Recordkeeping · Every Stage of Tenancy
The Tenant File
What to keep, from application to years after move-out. Check items off per tenant, copy the list for your files, and see how long to actually hold onto everything once they're gone.
What applies to this tenancy? — adds a few extra items
Copied
How long to actually keep all of this
- A reasonable general floor is at least 4 years after the tenancy ends. That roughly tracks California's statute of limitations for written contract claims — though this isn't a hard legal deadline for every possible claim type, just a sensible baseline.
- Keep security-deposit records longer if there was any dispute. A tenant has meaningful time after move-out to challenge a deduction — if anything was contested, don't purge that file early.
- If a fair-housing, discrimination, or habitability complaint was ever raised — keep everything indefinitely, or at minimum until well past any applicable filing deadline for that type of claim. When in doubt on a specific case, keep the file and ask counsel before destroying anything.
- Photos and inspection records are cheap to keep and expensive to need and not have. Digital storage costs are trivial compared to the exposure of an undocumented deduction or a "we never got that notice" dispute.
- This is general guidance, not a fixed legal retention schedule. Different claim types (contract, personal injury, fair housing, tax) carry different limitation periods — confirm specifics with counsel or your CPA if you're setting a formal document-retention policy.