Ready Flatz — A renter's reference for furnished and | readyflatz.com
Forty to eighty dated photographs and a signed room-by-room inventory, taken on day one, are what make a later deduction contestable.
Everything that happens at check-out is decided by what was written down at check-in. A deduction made against a flat with no dated condition file is contested far more often — and when the argument reaches a dispute service, the tenant without records carries the burden of proof.
The photographic pass comes first: 40 to 80 dated photographs, taken room by room before boxes are unpacked. Shoot the things that will be argued about later — existing scuffs and their size, the carpet pile in each room, appliance fronts, inside cupboards, behind furniture, and the meter dials.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
The inventory comes second: a room-by-room list of contents and condition, signed by both parties. In a furnished flat it covers the furniture as well as the fabric of the rooms, so the sofa, the table and the bed all get a documented baseline. Keep your own dated copy; the landlord's copy is not a substitute.
Utilities anchor the file in numbers. Take the meter reading on move-in day itself and submit it to the supplier within 7 days in the UK, or within the current billing cycle elsewhere — the same reading, taken again on move-out day, closes the account cleanly.
Two administrative checks finish day one. The deposit-protection certificate should arrive within 30 days of payment and can be verified on the scheme's register; and the flat's energy rating — A to G, with band E the general minimum in England since 2023 unless an exemption applies — tells you what heating the place will cost. When the tenancy ends, How to Avoid Losing Your Deposit at Check-Out picks up from this file.
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