03 · Condition

Check-in, check-out, and the schedule between them

ANobody is obliged to write one, which is the point

No section of the 2016 Act requires a schedule of condition. It is the one document on the file that exists purely because of what happens without it.

At the end of a contract the deposit is the landlord's money only to the extent that a deduction can be evidenced. Without a schedule, the evidence is one person's memory against another's, and the scheme's adjudicator has nothing to weigh.

BThe check-in walk, in the order it is walked

  1. 1

    Meters before anything else

    Electricity, gas where there is a supply, water where it is metered, and the oil tank level by sight gauge. Readings written as digits, with the serial number of each meter.

    Meter sheetPhotographed as well as written. A reading transcribed wrongly is discovered on the first bill, by which time the dial has moved.

  2. 2

    Keys counted and tagged

    Every key, fob and window lock key counted by type, tagged to the property reference, and the count written on the same sheet the contract-holder signs.

    Key scheduleSays how many of each were issued. The check-out count is taken against this line and no other.

  3. 3

    Room by room, in a fixed order

    Entrance, then clockwise through each room from the door. Floor, walls, ceiling, window, fittings. Condition noted in plain words: scuffed, chipped, stained, sound.

    Schedule of conditionThe fixed order is what lets the check-out report be read line against line a year later.

  4. 4

    Alarms tested in front of the contract-holder

    Each smoke alarm and each carbon monoxide alarm pressed and heard, with the position of each written down.

    Alarm test sheetDated the same day as the schedule, because that is the day somebody can say they heard it.

  5. 5

    Photographs, numbered to the lines

    One general photograph of each room and a close photograph of anything the schedule describes as less than sound.

    Photograph setNumbered to the schedule's line numbers. A folder of unlabelled photographs proves the date and nothing else.

CWhat the middle of a contract adds

A mid-term visit is not an inspection of the contract-holder. It looks at the things that change quietly: damp at the foot of a wall, a dripping stop tap, a flue vent painted over, a window that no longer closes onto its seal.

Access for it is arranged under the contract's terms, with at least twenty-four hours' written notice and at a reasonable time of day.

DCheck-out, and reading the two documents side by side

The check-out report is written in the same order and against the same line numbers as the schedule. Where a line has not changed it is marked as unchanged, which is as much a finding as any other.

Fair wear and tear is deducted by the reader, not by the writer. A carpet in a hallway walked on for a year has a year of walking on it; a burn in that carpet does not.

The schedule is also where a repair argument usually begins, because a thing recorded as sound at check-in and reported as broken in March has a date attached to it. The repair record · The statutory items · Back to what is held here