Property Inventory Software Can Help You As A Landlord

When you rent out a property as a landlord you have one big advantage: you have money coming in regularly every month – or at least you should have. If you have capital invested in the property, or even if you don’t because you inherited it, having a regular income for basically doing nothing is always a good thing. Who wouldn’t want that?

However, it isn’t quite as easy as that. It would be lovely to think that you have money coming in, but there is another side to the coin and that is any problems that occur. For example, there could be a tremendous storm which causes tiles to fall off the roof. Fixing it is your problem, because you own the building. The plumbing could leak: that could be even worse because it could cause damage to the furniture which is actually owned by your tenant. 

Then there is the problem of damages caused to your property by your tenant, either deliberately or as a result of neglect. These are known as dilapidations and are the responsibility of your tenant. However, they can be the subject of considerable disputes. For example, carpets can and do wear out, and that is not a dilapidation but simply wear and tear. You cannot recover money from your tenant’s deposit for fair wear and tear. Equally, you can deduct money from the deposit for dilapidations.

The problem is that when the time for checkout arrives, who decides what is fair wear and tear and what are dilapidations? Unless you do regular inventory checks it can be hard to decide. This is why inventory on check in and checkout is essential, but even more why periodic inventory is vital.

When you do periodic inventory, you can take photographs which show fair wear and tear and also show dilapidations. Today, you can get property inventory software to help with this, and in some cases it is free to download. Using property inventory software will give you a considerable amount of assistance when carrying out checks because it will remind you of certain things to look for and can also help you by taking photographs of items as time goes by.