A landlord told me he lost part of a deposit claim because his move-in photos were all wide shots. The tenant said the oven and a carpet patch were already damaged, and he had nothing close-up to prove otherwise. Now he takes close-ups of the oven, carpets and wall corners and gets the tenant to initial the dated set.
Has something like this happened to you? What’s the one detail you now always record at move-in, and how do you get the tenant to agree to it?
I generally take about 150 inventory photos, including both wide and close-up. The real issue is how to record their agreement with the tenant at check-in against a set of photos that can’t later be altered by one or both parties. I used to put them on a CD Rom that couldn’t be altered and we would both sign the face of the disk. This is not really an option now, so landlords have little choice but to use third party sites to administer the images.
You generally stand at the room entrance and take a wide angled overview shot of the whole room. Then take a couple of wide angled shots of a wall from different angles. Then zoom in on any fittings skirting boards, doors, windows, light switches, power sockets etc on that same wall. Repeat for all four walls, ceiling and floor.
The kitchen area will require the most shots. Take pictures of all the cupboards and draw units with doors and draws closed and then the inside of each cupboard and draw. Departing tenants often neglect to clean the oven and extractor so make sure you can evidence the condition of the inside of the oven, under the extractor and the inside of the fridge/freezer for any potential claims for cleaning against their deposit.
Best!
@David122 @Christopher32 Thanks, both are really helpful. David, which third-party sites do people use now instead of the signed CD, and does the tenant actually sign off on them? Christopher, with that many shots per room, how long does a full check-in take you, and how do you find the right photo later if there’s a dispute?
I use smarterinventories.com which is inexpensive at less than £5:00 each with the first one being free so you can trial it. The inventory will take approximately 1.5 - 2 hours to complete. This is done prior to check-in. At check-in you capture the meter readings, test the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and add them to the inventory. Email inventory to the tenants. The software has the facility to digitally sign to confirm receipt and then they are given 10 days to agree it or request amendments. If no response after 10 days it will be assumed that the inventory is agreed. The software automatically files the photos to the rooms they were taken, kitchen, lounge etc so easy to locate.
Best!
@Christopher32 Thanks, that’s a really clear process. At check-out, do you do a new inventory in the same software and compare it side by side, or work from the original one? And is 1.5–2 hours mostly the photos, or the written descriptions?
I suppose you could do either. I haven’t had the need to do a checkout yet. The last person that left were good tenants, there was no obvious damage so I returned the deposit in full. The time it takes is for the complete inventory.
The thing that’s saved me most is getting the photos acknowledged at the time, not just taking them.
At check-in I email the full set (wide shots plus close-ups of oven, hob, carpets, wall corners, bathroom sealant, windows) to the tenant the same day and ask them to reply confirming or flagging anything within 7 days. That email is dated, can’t be edited, and the tenant has had a fair chance to dispute it, which is exactly what the deposit schemes look for.
A slow video walkthrough with meter readings at the end also helps, as does doing the same at check-out from the same angles.
Seems fair enough, and as expected.
I use Inventory Hive combined with a Theta 360 degree camera. A 360 degree shot of every room, and normally well over 100 other photos of the property & its decor etc.
Like Smart inventories, the tenant digitally acknowledges receipt of this before move in & has 7 days to query.
Undisputable.