Admin: Review and Approve Move Requests

Admin: review and approve move requests

A move request records the intention to move in or out of a flat, gets a committee decision, and carries a checklist through to completion — so the state of a move is visible to both sides rather than living in one person's memory.

Before you start

• You are a society admin or committee member
• Your society has adopted a written move policy — notice period, documents, deposit, charges
• You know your bye-law position on deposits and shifting charges

Step 1: Open move requests

Go to /admin/move. Requests appear with their type (move-in or move-out), the flat, whether the person is an owner or tenant, and the intended date.

Step 2: Check before approving

Approve before the truck arrives, not when it is blocking the ramp. Ask for seven days' notice and enforce it.

For a move-in, confirm:

• Registered leave-and-licence agreement (tenant) or sale deed / allotment letter (owner)
• Police verification acknowledgement for the tenant — the item committees most often skip
• Photo ID for every adult occupant
• Vehicle details for parking allocation
• Emergency contact for the flat
• Deposit and any shifting charge collected

For a move-out, confirm:

• No dues certificate — maintenance up to date including the current month. This is the entire point of holding a deposit; leverage disappears once the truck leaves.
• Society property to be returned: access cards, gate remotes, intercom handset, amenity keys, parking tags

Step 3: Approve, reject or leave pending

The decision and the reviewer are recorded. Reject with a reason, in writing — a rejection with no stated ground is how a routine move becomes a grievance.

You may not reject on grounds of the incoming occupant's religion, caste, community, region, marital status, food habits or profession. Those refusals have been struck down repeatedly and expose individual committee members personally.

Step 4: Work the checklist

Once approved, the move carries a checklist. Tick items as they are completed:

• Lift padded and floor covered; inspected before and after
• Move restricted to agreed hours
• Movers logged at the gate as visitors, with ID
• Debris removed the same day
• Parking allocated (move-in) or released (move-out)
• Occupants registered in the directory (move-in) or removed (move-out)
• Access deactivated: app account, gate cards, and the household help registered against the flat

That last one is the step every society forgets.

Step 5: Complete the request

Mark the request completed. Then settle the deposit within your stated number of days, with an itemised deduction note if anything is withheld. An unexplained deduction is how a routine move-out becomes a dispute.

Step 6: Close the record properly

A month after any move, all of these should be true:

• The directory shows current occupants
• Billing goes to the right person
• The gate's list matches reality
• Parking reflects who actually parks there
• No deactivated resident still has gate access

If you cannot answer "who legally occupies B-402 today, and are they up to date on maintenance?" in under a minute, the process is not closing properly.

Cancelled requests

A resident can cancel their own request before completion. The cancellation is recorded.

Audit

Every transition — created, approved, rejected, completed, cancelled — writes to the society's append-only audit log, so at the AGM you can show how many moves were processed and no approval can be quietly rewritten.

Frequently asked questions

Can we refuse permission for a tenant to move in? On legitimate grounds — incomplete documents, dues outstanding on the flat, no police verification. Not on grounds of religion, caste, food habits, marital status or profession.

How much notice should we require? Seven days is reasonable and gives time to verify documents and brief the gate. Publish it in advance so it does not read as an obstacle raised at the last minute.

Is police verification the society's job or the owner's? The obligation sits with the landlord. The society is entitled to ask for the acknowledgement before permitting occupancy, and a sensible committee does.

Can we hold the deposit until the tenant clears their electricity bill? Only against dues the society is owed and damage to common property. A utility bill in the tenant's own name is between them and the utility.

What if a flat was let without informing the society? Register the occupant, collect the documents retrospectively, and levy the applicable charges from the date of occupation. Do not treat it as unresolvable.

What charges can we levy on a move? A refundable damage deposit and a reasonable non-refundable charge for lift wear and extra housekeeping — both traceable to a general body resolution, the same for every flat, with a receipt.

Related: Resident: raise a move request · Move-in / move-out checklist · Domestic help verification