Landlord Briefing · August 2026
Your Inventory Does Nothing At All — Until It Decides Everything.
Our read on the one piece of tenancy paperwork most landlords never think about until the day it's the only thing standing between them and a lost deposit claim. This month: what goes into a check-in report, why we walk the check-out with the tenant standing beside us, and why none of it appears on your bill.
£0
What we charge landlords for check-in and check-out reports
10%
Full management fee it's already covered by, with no upfront costs
In full
How the overwhelming majority of our deposits are returned
The Principle
Deposits aren't decided by who's right. They're decided by who can prove it.
Most of what a letting agent does is visible. Viewings, referencing, rent collection, repairs — you can watch it happening. The inventory is the opposite. It's a document that sits in a folder doing nothing at all, right up until the day it becomes the only thing that matters.
Deposits in Scotland are held by an approved scheme, not by us and not by you. If there's any disagreement about a deduction at the end of a tenancy, a third-party adjudicator decides — and they decide on evidence alone. The burden of proving a deduction sits with the landlord, not the tenant. No check-in report, no photographs, no signature, and in practice there is no deduction, however obvious the damage looks standing in the room.
An adjudicator can't see your property. They can only see what was recorded on the day the tenant got the keys.
Which is why we treat check-in and check-out as core management work rather than an optional extra. It isn't admin bolted onto the job. It is the job.
Check-in
What goes into the report before a tenant moves in.
The check-in report is a room-by-room record of the property's condition on day one, written to be understood by someone who has never set foot in the place — because that is exactly who may end up reading it.
Every room, described properly
Walls, ceilings, flooring, skirtings, doors, windows, blinds, sockets and switches. Condition rather than presence — "light scuff to the left of the radiator" tells an adjudicator something. "Walls: good" tells them nothing.
Time-stamped photography
Wide shots for context, close-ups for anything already marked or worn. Existing wear gets recorded just as carefully as pristine condition — that even-handedness is precisely what makes the report credible on the day it needs to protect you.
The cleanliness standard, stated explicitly
"Returned in the same condition" is a meaningless phrase unless the starting condition is written down. Cleaning is the most common deduction there is, and it's the easiest one to lose on a vague report.
Contents, appliances and their working order
White goods, fixtures, and furniture in furnished lets — logged individually, with whether each item was functioning on the day.
Meter readings and a key count
Gas, electricity and water where metered, plus every key, fob and window key handed over. Key disputes are common, expensive when a lock change is involved, and completely avoidable.
Safety items, tested and logged
Smoke and heat alarms and CO detectors checked on the day, alongside the gas safety record, EICR and EPC issued in the tenant's welcome pack.
Tenant sign-off, with a window to comment
The tenant receives a copy and gets the chance to add their own comments before it's finalised. A report the tenant helped agree is far harder to argue with two years later than one they were simply handed.
Where We Differ
We don't charge you a penny for any of it.
Across the industry it's normal to see inventories billed as an add-on. One charge to produce the check-in report, another to attend the check-out, sometimes scaled by the number of bedrooms. Entirely legal, and entirely common. We just don't agree with it.
If we're managing your property, protecting its condition is the management. Charging you separately to document the thing you've engaged us to look after doesn't sit right. Our full management fee is 10% of rent collected, with no upfront costs, and check-in and check-out sit inside that fee — at the start of the tenancy, at the end of it, and every time a tenant changes.
There's a practical reason as well as a principled one. When an inventory carries a fee, there's a quiet incentive to skip it on a short let or a fast turnaround. That's precisely the tenancy where things go wrong. Removing the charge means it never gets skipped.
Check-out
We walk the property with the tenant — not after them.
Plenty of agents take the keys back, visit the property later, and email the tenant a list of deductions. That approach manufactures disputes. The tenant can't see what's being described, can't explain it, and has every reason to challenge it.
We do it the other way round. The check-out is arranged with the tenant present, and we walk the property together, room by room, with the check-in report open beside us. Each room is compared against how it was recorded the day they moved in. Where something has changed, it gets discussed there and then, while everyone is standing in front of it.
Often the tenant has an explanation that settles it on the spot — a mark that was already logged, a repair reported months ago, a cupboard they haven't cleared yet and will before they hand back the keys. Just as often they accept a point immediately, because it's difficult to dispute a stain you're both looking at.
At the end of the walkround the findings are recorded, agreed out loud, and the tenant signs the check-out report. Meters are read, keys are counted back in, and the tenant leaves with a copy in hand.
That signature is the most useful thing we can ever put in front of an adjudicator. It turns a landlord's claim into an agreed statement of fact. More often, it means the deposit never reaches an adjudicator at all — because by the time we've locked the door, there's nothing left to argue about.
The Outcome
Most deposits come back in full. That's the point, not the flaw.
This is the part landlords are occasionally surprised by. The overwhelming majority of our tenancies end with the entire deposit going back to the tenant — no deductions, no dispute, no adjudication.
It isn't evidence the inventory was wasted effort. It's evidence it worked. Tenants who know the property was documented properly, who were walked round it at the start, and who understand exactly what they'll be measured against at the end, look after the place better. Good record keeping changes behaviour long before it ever settles an argument.
It also matters that we don't chase pennies. Deductions have to be fair and evidenced, and a landlord who claims for ordinary use tends to lose — and to lose credibility on the points that were legitimate.
The Exceptions
When we do claim — and why it holds up.
Some tenancies end with a deduction. When they do, the check-in and check-out reports are what make the claim stick. These are the ones that recur:
- Cleaning below the check-in standard. The most common deduction by a distance — ovens, extractor hoods, bathrooms and carpets.
- Damage beyond fair wear and tear. Burns, large stains, cracked sanitaryware, doors off their hinges, holes in plasterboard.
- Belongings and rubbish left behind. Removal and disposal, including bulky uplift where the council won't take it.
- Unauthorised decoration or alterations. Repainting without consent, wall-mounted TVs, shelving, adhesive hooks that take the paint with them.
- Missing items or keys. Furniture removed from a furnished let, or keys not returned where a lock change becomes necessary.
- Gardens returned in a worse state. Only claimable where the check-in recorded the original condition — which ours does.
- Rent arrears or unpaid charges outstanding at the end of the tenancy.
Worth Knowing
Fair wear and tear, and the three reasons claims fail.
A tenant can't be charged for the ordinary effects of living somewhere. Carpets flatten, paintwork dulls, silicone discolours, hinges loosen. A four-year tenancy will always leave more marks than a one-year tenancy, and adjudicators expect exactly that.
The second principle worth understanding is betterment. You're entitled to be put back where you were — not somewhere better. If a tenant ruins a carpet that was already eight years old, any award reflects the life that carpet had left, not the cost of a brand new one.
Claims tend to fail for one of three reasons: no evidence of the original condition, a demand for new-for-old, or a deduction for something that was only ever age. We'll tell you honestly which of your concerns fall on which side of that line. That advice is worth considerably more than an optimistic claim that collapses at adjudication.
Next Step
Not sure what's actually included in your current agent's fee?
It's worth checking whether you're being charged separately for check-in, check-out, renewals or inspections. If you'd like a second opinion on your statement — or a straight comparison against our 10% full management — send it over. No obligation, and no sales call unless you ask for one.