A mid-term visit should take half an hour and produce a document somebody can act on. The way to make that happen is to work in a fixed order every time, so nothing depends on remembering.
Work in this order
Outside first, then services and alarms, then room by room top to bottom, then the questions for the tenant. Photograph as you go rather than at the end.
Outside
- Roof and gutters as visible from the ground, and overflowing gutters after rain
- Brickwork, pointing, and anything piled against the wall above the damp proof course
- Windows and external doors: seals, locks, rot to timber frames
- Garden condition, and whether the tenancy makes it the tenant's responsibility
- Bins: number, condition, and whether waste is accumulating
- Any structure that has appeared since the last visit — sheds, hot tubs, decking, dishes
Services and safety
- Smoke alarm on each storey: present, and tested on the day
- Carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance: present, tested
- Extractor fans in kitchen and bathroom: present, running, not disconnected
- Boiler: any visible leak, the pressure gauge, and the last service date if displayed
- Consumer unit accessible and not obstructed by storage
- Meter readings, where the branch or landlord wants them
Room by room
Ceiling, walls, floor, window, door, fittings. Every room, including the ones people skip: hallway, landing, airing cupboard, under the stairs, the second bathroom.
- Condensation and mould, especially in the coldest bedroom and behind furniture on external walls
- Staining on ceilings under bathrooms and around chimney breasts
- Leaks under sinks and behind the toilet — open the cupboard and look
- Tiling and sealant in the bathroom, which is where slow damage starts
- Window operation, and any misted double glazing
- Anything that has changed since the check-in or the previous visit
The three people forget
- The loft. Nobody looks, and it is where a roof leak shows first.
- Under the kitchen sink. A slow leak rots the carcass and the floor beneath long before anything shows in the room.
- The tenant's own view. Ask what is not working. Most tenants will mention things they never bothered to report.
Writing it up
Flagged items first, so a busy branch reads the top of page one and knows what needs a decision. Then the routine record. Then the date of the next visit. See mid-term inspections.
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.