Almost half of tenants do not attend a check-out at the end of their tenancy, according to the Deposit Protection Service.
During check-outs landlords or their agents record the condition of the property in comparison to when the tenants arrived, and the DPS recommends that tenants attend.
However, 48% of respondents to the DPS’ recent survey of 8,035 tenants said they had not attended.
Some had not attended out of choice but 46% of those who did not attend said they had either not been invited or were not informed of the date or time.
Julian Foster, DPS managing director, said: “Check-outs are one of the most important stages of any tenancy.
“By viewing the property and discussing its condition together, tenants and landlords can resolve problems quickly and help prevent longer disputes, for instance, over the return of the deposit.
“It’s vital that tenants are enabled to attend – and that tenants go along when invited.”
We always invite tenants to attend as we too believe that it is easier to agree charges if tenants can see the issues we are discussing, however, that does rely on them not taking our findings personally and that seems to be becoming more and more of an issue. Equally, that being said, we have also tightened up the paperwork we send out to them regarding our expectations and have tightened up on following up our visits during the tenancy which means those we are having to charge for anything are fewer than before. We do still find though that those we do need to charge find it an outrage that we would think they have not done a good job because they ‘cleaned it for the last three days’, ‘it was like that when they moved in’ even though the inventory shows otherwise or my favourite that I had recently ‘well it’s not going to be clean to the same level is it? I’ve lived here and that’s wear and tear’. If I had a pound for every excuse….
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Mercifully we find disputes are rare because we bend over backwards to explain what is required and emphasise the need to attend the check out. On the rare occasion where there has been a dispute over cleaning and its been referred to TDS they have been completely unrealistic in their award to the landlord. EG: If a tenant has done a rubbish job of cleaning a kitchen and appliances our cleaners cannot just do a partial clean. TDS don’t take into account Central London labour rates, congestion charge and parking costs (at £5 per hour).
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That’s fine if the agent or landlord are undertaking the checkout themselves, but not when an inventory clerk who has been contracted to do it. Our experience when a tenant is present is that it is a distraction to the process, constant interruptions that I fear might impact on the quality of the report. In any event, it should be with the agent/landlord that discussions should take place, not with an inventory clerk; and that can only take place once the agent/landlord has seen the report.
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Never ever do I carry out my check out in the company of tenants. This is a job that requires my full attention to detail I dont need a tenant over my shoulder. I have to record and photograph every detail then I have to compare with the current inventory, AND, crucially the current catalogue of condition photographs. This can be time consuming and is not easily done at the property. Additionally some tenants will obstruct or try to excuse/ justify.
We are the professionals, make your decision, stand by it, detail it, if they dont like it they can appeal.
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