
A lease expires with no renewal and the nightly job vacates the unit.

It’s idempotent — a unit only ever has one active turnover, so these triggers won’t create duplicates. The target ready date defaults to ~2 weeks out; adjust it on the turnover.

To start one manually (e.g. a unit going vacant for a reason Habitia can’t see), click Turnovers → New turnover from the sidebar, pick the unit, link the outgoing lease if any, and set a target ready date.

The five statuses

Status	What it means
Draft	You’ve started it but nothing is queued yet. Set up the checklist.
In progress	Work is happening — inspections scheduled, work orders being created.
Ready to list	The unit is move-in-ready and can go onto your listings page.
Ready to occupy	A new tenant is lined up; turnover wraps when they move in.
Completed	Done. Stays on file for reference.

You can also cancel a turnover if plans change.

The checklist

Each turnover has a checklist of items, grouped by category:

Inspection — move-out walkthrough, condition assessment.
Cleaning — deep clean, carpet cleaning, etc.
Repair — patch holes, fix appliances.
Cosmetic — paint, replace fixtures.
Admin — return deposit, update utility accounts.
Marketing — photos, list the unit.
Safety — smoke detectors, locks rekeyed.

Each item can be marked To do, In progress, Done, or Skipped. Items can be linked to specific work orders so the same job doesn’t get tracked in two places.

Linking inspections and work orders

From a turnover you can:

Create an inspection (typically a move_out or turnover type) — it appears on the Inspections page too, just tagged to this turnover.
Create a work order for any repair — same thing, lives on the Work Orders page, linked here.

Linking matters because once everything in the turnover’s checklist is Done, the system knows the unit is ready and lets you flip the status to Ready to list or Ready to occupy.

Before you can move to Ready to list, the linked move-out inspection must be completed (not just attached), and every checklist item flagged as blocking must be Done or Skipped. This stops a unit from going onto the listings page before it’s actually been walked.

The Work Orders tab

The Work Orders tab lists every work order tied to this turnover — both the ones you create from the tab and any you’ve linked to a checklist item. Each row shows its category, status, scheduled date, and Cost. Click a row to open the work order.

Creating a work order here pre-fills it with the unit and tags it to the turnover, so it also appears on the global Work Orders page — it’s the same work order, just visible in both places.

Tracking costs

The Costs tab — and the Actual cost figure on the turnover’s Overview — rolls up what the turnover is costing you:

Estimated — the sum of the estimated costs on your checklist items.
Actual — what you’ve actually spent: the expenses recorded against each linked work order, plus any actual costs you put directly on checklist items.
Budget / variance — set a budget estimate on the turnover and Habitia shows how far over or under you’re running.

A work order’s cost here is the total of the expenses logged on its Costs tab (the same entries that feed your spending reports). If you only typed a number into the work order’s Materials/Labor fields, that quick estimate is used as a fallback.

Settling the deposit

The Deposit tab is where you reconcile the outgoing tenant’s security deposit — what you held, what you’re deducting, and what’s refunded or owed. It opens as a Draft the first time you visit it.

Deposit held — prefilled from the outgoing lease’s security deposit the first time you open the tab. Edit it if you held a different amount (a partial deposit, or a separate pet deposit), or if it wasn’t recorded on the lease. If it shows $0.00, the outgoing lease’s security deposit was never set — just type the real amount in.

Charge work orders to deposit — the turnover’s work orders are listed with a checkbox. Tick the ones that are the tenant’s responsibility; each adds a deduction below, prefilled with the work order’s title and its cost. Untick to remove it. This is the quick way to bill, say, the one damage repair out of three turnover work orders while leaving normal wear-and-tear off the tenant’s tab.

Deductions — each deduction has a description, category, amount, and an optional linked work order. Adjust the amount after charging a work order if only part of it is the tenant’s share (e.g. $60 of a $100 repair). You can also add manual deductions that aren’t tied to any work order — unpaid rent, unpaid utilities, late fees.

Refund or balance — Habitia shows Deposit held, Total deductions, and the result: Refund due (you owe the tenant) or Balance owed (the tenant owes more than their deposit covered). It recalculates live as you edit.

Evidence — attach photos and receipts that back up the deductions. On top of anything you upload here, the box automatically links the photos, videos, and documents from each charged work order (plus receipts on its expenses) — so the proof for a repair you’re billing shows up without you re-uploading it. These work-order files appear the moment you tick a work order above.

Finalize — when the numbers are right, click Finalize to lock the disposition (you can Reopen it later if something changes). Download statement (PDF) produces an itemized deposit statement you can hand the tenant.

The deposit tab also shows the linked move-out inspection — the walkthrough is your evidence for any damage deductions, so finalize the inspection before you finalize the deposit.

Tying to leases

Turnovers can reference both:

The outgoing lease (the tenant who’s leaving) — populates from the lease’s end date.
The incoming lease (the new tenant) — set once you’ve signed them up.

Having both linked gives you a clean record of how long the unit sat empty between leases.

Tips

Don’t over-spec the checklist for small turnovers. A repaint and clean is two items, not twelve.
Set the target ready date realistically — it gives you a deadline to push against and shows on the turnover list when you’re slipping.
Mark items as you finish them, not in a batch at the end. The status of the turnover only moves to Ready to list / Ready to occupy once the checklist is done.