Guide to wear and tear for buy to let landlords released

14 July 2010

Written by Gavin Elley

One organisation has released a guide for buy to let landlords on what constitutes reasonable wear and tear to a property.

Mydeposits.co.uk, a tenancy deposit protection scheme, has written the document to assist portfolio investors in deciphering when they have the right to withhold the money that was put down on the house by its occupiers.

"Wear and tear is always a hot topic of debate and is very much situation-dependent," Eddie Hooker, chief executive of the firm commented.

"The guide ... is by no means definitive, but hopefully gives landlords some benchmarks and examples to consider when checking out their tenants."

This follows research from the Video Inventory Agency, which found that there were 23,500 disputes over deposits last year, of which only eight per cent were won by portfolio investors.

Communication between landlords and tenants is one of the important factors highlighted in the guide, called Wear & Tear - when is it fair, so that the owner's expectations regarding the final condition of the property can be explained.

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