Residential · Day one
Check-In.
Meter readings photographed, keys catalogued and counted, alarms tested, and the tenant walked through the inventory and signed onto it.
What It Is For
The job it does.
The tenant agreeing on the day is what stops the argument eighteen months later. A check-in turns the inventory from a document the landlord wrote into a document both sides signed, and puts the three things most disputes start with (keys, meters, alarms) on the front page with photographs.
What we record
- Every key handed over, counted, listed and photographed
- Electricity, gas and water readings, photographed with the meter serial
- Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms: present, tested, sounded
- Any change since the inventory was walked (a tenant-supplied item, a last-minute repair)
- The tenant's comments, recorded verbatim beside the row they relate to
- The tenant's signature and the date
What you get
- Signed check-in appended to the inventory PDF, the next working day
- Tenant's copy issued on the day or with the PDF
- Front-page summary the agent can forward to utilities and the landlord
- Keys log reconciled with the branch's key record
Residential · The Tenancy Calendar
Where it sits in the tenancy.
Before the let
Inventory & Schedule of Condition
Room by room, ceiling to floor. Every fixture, fitting and item, graded, described and photographed with an exhibit number.
OpenDay one
This pageCheck-In
Meter readings photographed, keys catalogued and counted, alarms tested, and the tenant walked through the inventory and signed onto it.
End of tenancy
Check-Out & Comparison
The same rows as the check-in, walked again. Changes appended, never rewritten. Fair wear and tear separated from damage.
Open
EXH 002 · Meter cupboard · reading photographed
Comments are recorded, not argued
If the tenant says a scuff was already there, it goes in the record beside that row, in their words. The check-out will show whether it changed. Nobody has to win a disagreement in a hallway on moving day.
Booked with the inventory or on its own
Most agents book the inventory and check-in together. Where the branch already holds a recent inventory, we can run the check-in against it, as long as it is the document the tenant will be signing.
Asked & answered.
No. The inventory records the property; the check-in records the handover to the tenant, with them present. One is the document, the other is the signing of it, plus keys, meters and alarms.
Their comment is written into the record beside the item, in their words, and they still sign. Recording a disagreement is the point; the check-out settles whether it mattered.
If the branch wants us to. We arrange the appointment with the tenant and copy the branch in, so there is a written trail of when and how it was booked.
We record the property as found, note the no-show with the time, and let the branch know the same day. The document can still be issued to the tenant to sign afterwards.
Read Before You Book
Worth ten minutes.
What a check-in inventory must include, and why most fall short
The seven things a check-in inventory needs before it will carry a deposit claim, and the three ways a home-made one usually fails.
ReadFair wear and tear vs damage: how deposit adjudicators decide
What counts as wear and tear, what counts as damage, why betterment is never allowed, and how an inventory makes the difference provable.
ReadMid-term inspections: how often, what to record, and the notice rules
The interval, the notice, the checklist, and why the mid-term is the visit that stops month-four problems becoming month-eighteen bills.
Read