A Day in the Life of an Inventory Clerk: Trials, Tribulations and Four Light Switches
There is a tidy version of an inventory clerk's day, the one that fits neatly into a diary, and then there is the real one. The real one involves a key safe that has defeated the instructions, a meter cupboard behind a sofa, a wall of four light switches that answer to nobody, a garage with no car in it and an entire second household inside, and a garden that looks nothing like it did in July. A light hearted look at the trials and tribulations of a day in the life of a UK inventory clerk, for anyone who has ever stood in a hallway holding a clipboard and a phone torch at the same time.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →Betterment and Proportionate Deposit Deductions
A landlord should not normally receive a new item at the tenant's full expense where the original item was already used, worn or part-way through its expected life.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →Cleaning Claims at the End of a Tenancy
Cleaning is a common source of deposit disagreement. The central comparison is usually the standard at the start of the tenancy against the standard at the end, considered with the tenancy agreement.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →Damp and Mould in Rented Homes: Evidence, Responsibility and the Inventory's Role
A patch on a wall can be a leak, a failed seal, a cold surface, or moisture from everyday life with nowhere to go, and the difference matters. This guide looks at what a property record should capture, why damp is a diagnosis rather than an observation, how responsibility is divided between landlord and tenant, and where the rules differ between social housing and privately rented homes in England.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →Electrical Safety Standards for Rented Homes: What the Report Does and What the Inventory Does
A report on the fixed electrical installation and an inventory of the property answer different questions, and treating one as the other causes avoidable trouble later. This is a practical look at what the five year testing duty covers, what a clerk actually records about sockets, switches and the consumer unit, and how the two documents sit alongside each other across a tenancy.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →EPCs and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards
An Energy Performance Certificate is a short document with long reach. It records a rating, follows a property through sales and lettings, and connects to the minimum standard that current GOV.UK guidance sets for privately rented homes in England and Wales. Here is what the certificate actually contains, where the detail has to be read from the source, and where the certificate stops and the inventory begins.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →Fair Wear and Tear Explained
Fair wear and tear is the reasonable deterioration that occurs through normal use of the property and its contents over time. It is different from avoidable damage, missing items or a failure to meet an agreed cleaning obligation.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →How to Prepare for a Check-Out
The property should be ready for inspection when the clerk arrives. Incomplete cleaning, belongings, contractor activity and missing keys can all affect the usefulness of the report.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →Inventory Evidence and Deposit Disputes
A deposit adjudicator does not inspect the property. The decision is based on the documents and evidence submitted by the parties.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →Pets in Rental Properties: What the Inventory Should Record
A cat flap recorded in good order at the start of a tenancy is a straightforward item at the end of it. The same cat flap, never mentioned, becomes a short argument about who broke the hinge. Pets work on a record in much the same way, only larger: marks accumulate slowly, and none of them can be dated afterwards. This is a practical guide to what belongs in the record when an animal is present or permitted. The animal itself and how many, the state of carpets, doors, soft furnishings and gardens as found, landlord fittings such as cat flaps and outside runs, and the tenant's own equipment, which should never turn into a missing item later. It covers dated photographs, the difference between recording a mark and deciding what caused it, and why an assistance dog should never appear on a tenancy record as a pet.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →Tenancy Deposit Inventory Evidence: What Makes a Record Reliable
What makes an inventory useful when a tenancy ends? A practical guide to dated observations, clear photographs, tenant comments and fair comparisons, with the limits of the report kept in view.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →Tenancy Deposit Protection in England
Most qualifying tenancy deposits must be protected in a government-approved tenancy deposit protection scheme.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →The Complete Guide to Property Inventories
A property inventory is a structured record of a rental property's contents, condition and cleanliness at a defined point in time—usually immediately before the tenant takes possession.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →The First Inventory on a New Build: Recording a Home with No History
A new build is the one tenancy that begins with no earlier record behind it. Site managers, trades and cleaners have all been through the property, but nobody has written down what it looked like on the day the keys changed hands. That absence makes the first inventory unusually important, and unusually awkward. This is a practical guide to recording the property while it is still empty: decoration, sealant, flooring, kitchen and bathroom finish, protective film, appliance details and manuals, and the fittings that are easy to walk past. It also sets out why a developer's snagging process and handover pack answer different questions from an inventory, useful as both are.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
Read the guide →When Things Change Mid Tenancy: Replacements, Alterations and Keeping the Record Accurate
An inventory describes a property on the day a tenancy starts. A check out report describes it on the day it ends. Between those two documents a great deal can happen: a boiler replaced after a failure, a carpet renewed, a shower room refitted, a wall taken down and put back. None of it appears in the record unless somebody writes it down at the time. This is a practical look at keeping the record accurate while a tenancy is running, what a change note should contain, and why a replacement is not the same entry as an improvement.
Landlords · Letting agents · Tenants
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