The Reports2Go App Saves Landlords A Lot Of Time And “Aggro”

If you are a private landlord with a handful of properties, you still need to take inventory in the same way as a letting agent with300 or 400 properties on their books would. It is essential that you note the condition of everything in your properties at check-in and check-out, and of course you need to carry out interim checks to ensure that your tenants are behaving themselves, and to spot any maintenance issues or other faults that need fixing before they get out of hand.

Obviously, you then need to type up your inventory which both you and your tenant sign, and you each have a copy to keep. This is important for you so that if there is damage which has been caused during the tenancy, you can claim for repair or replacement from the tenant’s deposit. It is equally important for the tenant because some unscrupulous landlords will endeavour to charge for fair wear and tear, or for damage that already existed when the tenant moved in.

Our Free App Will Save You Time

Even though you may only have a handful of properties, taking inventory can be time-consuming, so you may be delighted to know that today there is a free inventory app that you can download to your mobile or tablet which will make the process a lot quicker, and also a lot more accurate because it won’t let you miss anything out.

The free inventory app is from Reports2Go and can be downloaded from The App Store or Google Play. Once installed you can then use it in one of two different modes according to your preference.

If you choose to use it in text mode, it is very simple. Instead of making notes with a clipboard and notepad, you just type them into the app on your mobile. As you go, the app will give you prompts so that you don’t miss things out. Now, once you have finished your inventory you then upload the media to your portal on our server at Reports2Go and in a few minutes it will have been automatically generated and ready for you to download.

If you prefer, you can use the app in audio mode. This way, you just dictate your notes into the app. When you have finished, you upload to your portal, and in this case, it will be ready for you to download and type up later. If you don’t want to type it up yourself, you can have one of our staff do it for you for a small fee.

Whichever way you use it, our free app makes your life as a landlord a lot simpler.

The Importance Of Photographs When Taking Inventory

There seems to be a certain amount of confusion in some quarters about the terminology used to describe the recording of a property’s contents, cleanliness, and condition according to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. It says that alternative expressions such as “schedule of condition” are sometimes used.

According to its’ own website, inventory consists of recording the cleanliness and condition of a property with clearly defined description glossaries, accompanied by any fixtures, fittings, contents and decoration, and with relevant meter readings (the ‘inventory’), immediately before the tenancy starts.

Check-in report consists of getting the tenant’s agreement to the report, which is often done by visiting the property with the tenant or alternatively giving the tenant the chance to provide feedback remotely and agree on the contents, usually within a period of 7 days.

The check-out report is recording the condition and cleanliness of the property when the tenancy ends in order to identify what has changed.

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The Tenant Deposit Scheme Has Seen An Increase In Disputes

Over the last few years, landlords and letting agents have seen a sharp increase in the number of disputes since the introduction of the Tenant Deposit Scheme. This has changed in nature from a situation where agreement just couldn’t be reached, to a situation where people are just trying their luck because they have realised that the arbitration process is free.

This works both ways. Some unscrupulous landlords will try to cover fair wear and tear by getting some extra money from the tenant’s deposit, while many tenants will wriggle in order to try and recover the whole of their deposit even though they know that they are in the wrong.

This is why it is more essential than ever to ensure that inventory, check-in, and check-out reports on a property are of sufficient standard that people will think twice about it. One of the best ways to do this is to use one of the apps that landlords and letting agents can download for free to a mobile or tablet. These apps can vary quite considerably, but the aim is the same: to help letting agents and landlords prepare a free condition report which is as accurate as it can be.

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Our Free Property Inventory App will save you a lot of time

Everyone in the world of residential letting agents agrees on the importance of an inventory, but the quality of inventory reports can vary considerably across the industry. The success or otherwise of deposit disputes can be determined largely by the quality of the inventory and the schedule of condition.

It is a fact that tenants today are disputing deposit reductions more and more, as it has become apparent to them that they have nothing to lose by doing so, since disputing it doesn’t cost them anything. If you are a tenant, what’s not to like? This is why accurate inventory is an essential factor in obtaining a fair result for your landlord. Yes, of course, there is such a thing as fair wear and tear, and it is not unknown for landlords to try and represent that as damage caused by the tenant. However, as a letting agent, you want to keep your landlords happy, and the way to do that is to produce an accurate check-in report, interim reports, and check-out report so that everything has been duly noted.

In fact, of course, interim reports are probably a major factor in noting any damage and also fair wear and tear as the tenancy proceeds. An interim report that is properly undertaken will highlight issues as they happens, well before the end of tenancy.

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Free Dictation Software Can Save You A Lot Of Time On Inventory

When you run a business of almost any description there are always the good parts and the parts that are not so good. The ones that are not so good are the things which are “must-do’s” as opposed to the things that you enjoy doing and which make a profit.

In the case of making a living as a letting agent, most people would say that one of the “must-do’s” is taking inventory. It is time-consuming, and the majority of letting agents find it tedious, to say the least, if not downright boring. Yet it is an essential part of the job, and it has to be done correctly in order for ensure fairness to both the landlord and the tenant. Furthermore, as a letting agent you may have to undertake several inventories each week. Obviously, the more clients you have on your books, the more inventories there are that need to be done.

Now, of course, you can get your hands on one of the free apps which you can download to your mobile or tablet and use to help with taking inventory, and there is no doubt that the best of them can save you quite a lot of time. Some of them only allow you to type up your notes as you go, and this is fine if you are quick – as some people are – at typing on something as small as a tablet or mobile. However, a lot of us, especially men who in general have large hands than women, are really not that good at typing on something so small at speed. This is why some of the apps contain free dictation software.

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The Benefits Of Using A Specialist Inventory Clerk Agency

When taking inventory today, many clerks are using an inventory clerk app which you can easily find online. There are lots of them out there. However, the trick is to ensure that you get the right one for your needs because some of the older apps have lots of drop-down menus which are time-consuming and more importantly unnecessary for an experienced inventory clerk who knows what he or she is doing.

Carrying out inventory for a three-bedroom house can take around three and a half hours without using an app and doing it the 20^th century way. Using some of the available apps can cut that down to around two hours. However, if you use one of the later apps that doesn’t rely on lots of drop-down menus it has been shown that some inventory clerks can carry out the inventory in as little as 30 – 45 minutes. Now that is a very big saving of time, and therefore money. This is particularly the case if you are in somewhere like a university town when you have lots of students checking in and out and you need to carry out a lot of inventory in a short space of time. 

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Allowing For Fair Wear And Tear In Inventory

When undertaking inventory as a letting agent, one of the things that you have to take into account is fair wear and tear. If you are like many people doing inventory you may well be using a free inventory report software which makes the process of inventory so much better in many respects. It can help to speed up the whole process, while at the same time ensuring that you don’t overlook anything.

However, one of the things that a free inventory report software can’t do is to allow for fair wear and tear. That is an assessment that has to be undertaken by the inventory clerk and he or she has to use their experience and common sense to assess a range of factors in deciding what is, and what isn’t, fair wear and tear.

One of the first things to consider is the quality of the item being assessed, and that can vary considerably. Obviously, a top-quality item will last a lot longer than a cheaper version. It is also necessary to consider the usual life expectancy of the item. In addition, there is the question of the condition of the item at the start of the tenancy because, for example, it could have been halfway through its’ life expectancy at check in.

The there is the condition at check out. Has the item been subjected to more wear than would be normal? It is also necessary to consider the number of tenants and how many adults and children there are when appropriate. For instance, a carpet will be subject to more fair wear and tear if there are four people in the household than if there are only one or two.

The tenant has a duty to leave the property at the end of the tenancy in the same condition it was in at the beginning, after allowing for fair wear and tear. When considering compensation, fair wear and tear has to be taken into account along with the most appropriate remedy for repair or replacement. It is also essential to ensure that the landlord is no better off materially or financially at the end of the tenancy, having taken those factors into account.