How Landlords Document Fair Wear and Tear vs Damage on the Check-Out File

The check-out file is where a flattened hallway and two iron burns become one line — carpets wrecked, replace £825 — written from Friday memory. The risk is a claim a stranger cannot follow. A stranger needs the matching start words, then age, occupants, tenancy length, and sudden versus gradual. You will run that test, split dirt from condition, refuse a new-for-old lump, and attach a split quote.

Friday. Ruth’s Leeds terrace: keys on the table. The hallway pile is flat. The lounge has two iron burns. She texts “carpets are wrecked, £825 to replace the lot.” The check-in said “generally good, some wear, fraying at bedroom edges.” A family of four lived there four years. The lounge invoice is two years old; the rest have no age. In practice that £825 lump is how a mydeposits case was written — £195 on the lounge burns, £0 on the hallway.

Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.

How do you start from the check-in line, not from memory?

Open the same room and the same item on the start file before you write a claim. Copy the condition words and the start photo reference onto the check-out line. If that start file is silent, write “no start pair — do not claim” and stop. An end photo of a used house is not a claim on its own.

Fair wear and tear is deterioration from age and ordinary use — faded paint, worn pile, a loose handle. A check-in line is the matching room-and-item words from the start file, with a photo if you have one. Do start from that line. Do not write “carpets wrecked” from the Friday walk. TDS: prove original condition first — signed check-in, dated photos, condition words, cleanliness noted.

Typical mistake: opening the camera roll and pricing a new roll from memory. If the start file is silent, do not invent words now — leave the line at £0. How you write that start file is the check-in inventory.

What does the wear-versus-damage test ask on that line?

On that same line, answer five questions a stranger can follow: how old and what quality; how long the tenancy ran; who lived there; what the start line said; and whether the change was gradual or sudden. Gradual ordinary use stays the landlord’s cost. Sudden or negligent change is a damage candidate — still depreciated.

Do write those five on the line. Do not lump hallway flatten and lounge burns as one “damage” row. mydeposits five-point test: age, quality, who lives there, expected life, tenancy length. Older items and longer stays allow more wear. Like-for-like, not an upgrade.

For example, iron burns are sudden; traffic flatten after four years with a family of four is gradual. NRLA: hallway flatten is wear; a red-wine stain or a burn is damage. PropertyMark: sun-fade and minor scuffs are wear; a stain or a scorch is not.

This is not the empty-home walk. Room order lives on the tenancy check-out report. Here you only decide the line.

Check-in line → age / occupants / length / sudden vs gradual → dirt on a cleaning line → remaining-life × like-for-like quote → receipt + split quote → stop

Why is cleanliness not wear?

Wear applies to condition, not to cleaning. Dirt, dust, cobwebs and washable grease sit on a separate cleaning line, compared to the start cleanliness standard. A faded wall is not “dirty”. A dirty hob is not “damage” unless something is broken or burned and the start file showed it clean.

Do write dirt on its own line. Do not call a dusty sill wear, and do not call a faded worktop dirty. Return to the start cleanliness standard, one year or six. DPS treats a full professional clean as betterment when the start already had cleaning defects.

A dirty oven that will wash off is a cleaning quote versus the start cleanliness words. A scorched worktop is a condition line.

Where do you write the betterment working?

Betterment is the rule that the landlord must not end up better off — a new carpet at the tenant’s cost, or a prestige brand instead of the original. Write two lines on the item: age plus expected life, then remaining life times a like-for-like quote. If life is already spent, write £0 and drop the line.

Do write the working on that same check-out line. Do not claim a new-for-old lump. TDS: a ten-year carpet six years old at check-in has four years left — that share, not a new roll. NRLA/TDS lifespan guide (guidance, not a statute): replacement £500, age two years, five-year life, tenant share £300 — not £500.

The file that matches Ruth’s Friday: mydeposits carpet case — disputed £825; lounge £325; award £195 on two-year iron burns; hallway and bedrooms £0 (worn at start, four years, family of four). Claiming 100% is betterment. If stains might clean, say why replacement is needed.

Do repair or clean if replacement is not justified. Lifespan bands are guidance, not a statute table. Do not treat “50% after five years” as a fixed rule.

Which papers make the replacement number auditable?

Put the fit-date invoice or purchase receipt next to the line, and a quote or estimate broken by room or item. Work need not be done. Like-for-like, not an upgrade. One contractor total for every carpet in the house hid the lounge line in the mydeposits case — split it.

Do attach age proof and the split quote. Do not attach a prestige-brand upgrade and call it like-for-like. TDS present-your-case: not new-for-old; estimates are enough; put the landlord only where they would have been if the tenant had complied.

One start/end pair is enough; how to shoot it is inventory photograph standards. Attach the working next to the quote, then stop. Do not label a scheme zip — that is the deposit evidence pack.

One sentence to the tenant: what changed, why it is damage not wear, the working, the attached quote. Do file it with the inspection record.

Success bar: check-in line first; written test; dirt on a cleaning line; no new-for-old lump; receipt plus split quote attached; stop before the walk or the pack. Verify that checklist, then close the line with confidence.

A workspace that keeps the property, the lease, inspections and related records together can hold the start line, the end line, the receipt and the two-line working. IziRento is operations software for that file.