New Haven apartment move-out checklist

Read the lease and call the building

Start with the lease: the notice period, the date the keys are due, and what the landlord expects the unit to look like. Then call the building or the property manager and ask the questions the lease does not answer. Is there a freight elevator, and does it need to be reserved? Are there hours when moves are not allowed? Is there a loading dock or a loading zone, and how long can a truck sit in it? Does the building require a certificate of insurance from the mover?

Write the answers down and pass every one of them to your mover when you book. A crew that arrives at nine to find the elevator is reserved for someone else until noon has lost the morning, and the day only gets longer from there.

Reserve the elevator and settle the certificate of insurance

Managed buildings, especially the larger ones downtown and near the Yale campus, often require a certificate of insurance from the moving company before they will release the freight elevator or let a crew in at all. The certificate names the building as an additional insured for the day of the move, and the building will usually have specific wording it wants to see.

Get the building's requirements in writing, send them to your mover as early as you can, and confirm the certificate has been received before the day. Major Movers handles elevator scheduling and building certificate requests as part of its apartment work; the apartment moving page describes it. Ask when you book, not the day before.

Sort out the parking

Downtown New Haven, the East Rock and Wooster Square neighborhoods, and most of the streets near the universities have permit parking, metered spaces, or both. A truck that cannot get near the door means a long carry on every trip, and a long carry is the most common reason an apartment move takes longer than planned.

Ask the building about its loading zone first. If there is none, look at the street: whether the city allows a temporary no-parking request, whether a neighbor will hold a space with a car, or whether the truck can back into an alley or a lot. Tell the mover exactly where the truck will go and how far it is from the door, so the crew arrives with the right plan.

• Loading dock or loading zone, and its time limit
• Nearest legal spot for the truck if there is no zone
• Distance from that spot to the door, and whether it involves steps
• Any permit or no-parking request the city needs in advance

Finish the packing before the crew arrives

An apartment crew works fastest when everything is boxed, sealed and labeled by room, and the path from the unit to the elevator is clear. Half-packed is the slow case: the crew ends up packing around you, which takes longer than either finishing it yourself or booking the packing as part of the job.

Take the pictures off the walls, take the beds apart if you can, and empty the drawers of anything loose. Set aside the things that go in your own car: documents, keys, medications, the box of first-night essentials. Anything that stays in the apartment for the landlord, like appliances or fixtures, gets a note on it so nobody carries it out by mistake.

The walkthrough and the keys

Once the truck is loaded, do a last pass through every room, closet and cabinet, then photograph the empty unit. Note the condition of the floors and walls, the state of the appliances, and any damage that was there when you moved in. The photos are what protects your deposit if there is a disagreement later.

Return the keys, fobs, garage openers and mailbox keys the way the lease says, get a receipt or an email confirming the handover, and forward your mail. Then go and meet the truck.