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Tenancy Agreement 33 days of tips – Day 15 – Inventories

April 19, 2017 by Tessa Shepperson

day15What is an inventory?

An inventory (or should be),  a detailed description of the property contents and its condition at the time it is let to a tenant.

Its purpose is to help prove the landlords’ case should they wish to make any deductions from the deposit when the tenancy ends.

It should, therefore, state not only that an item is present in the property, but also its physical condition, in particular, if there are any scratches or if it is damaged in any other way. Perhaps a better name for it is a statement of condition.

It should cover not only items in the property but also the condition of the property itself.  Such as walls, windows, doors, light fittings etc.  After all, if the walls are marked or the window panes are cracked when the tenant departs, the landlord will want to claim against the deposit so these matters can be rectified.

If they are not covered by the inventory it is going to be difficult for the landlord to refute any claims by the tenant (for example) that damage had already been done when he moved in at the start of the tenancy and so he is not liable for the cost of replacement or repair.

As the whole point of the inventory is to prove the condition of the property at the start  in the event of a dispute at the end, efforts should be made to make it as comprehensive as possible.  After all, you have no idea what items are going to be in issue later.

Photographs with the inventory

It may also be helpful to have photographs, especially of particularly valuable items (although it is arguable that valuable items should not be left in a rented property at all, except perhaps a very high value one).

However, you need to be careful with photographs.  Many arbitrators say that they are frequently useless.  If you use photographs, they should:

  • Be sharp and clear i.e. not out of focus
  • Have something to show the scale (i.e. a ruler next to a scratch on furniture)
  • Be taken with a camera which date stamps the pictures
  • Be signed by both parties and dated, to prove that they relate to the property concerned.  After all a picture just of a table could be anywhere.

It is very easy nowadays to forge photographs, so you need to be able to prove that these photos are genuine pictures which show the condition of the property and its contents at the time of check-in.

Note that there are now services which allow you to create a detailed inventory using your mobile phone to record both photographs and a verbal description of the property, which can save a lot of time.

Sometimes a video is also taken, particularly of high-value properties, in which case the same principles discussed above will apply.

Using a professional inventory clerk

It is becoming increasingly common, particularly where the landlord is managing his own properties, to use a professional inventory clerk.  There are two advantages to this.

  • The first is that inventory clerks do this work all the time, and therefore they probably do a much better job than a landlord who might only do it once a year.
  • The second is that the evidence of an inventory clerk in a tenancy deposit arbitration is more likely to be accepted by the adjudicator, as they will be considered more independent than the landlord.  Particularly as in most cases, the tenant will have paid part of the fee.

It is therefore often a good idea for a landlord to use an inventory clerk for this work (you can often find one via the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks).

Inventory fee charges

Although there will be a charge, this is often shared with the tenant as it is also for the tenants benefit to have an accurate record plus, as mentioned above, it means that the report is more likely to be accepted as independent.

Provided the landlord and tenant share the costs evenly, this is generally considered fair under the Unfair Terms Regulations.  For example tenancy agreements often provide for the check-in to be paid for by the landlord and the checkout to be paid for by the tenant, or vice versa.  Although note that it is possible that this will be disallowed if the government’s plan to ban fees to tenants comes into force.

Inventories and your tenancy agreement

If you use an inventory it is good practice to refer to it in the tenancy agreement.  The tenancy agreement can also usefully state give a deadline for reporting errors in the inventory – which should be by reference to the date when the inventory was provided to the tenant.

There should be two original copies of the inventory, one for the tenant and one for the landlord, and they should be kept carefully with the tenancy agreement.

 

Landlord Law Tenancy AgreementsNB Find out more about my Tenancy Agreement Service on Landlord Law.

click-here

 

NB IF you are interested in Tom Derritts book on tenancy deposit disputs, you can find out more here.

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Filed Under: Tips and How to Tagged With: Tenancy Agreement 33 days

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IMPORTANT: Please check the date of the post above - remember, if it is an old post, the law may have changed since it was written.

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About Tessa Shepperson

Tessa is a specialist landlord & tenant solicitor and the creator of this site! She is a director of Landlord Law Services which now hosts Landlord Law and other services for landlords and property professionals.

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Comments

  1. Romain says

    April 20, 2017 at 4:09 PM

    The landlord may pass the cost of both check in and check out to the tenant. Nothing, including consumer protection regulations, says that this must be shared.

    I would also think that, anyway, the clerk’s fee isn’t really shared if, say, the landlord pays for the check-in and the tenant for the check-out.

    The tenant has also usually no say as to whom the landlord will hire. A clerk is supposed to be independent as part of her very profession.

If you rent property - you need a tenancy agreement!

The 33 days of Tips

Tenancy Agreements Tips During 2017 I published a weekly series of tips on tenancy agreements.

You will find an index here, along with other tenancy agreement related resources.

Index

  • Day 1: Introduction
  • Day 2: Why use one?
  • Day 3: Tenancy or license?
  • Day 4: Tenancy types
  • Day 5: Shared houses
  • Day 6: Right to Rent
  • Day 7: Parties
  • Day 8: Addresses
  • Day 9: Guarantees
  • Day 10: Letting agents
  • Day 11: The Property
  • Day 12: Rent
  • Day 13: The Term
  • Day 14: The Deposit
  • Day 15: Inventories
  • Day 16: Unfair terms (1)
  • Day 17: Unfair terms (2)
  • Day 18: Bills
  • Day 19: Penalty Clauses
  • Day 20: Business use
  • Day 21: Repairs
  • Day 22: Insurance
  • Day 23: Notices
  • Day 24: Inspections
  • Day 25: Ending
  • Day 26: Assignment
  • Day 27: Left items
  • Day 28: Student lets
  • Day 29: Pets
  • Day 30: Preparation
  • Day 31: Renewals
  • Day 32: Reviews
  • Day 33: Finding

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