Many disputes between landlords and tenants - some ending in court action - could be avoided by the use of professional inventories, it’s been claimed.
“An inventory is a vital part of the letting process because it establishes the condition of a property at the beginning and at the end of a tenancy” says Daniel Evans, chair of the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks.
“If the inventory contains omissions or is lacking in the necessary detail, the landlord or agent might find it very difficult to prove that deterioration has been the fault of the tenant.
“It’s not merely a list of items owned by the landlord but included in the property, the inventory should contain detailed information about every aspect of a property including standards of décor, fixtures and fittings, all contents, the garden and any outbuildings.
“Observations on condition are backed up with photographs or video so at the end of a tenancy, accurate assessments can be made about damage and cleaning issues that might be chargeable to the tenant.
“And the tenant is much more likely to trust the process if it can be demonstrated from the outset that the inventory clerk is independent of the landlord or agent.”
The inventory – sometimes known as a check-in report – must be agreed and signed off by the tenant and requires images of flaws in the property before the tenant moves in. The size of stains or marks can be shown by including a measuring rule or even a hand.
Evans continues: “Without these indicators, there will be no way of knowing whether there has been further deterioration by the time the tenant comes to check out.
“That could be caused by reasonable wear and tear, but if there has been further damage caused deliberately or by negligence, the inventory is the only means of establishing that fact.”
Some three per cent of tenancies end in dispute over the return of deposits, usually regarding cleaning or damage.
According to The Dispute Service its Insured Deposit Scheme received 15,116 dispute applications in 2020-21, while its Custodial Scheme adjudicated on 1,660.
But although only a comparatively small number of tenancies end in dispute, it’s in the interest of the landlord or agent to do everything they can to reduce the chances of disagreement over deductions.
“Top of the list should be an impartial inventory. If landlords and agents do this, everybody knows where they stand from Day One” Evans concludes.
“If landlords or agents don’t have an inventory or what they do have is incomplete, they are immediately on the back foot in any negotiation when the tenancy ends.”
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Load of b*llocks. The so called independent tenancy dispute have nots always favour the tenants. Period. They find every which way to cut the payout to the LL citing x% reduction for this or that. They are not independent at all. They favour tenants. It's all biased and a fix. Renting - day one sign the tenancy and your property over to the tenant. If you have a good tenant you're ok, otherwise that's your property gone.
Disputes over inventory issues are only 3%, according to this article but they want us to have professionally produced inventories in 100% of tenancies.
I've never disputed broken or missing items and only care about how easily and quickly I can get the property back into move in condition.
Any inventory is a waste of time but probably should be done, but paying anyone to produce it professionally is also a waste of money.
The agent I use are using a '' professional ??' inventory clerk, very hard on the inventory but not so on the check out and missing things, almost seems that they are on the side of the tenant.
It's true, a professional inventory is better than a bad inventory, but it doesn't mean they're any good.
I typically take around 700-800 high quality photos and upload them to a Dropbox and reference them in a listed inventory. Much better than any professional inventory. Sadly still not good enough for the DPS.
I took a tenant to arbitration and won ! However the arbitrator would only accept businesd estimates and rejected my own estimates. So l got about 80% of my claim. It was too time consuming getting estimates and typing out the claim. The letting agent sided with the tenant and washed their hands of the problem.
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