The Inventory: A Landlord's Cheapest Insurance
Thirty pounds and ninety minutes at the start of a tenancy decides who wins a deposit dispute two years later.
What a proper inventory contains
Room by room, every surface and fitting, with a condition note and a photograph. Meter readings with the meter serial visible. Keys issued and how many. The condition of the garden if there is one.
It should be dated, and signed or acknowledged by the tenant within a reasonable window of moving in. An unsigned inventory is worth considerably less at adjudication than a signed one, and costs nothing extra to obtain.
Clerk or do it yourself
An independent clerk costs between one and two hundred pounds depending on the size of the property, and the independence is the point - an adjudicator weighs it more heavily than a document produced by one of the parties.
Doing it yourself is legitimate and better than nothing. If you do, be exhaustive and be neutral. An inventory that records only the faults reads as a document written to justify deductions.
The check-out is half the job
An inventory with no matching check-out proves nothing. The comparison is what carries weight, so repeat the exercise in the same order, at the same level of detail, with the same photograph angles.
Do it with the tenant present if you can. A surprising number of disputes evaporate when both parties are standing in the room looking at the same mark.
