Before you sign anything, walk both properties, count your items against your inventory, and check every piece of furniture and every wall surface along the carry route. Signing indicates you accept the condition as delivered, so anything you find afterward is considerably harder to resolve. An experienced moving company expects this walkthrough and builds time for it, because a crew confident in their work wants the inspection to happen while they are still on site. Fifteen minutes at the end of a long day is the cheapest protection and valuation available on a move.
Walk the Old Property Before the Truck Leaves
The inspection starts at the address you are leaving, not the one you are arriving at. Once the truck pulls away, anything left behind is a separate trip, and anything damaged is harder to attribute.
Open every closet, every cabinet, and every drawer. Check the attic, the crawlspace, the garage, and any outdoor shed. Look behind doors and in the spaces where furniture was sitting, since small items migrate underneath sofas and dressers and only appear when the furniture is gone.
Check the property itself while you are there. Walls, doorframes, stair treads, and flooring along the route the crew used all deserve a look, particularly if you are renting and a security deposit depends on the condition. Photographs taken now cost nothing and settle questions later.
Count Against Your Inventory at Delivery
At the new address, the item count is the first thing to verify, and it needs something to verify against. An inventory made before the move is what makes this possible, whether that is a written list, a photographed record, or the numbered sheet a crew provides.
Count boxes by room rather than as a total, since a total that matches can still hide a box delivered to the wrong room. Check that the high-value and fragile items you flagged at booking actually arrived, and check them specifically rather than assuming they are in the pile.
Anything missing should be raised while the crew is present. Items occasionally stay on a truck behind something else, and that is resolved in two minutes on site and considerably less easily the next day.
Inspect Furniture and Belongings Properly
A glance across a room is not an inspection. Look at the surfaces that take damage, which are edges, corners, legs, and anything with a finish.
Work through the categories that matter:
- Furniture edges, corners, and legs for chips, gouges, or breaks
- Upholstery for tears, snags, and moisture
- Glass, mirrors, and framed pieces for cracks, including at the corners
- Electronics for cracked screens, bent ports, or casing damage
- Appliances for dents and to check whether doors and drawers still seat correctly
- Boxes marked fragile for crushing or obvious impact
Unwrap enough to see what you are looking at. A dresser still under pads and shrink wrap cannot be inspected, and the crew will unwrap items on request. That is a normal part of a delivery rather than an imposition.
Not sure what your coverage tier actually covers if something turns up damaged? Give us a call at (801) 871-5221, and we’ll walk you through it before you’re standing at the paperwork.
Check the Property, Not Just the Contents
Property damage gets overlooked because attention goes to belongings. It is frequently the more expensive category, especially in a rental or a new build where the finishes were untouched before today.
Walk the full carry route at the new address. Check doorframes at every threshold, wall corners where a wrapped piece would pivot, stair treads and the landing at any turn, and flooring along the traffic lane. Look at the entry threshold specifically, since it takes the most contact and the most moisture.
If you photographed the property before the crew arrived, compare rather than rely on memory. Documenting the space is one of the steps covered in how to prepare for your move, and that before-and-after pair is the clearest evidence available. It protects the crew as much as it protects you, since it establishes what was already there.
Read What You Are Signing
The document at the end of a move is a contract rather than a receipt. Read it before you sign, and read the part describing the condition of the delivery rather than only the total.
If something is damaged or missing, note it on the document before signing rather than agreeing verbally to sort it out later. A verbal acknowledgment from a tired crew at six in the evening is not a record. A written note on the paperwork is.
Check that the hours billed match the day you experienced, and that the rate matches what was agreed at deposit. Our local movers bill hourly in fifteen-minute increments with a three-hour minimum; breaks are off the clock, and multiple stops carry no additional charge, so those figures should reconcile without explanation. Verifying a company’s credentials before booking prevents most billing disputes entirely, and our guide on verifying a mover’s license and insurance covers what to check.
Know Your Coverage Before You Need It
How a claim resolves is determined by the coverage level chosen at booking rather than by the conversation after delivery. Which is why the walkthrough is about documentation rather than negotiation.
We review valuation and protection tiers with every customer before the truck is loaded, with three levels available. Knowing which one you selected tells you what the process looks like if something is wrong, and that clarity is worth having before you need it rather than during.
Document anything you find with photographs before the crew leaves, note it on the paperwork, and raise it in writing promptly. Across more than 10,000 moves since 2013, we have never missed a confirmed booking, and our Salt Lake City, Utah crews hold 5.0 stars across 3,701 Google reviews, which is a record built on handling these moments properly rather than avoiding them. Thorough preparation at the start makes the walkthrough at the end shorter, and the checklist the day before sets that up.
Ask us about the walkthrough when you book. Call (801) 871-5221; we plan for it rather than working around it.
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