"A good inventory practice is central to the successful management of a buy-to-let investment. It’s a landlord’s strongest defence against damage and poor tenant behaviour because it’s a record of proof that the tenant directly agrees to the report by adding their signature"
- Siân Hemming-Metcalfe - Inventory Base
The latest market insight from Inventory Base reveals that landlords are having to pay for damage to their own properties due to lacklustre standards when it comes to primary and secondary inventory inspections.
Previous research by Inventory Base recently revealed that landlords and letting agents are failing to conduct inventory inspections on three in 10 rental properties at the start of a new tenancy. Now, Inventory Base’s most recent survey of almost 1,500 UK renters reveals that a widespread failure to complete secondary inventories - inspections that occur at the end of a tenancy - is resulting in landlords having to cough up to cover repair costs for damage that may well have been caused directly by the tenant.
The survey reveals that secondary inventory inspections are not being carried out for 56% of tenancies.
In fact, only 19% of tenants say they have had an experience where, at the end of their tenancy, a secondary inspection highlighted an issue that was not recorded in the original inventory.
If an end-of-tenancy inspection finds damage that was not present at the time of the first inspection, the landlord is in a good position to claim the repair costs from the tenant - often taken from the security deposit. But this process only works if landlords and letting agents show great due diligence with both the primary and secondary inspections.
In reality, tenants are rarely being charged for property damage. In fact, only 10% of those tenants who say damage was discovered at the end of their tenancy actually had to pay for the repairs themselves.
This means that in 90% of instances, the landlord is having to cough up for property damage that could well be the fault of the tenant. And the reason they’re having to swallow these losses is a lacklustre inventory process.
Siân Hemming-Metcalfe Operations Director at Inventory Base, comments: “Without a proper inventory process in place - one which ensures a high standard of inspections at the start and end of a tenancy - landlords have no idea whether a tenant is lying to them about the cause of damage to their property. And even if they do suspect the tenant is lying, they don’t have a leg to stand on because they failed to conduct a proper inventory inspection. The end result: the landlord has no choice but to foot the bill.
“A good inventory practice is central to the successful management of a buy-to-let investment. It’s a landlord’s strongest defence against damage and poor tenant behaviour because it’s a record of proof that the tenant directly agrees to the report by adding their signature. To fail in doing inventories properly is to accept a huge financial risk, and given the ease and efficiency with which app-based inventories can now be completed, this risk is completely unnecessary.”
