Property Management Editing and Proofreading Services

A tenant leaves and the agent proposes to keep four hundred pounds of the deposit. The tenant disputes it. An adjudicator, who has never seen the property, will decide the case on paper — and the outcome will turn almost entirely on whether the check-in inventory, the photographs and the deduction letter tell a consistent story about the condition of one carpet.

We edit what letting agents and property managers produce — deposit deduction schedules and their evidence, check-in inventories and check-out reports, condition and photographic documentation, tenancy agreements and their clauses, arrears and payment correspondence, repair reporting and response communications, notices and end-of-tenancy correspondence, landlord reporting and statements, property visit and inspection reports, and compliance documentation for landlords. Our editors work on the deduction that has to survive an adjudicator.

The deposit deduction schedule is where a claim is either evidenced or lost, and its failure is asserting damage rather than demonstrating a change. An adjudicator starts from the position that the deposit belongs to the tenant, and every item has to earn its way out. We work through these so each deduction is presented as four things in order — the condition at check-in with the evidence, the condition at check-out with the evidence, why the difference is beyond fair wear and tear, and how the amount was calculated; so the amount is supported by an invoice or a quotation rather than an estimate, with any betterment deducted, since a five-year-old carpet replaced at full cost is a claim that fails and a proportion of the cost is a claim that works; so fair wear and tear is addressed explicitly for each item with reference to the tenancy's length and the number of occupants, given that this is the ground on which most claims are reduced; so cleaning claims state the standard at check-in rather than a general standard, because a property that was not professionally cleaned before the tenancy cannot require it afterwards; so anything the tenant reported during the tenancy is acknowledged, as an unrepaired reported defect is not damage; so the photographs are dated, located and comparable — the same carpet, the same angle, both dates; and so the letter offers the tenant the chance to agree before the claim is made. Schedules written this way are agreed by tenants more often than they are adjudicated.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including inventories, correspondence and tenant information. We are editors rather than letting agents or adjudicators, and we offer no view on deductions, wear and tear or entitlement. What we can do is make each item show the change rather than assert it.