The age old problem between tenants leaving a property and the landlord is deciding who is responsible for -  and pays for – any damage.

The main reason the rows erupt is because landlords and many letting agents do not draw up adequate inventories to prove their case before a tribunal.

Under the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, owners wanting to claim money from their tenants’ deposits now have to prove that the damage has been caused.

This means every tenancy agreement should now be accompanied by a property inventory.

If you’re a landlord and you don’t keep an accurate rental inventory for your property, you’ll find it difficult to justify deductions to a tenant’s deposit at the end of the tenancy agreement.

The end is result is the deposit will have to be returned and the landlord forks out the cost of repairs.

By investing in a cheap but good quality compact digital camera and an inventory template, every landlord should be able to protect their cash flow by proving ‘whodunnit’ when a wear and tear or damage is caused by a tenant.

Property Investment Expert has teamed up with leading legal publisher Lawpack to offer a property inventory kit that includes:

• Clear instructions on what needs to be included in the rental inventory
• How to correctly perform a ‘check-in’ and ‘check-out’ for your property inventory
• How to calculate damage costs at the end of your tenancy agreement
• A complete walk-through of the property inventory creation
• A rental inventory template document on which to base your property inventory

Preparing an inventory could not be simpler – just input the details, print off the inventory and take some good, clear close up images as you tour with the property as the tenant moves in.

Don’t forget to cut out some ‘L-shaped’ scale rulers just like the ones crime scenes investigators use on the TV to show the size of scuffs and marks.

It’s also useful to take a little blu-tac as well in case you need to hold the scale vertical while taking a shot.

Basic computer requirements for the property inventory kit are:

• Microsoft Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP or Vista
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Microsoft Word or compatible word processing package

Note – the inventory kit is for England and Wales

Out of hours calls to sort out maintenance problems increase with the number of properties a landlord owns and how many tenants live in them.

Handling the problems effectively solves two issues – keeping the tenant satisfied and making sure a property suffers the least damage possible in an emergency.

Experienced landlords will have a plan for handling maintenance, but less experienced landlords may find a 999 approach to dealing with incidents as they happen expensive.

Like most things, having a plan is the best way to deal with maintenance.

Conduct a regular safety and maintenance inspection – at least once a year

Look at the roof, chimneys, gutters, fences, window frames, plumbing and white goods to make sure they are in a good condition.

It’s a good idea to have a list to check off what work may be required and to note whether any aspect of the property may need attention in the near future.

• Dripping gutters can lead to mould and damp on inside walls.
• Broken fences are expensive to replace and reduce security.
• Window frames can suffer from rot.
• Bolts, locks and handles take a lot of wear and tear.

Rental properties seem to suffer an inordinate amount of emergency repairs compared with a landlord’s home.

You need plumbers, electricians, gas engineers and handymen with the tools and experience to deal with repairs.

Always assess the problem and take the action required to make sure the tenants are safe and the property is protected as far as possible from further damage. arranging for the tradesman to come back the next day is generally cheaper than paying extortionate call out rates.

The most common problems involve plumbing, drains and boilers.

Don’t always fork out for expensive repairs straight away. Tenants are notorious for blocking drains and then reporting a ‘problem’. Make clear that if the blockage is found to be the tenant’s fault that they will get the bill before the work is done, if possible.

Condensation is another regular issue. Tenants often dry clothes on radiators and seem to have regular steam baths without ventilating the rooms.

Unsurprisingly, this causes condensation that leads to mould.

Prevention is often better than cure, so leave written instructions about how to stop condensation with tenants when they move in and make sure they sign the handover agreeing no damp exists.

A massive 97% of landlords want the government to change rules about paying housing allowance direct to tenants, according to a poll by the Residential Landlords’ Association (RLA).

They also want tenants to have their local housing allowance (LHA) paid direct to their landlord.

Landlords are telling the RLA that tenants are racking up rent arrears because they are keeping the housing allowance payments that should go towards rent.

One landlord told the survey: ‘My last tenants never handed over a penny in rent. They finally left owing me over £2,000. I will never deal with such tenants, housing benefit officials or rent assessment officers again.’

Of the landlords surveyed by the RLA, 90% let to tenants paid housing allowance and 97% of them want a change in housing allowance rules, and of the 81%t who have requested direct payment in the past, 70% were owed more than eight weeks rent arrears.

“Nearly half of all landlords letting to LHA claimants are not prepared to carry on doing so,” said RLA chairman, Alan Ward. “They just don’t have the appetite for it any longer because they have been let down so often by the allowance payment system.”

The RLA has members with more than 100,000 letting properties throughout the UK – has campaigned against this change since the government first began to trial it in 2003.

Landlords prefer direct payment because it speeds up the rent collection process from claimant tenants who have poor payment histories, or debt problems, and are frequently more than two months behind with their rent.

They would like the government to

• Revise its policy of paying direct to claimants

• Make payments in advance rather than arrears

• Or at least automatically revert to direct payment after tenants have fallen into one month’s arrears

Many landlords are planning to withdraw their properties from this market – because it is too risky and they can’t guarantee that rent will ever be received.

“The LHA sector has become a problem to landlords and that is bad for tenants too,” said Alan Ward.

“Landlords lose tenants, tenants lose homes, and the government loses a very useful stock of low cost housing … all because they want to put allowance claimants on trust to manage their own financial affairs.

“But these are often vulnerable people who usually need all the help they can get to manage the pound in their pocket. What they don’t need is the added responsibility, or temptation, to spend it on something else.”

Tracking down tenants who have skipped without paying rent is a problem for landlords, but getting money back is made easier by asking for some simple information when a tenant moves in.

Many landlords fail to ask for the right information from new tenants when they move in – instead they try and find them with insufficient details when they have run off without paying their bills.

Key data you need  for tracing someone besides their name is:

• Mobile phone numbers – these rarely change

• Parents address and contact number

• Tenant’s date of birth and middle names

• Any partner’s name and mobile number

• Previous addresses

Once a tenant has moved, credit search and official databases can take some time to catch up.

If they have a catalogue or other unsecured credit, the likelihood is they are in arrears as well, but you can bet with some certainty that the mobile phone number has not changed.

Having several contact points – like the mobile, email, parents and partners gives you or a tracing service more chances of finding the tenant and getting some money back.

Most tenants are happy to give out this information when they move in, because few plan to build up debts or arrears.

Having this information also helps with serving court documents if you are looking to enforce a county court judgment.

A tenant with bipolar disorder lost an appeal claiming not allowing her dog to live with her in a rented flat despite a ‘no dogs’ clause in her letting agreement was discrimination under the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Drum Housing Association told Dee Thomas-Ashley that her dog, Alfie, would have to leave because dogs were not allowed under the terms of the assured shorthold tenancy for her single bedroom flat at Itchen Court, Crombie Close, Lovedean, Hampshire.

Southampton County Court heard that the flat tenancy agreement clearly stated that the dog was not allowed and that the landlords had followed the correct procedure in issuing a Section 21 notice against Ms Thomas-Ashley that ended up in the landlord gaining a possession order.

Presiding, Judge Murphy explained that he agreed with the case Lewisham LBC v Malcolm [2008] 3 WLR 194, [2008] UKHL 43 which pointed out that there was much to be said as a matter of general policy for the view that the court should lean in favour of an interpretation that assists the beneficiaries of anti-discrimination legislation but that the legitimate interests of those whose common law rights are affected by the legislation have also to be borne in mind.

“While one inevitably has sympathy for the predicament in which the appellant finds herself this is not a case where the interpretation of the legislation can be stretched in order to assist her,” said the judge. “Its meaning is clear. In my judgment the appellant fails on the facts both to show that the “no animals” term discriminated against her on the grounds of her disability and that if it did there was nothing the respondents could reasonably have done about it. The “no animals” provision was in the appellant’s tenancy agreement and the head lease for a purpose.

“The argument means that the appellant’s bipolar disorder effectively trumps her contractual agreement with the respondents and the respondents’ agreement with the head lessor as well as the interests of the other occupiers of Itchen Court. I cannot accept that on the facts that this is so.”

Click here for full details of the case

Letting agents Corporate Homes are seeking nominations from tenants for the 2010 Best Landlord Awards.

The winning landlord will win a luxury weekend away for two and the nominating tenant will pick up a games console or flat screen TV.

Entries can be made at the firm’s web site.

The final date to nominate landlords is on the May 15, with voting open until July 15.  The winner will be announced on July 19.