How to document a rental so you actually get your deposit back

The argument about a deposit never happens when you move in. It happens one to five years later, when you move out, and by then the only thing that settles it is evidence with a date on it. The tenant who spent ten minutes with a camera on day one wins that argument. The tenant who did not, usually pays.

What landlords actually deduct for

Deposit deductions cluster around a small number of things:

• Marks on walls — scuffs, picture hooks, and the question of who made them
• Flooring — scratches, stains, worn patches near doors
• Kitchen and bathroom — limescale, seals, chipped worktops, oven condition
• Fixtures — blinds, handles, a cracked socket cover nobody noticed
• Cleaning — the single most common deduction, and the most arguable

Almost all of these come down to one question: was it already like that? Fair wear and tear is not deductible in most jurisdictions. Damage is. Without dated evidence, that distinction collapses into whoever sounds more confident.

What good evidence looks like

Photographs are only useful if they answer three questions:

1. When were they taken? A photo with no date proves nothing about the state of the flat at handover. 2. Where in the property? A close-up of a scratch is meaningless without a wider shot placing it in a room. 3. Is it complete? A record with three rooms photographed and two skipped invites the obvious question about the two.

The practical version: for each room, take one wide shot from the doorway, then close-ups of anything already damaged. Include the meter readings and the inside of the oven — the two things most often disputed and least often photographed.

The move-out half

The move-in record is worth much more when there is a matching move-out record. Same rooms, same angles, same order. Two sets that line up turn a subjective argument into a comparison, and a comparison is something an arbitrator or a small-claims process can actually rule on.

Do the move-out photos after cleaning and before handing back the keys. Photos taken with your boxes still in the hallway prove nothing about the state of the floor.

Send it, and keep proof you sent it

Whatever you produce, send it to the landlord or agency at the time — not at move-out. An email with the record attached, dated at handover, is far stronger than the same photos produced years later, because it shows the landlord had the chance to disagree and did not.

What RoomProof does

RoomProof turns that whole routine into a checklist. A room-by-room structure so nothing gets skipped, timestamps on every photo, and an export that assembles the lot into one PDF — a single document you can email, rather than two hundred loose images in a camera roll that nobody will open.

It handles both halves: the move-in record and the move-out record, so you can put them side by side when it matters.

Photos stay on your device. There is no account and nothing is uploaded to anyone's server, including ours.

Download on the App Store