Rent Roll Audit Checklist

Export the current rent roll from AppFolio, Buildium, Yardi, or your PMS of record. Pull as of the first of the month so the snapshot aligns with the GL close. Include columns for unit, tenant, lease start/end, market rent, actual rent, deposit held, and balance due.

Lock the as-of date with the controller before fieldwork starts. Mid-month exports drift as payments post and move-ins close — agreeing on a single cutoff prevents reconciliation chasing later.

A full audit reviews every unit; a sample audit pulls 10-20% across each property type. Use a full audit before refinance, disposition, or owner transition; sample audits work for routine quarterly reviews.

Compare every name on the rent roll against the executed lease in the tenant file. Watch for co-signers listed as tenants, occupants miscoded as leaseholders, and unit transfers where the prior tenant's name was never overwritten.

Confirm the dates on the rent roll match the executed lease and any renewal addenda. Month-to-month conversions after a fixed-term expiration are the most common error — the system often retains the original end date even after rollover.

Spot-check phone numbers, email addresses, and emergency contacts against the application file. Stale contact data delays delinquency notices and lease-renewal outreach.

Tie each unit's actual rent to the executed lease, not the market rent field. Scheduled escalations, CPI adjustments, and renewal increases are the typical sources of variance — flag any unit where the rent roll trails the contract rent.

Confirm the deposit balance held matches the lease and that funds sit in the correct trust account. Some states (CA, MA, NJ) require deposits in a separate interest-bearing account; commingling with operating funds is a statutory violation regardless of bookkeeping intent.

Pull each delinquent tenant's payment ledger and verify the balance ties to the rent roll. NSF reversals, partial payments, and late-fee waivers are common reconciliation gaps. Anything over 30 days delinquent should already be in the collections workflow.

List each discrepancy with unit, tenant, expected vs. actual amount, and root cause (system entry error, missing addendum, ledger drift). The accounting team needs this to post correcting JEs before owner statements run.

Walk lease term, rent escalation schedule, and renewal options against the rent roll fields. Commercial leases with CAM reconciliations and percentage rent need extra scrutiny — the rent roll often shows base rent only.

Flag every lease expiring within 120 days so leasing has runway to negotiate renewal or list the unit. Holdover tenants without a fresh lease or a documented month-to-month conversion are the highest-risk category — the legal status drives eviction options later.

Pet addenda, parking agreements, and rent-deferral side letters routinely live outside the main lease document. Confirm each is filed with the lease and that any rent-impacting terms flow to the rent roll.

Verify unit naming matches the lease and the postal address. After a unit re-numbering or building re-plat, rent rolls often retain the legacy unit ID — this breaks downstream maintenance dispatch and tenant statements.

Cross-check bedroom count, bathroom count, and rentable square footage against the unit mix on file. Square footage errors compound into wrong $/sqft analysis at the asset-management layer.

Compare the rent roll's occupied/vacant/down/model status with the make-ready board and recent move-in/move-out logs. Units stuck in 'under repair' for 60+ days should be on a capex tracker, not in routine vacancy.

For units in rent-stabilized jurisdictions (NYC, LA RSO, SF, Berkeley, Oakland, St. Paul), confirm the rent on file does not exceed the allowable annual increase. Excess collections often must be refunded with interest and can void lease provisions.

Pull a sample of recent denials and confirm an FCRA adverse action notice was sent with the reporting agency's name and contact. Source-of-income and uniform screening criteria documentation should also live in the file in protected jurisdictions.

Late-fee caps and grace periods are state-specific (e.g., CA caps at a reasonable estimate of damages, NC caps at 5% or $15). Verify the fee schedule in the PMS matches both the lease and the state ceiling.

Walk parking, storage, garage, and utility-RUBS line items unit-by-unit. Tenants who give up a parking spot mid-lease often keep getting billed; tenants who add storage rarely have it added to the rent roll.

For each concession (one month free, $500 look-and-lease, etc.), confirm the burn-off schedule matches the lease and that concessions stop after the promotion period. Lingering concessions silently erode GPR.

Confirm pet rent and deposits are charged only for pets — not service animals or ESAs with proper documentation. Charging fees on an ESA is a Fair Housing Act violation regardless of the lease language.

Summarize variances by category (rent, deposit, occupancy, compliance) with proposed corrections and dollar impact. Highlight anything that affects the next owner statement so accounting can post adjustments before close.

Portfolio manager or controller signs off after corrections post. The signed audit becomes the baseline for the next quarterly cycle and supporting documentation for refinance or disposition due diligence.