“That definitely wasn’t there when we moved in.”
It’s a sentence many landlords will recognise.
Perhaps there’s a stain on the carpet.
A mark on the wall.
A scratched worktop.
A tired-looking sofa.
Or a door handle that has finally given up.
At the end of a tenancy, it can be tempting to walk around a property comparing what you see with your memory of how it looked when the tenants first moved in.
The problem?
Memory isn’t evidence.
And when somebody has been living in a home for several years, deciding what represents reasonable wear and what might constitute damage isn’t always as straightforward as it appears.
At Love Your Let, we believe the best time to think about the condition of your rental property isn’t when the tenant hands the keys back.
It’s long before that.
One of the most important starting points for landlords is accepting that a rental property will change over time.
People live there.
They walk across the carpets every day.
They cook in the kitchen.
They use the shower.
They open doors and cupboards.
Furniture gets sat on.
Paintwork gradually acquires marks.
Sunlight causes colours to fade.
None of that automatically means somebody has failed to look after the property.
This is where the principle of fair wear and tear comes in.
Broadly speaking, fair wear and tear describes the reasonable deterioration you'd expect through normal use of a property over time.
The difficult word is reasonable.
Imagine a carpet that was already several years old when the tenancy began.
Three years later, it's more faded, the pile is flattened in busy areas and it generally looks older.
That's hardly surprising.
Now imagine a relatively new carpet with a large permanent stain or burn.
That's a very different situation.
The end result in both cases is a carpet that no longer looks as good as it once did – but how it got there matters.
The same principle applies throughout a rental property.
Light marks on older paintwork aren't necessarily comparable with a large hole in a wall.
A worktop showing gradual signs of use isn't the same as one with a substantial burn.
A sofa becoming softer with age isn't the same as a badly torn cushion.
Assessing condition requires context rather than simply asking whether something looks different.
This is one of the easiest details to forget.
When landlords see damage at the end of a tenancy, the natural reaction can be to think about the cost of replacing the item.
But what was its condition before the tenancy began?
If a carpet was already seven years old, you can't assess a problem as though a brand-new carpet has been damaged.
Likewise, older decoration, furniture, appliances and fixtures will naturally have experienced deterioration before the current tenant even arrived.
This is why landlords shouldn't think in terms of receiving a better or newer replacement at a tenant's expense.
The age, original quality and condition of an item all provide important context.
Time matters too.
The longer somebody lives somewhere, the more evidence of everyday life you'd reasonably expect to see.
Occupancy can also make a difference.
One adult living alone will potentially create a different level of everyday wear from a family occupying the same property for several years.
That doesn't mean families are allowed to damage properties.
Of course not.
It simply means that fair wear and tear can't always be assessed using a universal standard.
The circumstances surrounding the tenancy matter.
This brings us back to that sentence:
“It wasn’t like that before.”
Can you prove it?
A detailed inventory at the beginning of the tenancy creates an objective record of the property at that particular moment.
Not simply:
“Bedroom – carpet in good condition.”
But clear descriptions supported by good-quality photographs showing the actual condition of flooring, walls, fixtures, furniture and other relevant areas.
If a disagreement arises years later, nobody needs to remember whether that scratch was already there.
You can look.
That's considerably more useful.
There's another mistake landlords can make: having excellent records at check-in and then barely seeing the property again until the tenancy ends.
Regular property visits during a tenancy can provide another useful layer of information.
They can highlight maintenance requirements.
They can identify small problems before they become expensive ones.
They can provide reassurance that the property is being appropriately cared for.
And they create opportunities for communication between landlord, managing agent and tenant.
Sometimes what initially looks like tenant damage may actually be a maintenance issue.
A patch on a wall, for example, might be related to an underlying leak rather than anything the tenant has done.
Spotting the difference early can prevent both property damage and unnecessary disagreement.
Accidents happen.
A glass of wine gets knocked over.
Something falls against a wall.
A cupboard door breaks.
The most helpful thing a tenant can usually do is say something.
A small repair might be straightforward if dealt with quickly.
Left for months, the consequences can become more significant.
Creating a relationship where tenants feel comfortable reporting problems can therefore benefit landlords too.
Good property management shouldn't make tenants afraid to tell someone something has gone wrong.
It should encourage early communication so the right action can be taken.
This can cause confusion at check-out too.
An item may be old but clean.
Or relatively new but dirty.
The fact that a property has naturally aged doesn't remove the need for it to be returned at an appropriate standard of cleanliness.
Equally, cleaning can't restore an old fixture, carpet or piece of furniture to the condition it was in years earlier.
Again, the check-in record becomes important.
The fairest comparison is between the condition in which the property was originally provided and the condition in which it has been returned, while allowing for reasonable deterioration over time.
Fair wear and tear is often discussed when a tenancy is ending.
We think that's too late to start thinking about it.
Good rental property management creates a record throughout the tenancy.
It starts with a comprehensive inventory.
It continues with regular property visits.
It relies on maintenance issues being reported and acted upon.
And when the tenancy eventually ends, there's a much clearer picture of what's changed and why.
At Love Your Let, we help landlords manage the whole tenancy rather than simply dealing with problems when they arise.
Because the best way to avoid an argument over whether “it was like that before” is to make sure nobody has to rely on memory in the first place.
Good records. Regular communication. Sensible management.
They can make all the difference when it's time to hand back the keys.