By the time a deposit dispute is raised, the outcome is largely already fixed. It was fixed at check-in, by whether or not there is a document worth reading.
The nine
- No inventory at all. Nothing else on this list matters as much. Without a starting record there is nothing to compare to, and claims routinely fail outright.
- An inventory with no condition grades. A list of items proves the sofa existed, not that it was unmarked.
- Grades with no description. 'Fair' is an opinion. 'Fair: light pilling to both seat cushions, no stains' is a record.
- Photographs that are not referenced. Forty images in a phone folder cannot be tied to a row, and an adjudicator will not do that work for you.
- No cleanliness baseline. Cleaning is the most common deduction and it needs a starting standard, photographed, or it fails.
- The tenant never signed it. An unsigned inventory is weaker evidence and invites the argument that the tenant never agreed to it.
- Written by the landlord. Admissible, but weighed as the account of an interested party. Independence is most of what you are buying.
- Meter readings and keys not recorded. Two of the three things most disputes start with, and both take two minutes at check-in.
- The check-out written from scratch. If the end document does not follow the same rows in the same order, nobody can see what changed.
What it costs to get right
An independent inventory on a two-bedroom flat is a small fraction of a single month's rent, and it cannot be charged to the tenant. Set that against a typical disputed deposit and the arithmetic is not close.
See what a check-in inventory must include for the full standard, and how adjudicators decide for what happens when it goes wrong.
Written by The Surveyor Co, a trading name of LW Renovation Group Ltd, Lincoln. This guide describes how records are written and read; it is not legal advice. Where a deposit scheme, lease or insurer sets a rule, that rule wins.