UK Landlord Forum / Life

When a tenant gives notice would you call in before the tenant leaves to check on the property?
Wait until the day they move out or after they have left?
Many thanks.

A Check-Out would ideally be on the day you have the keys handed back to you. A Check-Out would ideally have both Landlord and Tenant present so deductions can be agreed amicably. If you do it after they leave they can claim anything you point out was potentially done after their time there... and you couldn't prove otherwise.

Some people would employ a third-party objective person to do this.

Quote from: Lou on May 07, 2023, 08:49:42 PM
When a tenant gives notice would you call in before the tenant leaves to check on the property?
Wait until the day they move out or after they have left?

Well before the day of departure, I always sent the tenant:

- A copy of the Check-in Condition Report, which they had signed as accurate when they moved in.

- A copy of their Tenancy Agreement.

- A brief, polite, covering email saying that:
  1. I will conduct the Check-out inspection on the check out date at <time>.
  2. The tenant is invited to be present, if they wish.
  3. I will document (photos and description) any differences between the Check-in and Check-out condition.
  4. I will calculate any deposit retention based on the differences in accordance with section <NN> of the Tenancy Agreement, with due allowance for reasonable wear and tear.


This helps set expectations and encourages the tenant to be a little more diligent regarding cleaning etc.

Thank you

Always helps to go round first, informal inspection, find issues that you expect to be rectified by checkout time so it's no surprise at check out time.

I sent the tenant a brief, covering email as suggested by Handyman.
Putting it bluntly the house was a tip!
All floor coverings had to be ripped up. Total redecoration as very room has been painted very badly in shades of dark grey and dark blue.
Would you suggest letting the tenant know you will be making deductions from the rent or just apply the deductions through the Tenancy deposit scheme and have nothing more to do with the tenant.
The tenant was not around on the day they said they were vacating put messaged to say they had left it clean and tidy!!
Thank you in advance for your advice.

Quote from: Lou on May 28, 2023, 06:09:09 AM
Would you suggest letting the tenant know you will be making deductions from the rent or just apply the deductions through the Tenancy deposit scheme and have nothing more to do with the tenant.

The tenant was not around on the day they said they were vacating...

Sorry to hear about the state of your property.

Has the tenant vacated now? Returned the keys?

Has the tenancy legally ended? Did they vacate on the date stated in their notice and to which you agreed?

In what sense do you mean "making deductions from the rent"? Do you have advance rent that you believe you should be refunding to the tenant?

Will the full deposit amount cover all the damage?

Did you take clear photos of the damage?

The tenant as vacated and returned the keys on the date they stated. Although they had already left and was not there on the morning stated.
There is a months rent deposit. Total redecoration would be more than the months deposit so in my mind the tenants deposit would not be released to them.
Photos have been taken.
Many thanks.

How long had the tenant lived there?

Jpkeates
5 years

If you're making the claim through the deposit protection scheme, your deposit claim is for your loss beyond fair wear and tear, not the cost of rectification, so you need to allow for that five years of use.

It's possible the tenant will just put their hands up, knowing they left the place a tip, but if they don't, it's important that you process the claim "properly", otherwise you can find you claim being rejected or reduced substantially on a technicality. Landlords with perfectly sensible looking claims can get knocked back because of how they're presented.

The tenant has painted the whole of the house very badly without permission.
We are redecorating throughout so would be looking to recover the costs.

Quote from: Lou on May 30, 2023, 04:19:24 PM
We are redecorating throughout so would be looking to recover the costs.

You are not entitled to recover the costs of redecorating, if by "the costs" you mean the full costs of doing the work.

After 5 years of reasonable wear and tear while renting out (or longer if the house was not newly decorated throughout at the start of the tenancy) you could expect to have to do a degree of redecoration anyway.

You can only claim the additional costs incurred beyond what it would have cost to deal with wear and tear redecoration.

Likewise, the floor coverings that you said had to be ripped up. Depending on their quality, flooring coverings have a finite life. You will only be able to claim a percentage of the costs of replacement depending on the length of time they have been in place.

I agree.

If you make the claim properly, you'll probably get some of your money back (and you'll have a newly decorated and carpeted property and won't have those costs again for another few years).
If you try and simply claim the cost of redecoration and carpets and the tenant doesn't want to pay all of that (and there's nothing in it for them), the deposit scheme will deduct a huge proportion of the claim because the claim is wrongly expressed.
And a tenant is going to find it less easy to dispute a properly costed and worked out calculation.