Student Deposit Dispute Season

If the weather is anything to go by, summer is upon us already, which can only mean one thing for thousands of landlords up and down the country: student changeover time.

In my, admittedly anecdotal, experience adjudicating deposit disputes, there are three groups of people responsible for significantly more damage to rented property than everyone else put together. They are:

1. Barristers (the shame!)
2. Doctors. I saw a defence from a tenant once that read “I don’t have to clean, I’m a doctor”. They didn’t win.
3. Students. It’s no surprise really. Students have a well deserved reputation for trashing properties and there will be very few student landlords who don’t need to make a claim on any protected deposits this summer, so here is some advice for landlords in the run up to changeover season.

Better Inventories Required

Better Evidence For Landlords

I have been very busy recently getting a new project off the ground which could really change the fortunes of landlords and letting agents in deposit protection disputes. 

The Problem With Inventories

All too often landlords lose deposit disputes simply because their inventory evidence doesn’t show what they need it to show. Inventory clerks tend to focus their attention on any parts of the property that are already damaged, whereas what landlords require is an inventory that shows the property in it’s undamaged condition at the beginning of the tenancy. Only with concrete evidence that the property was in good condition to start with can the landlord show that the tenant is responsible for any change in condition - damage to the property.

Ordinary inventories tend to come with a dozen or so photographs by way of supporting visual evidence. It is simply not possible with a few photographs to categorically demonstrate the condition and cleanliness of every part of every wall, every metre of skirting board, or the inside of every kitchen cupboard. 

A New Inventory

I have been working closely with the Video Inventory Network on their video inventory training course, developing a system that enables inventory clerks to take an average of 60,000 still images per inventory to corroborate their work.