Inventories and check-ins: getting them right

An inventory is the evidence that decides who keeps the deposit. It needs to be specific, dated, photographed and agreed by the tenant before they move in, then compared item by item at the end. Deposit scheme adjudicators work from what you can prove, not from what you remember, and an undated folder of phone photos rarely does it. An hour or two at check-in settles arguments a year later. In England the cost of all of it falls on you: inventory and check-in fees cannot be charged to the tenant.

Deposit disputes are rarely decided on who sounds more reasonable. They are decided on evidence, and the evidence is the inventory. An adjudicator who has never seen the property compares two documents: what it was like when the tenant moved in, and what it was like when they left. If the first document is thin, the tenant keeps the money.

That is the whole case for spending time on this. Tenancies are now open-ended and periodic, so tenants can serve notice and leave at points you did not choose. The inventory is one of the few protections entirely within your control, and it only works if it exists before anyone moves in. If you are new to letting, the first-time landlord checklist puts it in order alongside the rest of the set-up.

What an inventory actually needs to contain

A list of rooms with “good condition” written next to each one is not an inventory. A usable one records, room by room:

• every fixture, fitting and appliance, with make and model where it matters
• the condition of walls, ceilings, floors, skirting, doors and window frames, described specifically (a 2cm chip to the door frame, left side, at hip height, rather than “some damage”)
• the condition and cleanliness of carpets, curtains, blinds and any furniture
• kitchen units, worktops and white goods, including inside the oven and fridge
• bathroom sealant, grout and any existing staining
• the garden, shed, bins, fences and outbuildings
• smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, tested and dated
• meter readings and serial numbers for gas, electricity and water
• keys issued, by number and type, including window keys and fobs

Record what is clean as well as what is damaged. Cleaning is consistently among the most disputed deductions, and one of the hardest to justify without a clear starting point.

Photographs

Photographs carry more weight than prose, but only when they are anchored to a date. A folder of images with no metadata and no link to the written document is weak. Take wide shots of each room plus close-ups of anything already damaged, keep the original files rather than compressed copies sent through a messaging app, and cross-reference each photo to the numbered item in the written inventory.

A timestamped video walk-through is a useful supplement and a poor replacement, because nobody can search it for the state of the second bedroom skirting board.

The check-in is what turns it into evidence

An inventory the tenant has never seen is your opinion. An inventory the tenant has read, amended and signed is agreed evidence. Do it at handover:

• walk the property with the tenant, document in hand
• invite them to disagree and write their comments in, rather than defending your own wording
• have every tenant on the agreement sign, not just the one who turned up
• give them a copy the same day and keep proof you sent it

If a tenant cannot attend, send the inventory with a clear deadline, usually seven days, to raise anything they disagree with. Say what happens if they do not respond, and keep the sent email. What adjudicators will not accept is a document produced for the first time at check-out.

You pay for this, not the tenant

Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 in England, inventory costs, check-in and check-out charges, referencing, administration and end-of-tenancy cleaning fees are all prohibited payments. You cannot ask the tenant to pay them, and you cannot recover them by writing an obligation into the tenancy agreement. The permitted payments are a short list: rent, a tenancy deposit, a holding deposit, utilities and council tax where the tenancy provides for them, a capped default fee for late rent or a replacement key, and a payment on a tenant-requested variation or early termination.

Charging a prohibited payment carries a financial penalty and blocks you from using section 8 to seek possession until the money is repaid. Since section 21 was abolished on 1 May 2026, section 8 is the only route there is, so an unlawful fee now closes the only door you have.

The deposit rules that sit around all this

In England, a deposit taken for an assured tenancy must be protected in one of the three government-approved schemes, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, the Deposit Protection Service or mydeposits, within 30 days of receiving it. The prescribed information has to be served within the same 30 days, on the tenant and on anyone who paid the deposit on their behalf.

The amount is capped by the Tenant Fees Act at five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, or six weeks where it is £50,000 or more. A holding deposit is capped at one week’s rent.

Failing to protect the deposit or to serve the prescribed information exposes you to a tenant claim for between one and three times the deposit, on top of returning it. No inventory rescues you from that. Our guide to deposit disputes covers what happens once adjudication starts.

During the tenancy

Periodic inspections, arranged in advance and with proper notice, do two jobs. They catch maintenance problems early, and they build a dated record of condition between check-in and check-out. Photograph anything you flag and follow up in writing.

They are also how you spot the issues that become large deductions if left, condensation and early mould in particular. That is a repair and ventilation question rather than a deposit question, and our guide to damp and mould responsibilities explains why it usually lands on the landlord. Deducting for mould you were told about and did not act on will not survive adjudication.

Check-out

Work through the original inventory item by item and record the current state against each entry. Same rooms, same order, same camera angles where you can manage it. Then:

• take final meter readings and count the keys back
• separate damage from wear and tear before you total anything
• get quotes or invoices for whatever you intend to claim
• put the proposed deductions to the tenant in writing with the evidence attached, and give them a chance to respond

A lot of disputes settle at this stage, and the landlord who can show their working is the one who tends to hold the deduction.

Fair wear and tear

You cannot charge a tenant for the ordinary deterioration that comes from living in a property. Adjudicators weigh the age and quality of the item, how long the tenancy ran and how many people lived there. A five-year-old carpet at the end of a three-year family let is not a new carpet, and you will not be given one.

The related principle is betterment. Where you replace a worn item with a new one, the tenant contributes a share reflecting the remaining life you lost, not the full replacement cost. Claims that ignore this get reduced, and an obviously inflated claim damages the credibility of the reasonable parts of it.

Doing it yourself or paying a clerk

A thorough inventory on a two or three-bedroom house takes a couple of hours to do properly, and it is genuinely tedious work. An independent inventory clerk costs money but produces a document in the format adjudicators expect, from someone with no stake in the outcome. Fees vary by property size and area, so get a quote for your own property rather than working from a figure you read somewhere. For a single property you know well, doing it yourself is fine as long as you are honest and detailed. Across a portfolio, or on a higher-value tenancy, the clerk tends to pay for themselves the first time a claim is contested.

If an agent manages the property, ask specifically who prepares the inventory, whether a check-in appointment is included and whether check-out is charged separately. It varies more than most landlords expect. Our guide to moving from self-managing to an agent lists the other services worth pinning down before you sign.

The short version

• Write it before the tenant moves in, not after they have left.
• Be specific. Vague descriptions lose.
• Get it signed, or get proof you sent it with a deadline.
• Budget for the cost yourself. You cannot pass inventory or check-in fees to the tenant.
• Protect the deposit and serve the prescribed information within 30 days.
• Compare like with like at check-out and deduct only what you can evidence.

If you would rather the inventory, the check-in and the deposit paperwork were somebody else’s job, that is core letting agent work. You can compare local agents, their fees and what their tenancy set-up includes on AgentCheck.

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