How to write a landlord statement for a deposit dispute

What is the landlord statement for?

It is your case in writing. In a deposit dispute, an adjudicator decides on the papers: nobody visits the property, and there’s no hearing. The deposit belongs to the tenant until you show each deduction is justified, on the balance of probabilities. Your evidence does the showing; the statement tells the adjudicator what each piece proves and where to find it.

The adjudicator won’t ask for anything you leave out. TDS says so plainly in its guide to presenting a case: if information is missing, it isn’t requested.

How should I structure it?

TDS’s guide is the most detailed of the three schemes’ advice, and its structure works for all of them:

1. Group the claim under cleaning, damage, redecoration, gardening, rent arrears and other.
2. List every item within each group, with its own amount, and give a subtotal for each group.
3. Say why you are entitled to each item: which clause of the tenancy agreement it breaks.
4. Point to the evidence: the page of the check-in and check-out reports, the photo numbers, and the time in any video.
5. Show any sum: where you are claiming part of a cost because of the item’s age, show how you worked it out.
6. Say what happens to the rest of the deposit.

mydeposits’ evidence checklist asks for the same thing: a breakdown of each cost with the reason for it, and evidence grouped and labelled by claim. On mydeposits’ insured portal, each deduction is set out as its own settlement item with its evidence attached (conditions of resolution).

What does a good entry look like?

Something like this, for one deduction:

Damage: lounge carpet, cigarette burn, £180. Clause 12 of the tenancy agreement requires the tenant to keep the carpets free of damage beyond fair wear and tear. The check-in report (page 4, photo 7) records the carpet as new and undamaged; the check-out report (page 5, photos 31–32) records a burn by the window. The carpet was 1 year old with an expected life of 10 years; the claim is 9/10 of the £200 replacement quote (exhibit 14).

Every claim in it is checkable, and every piece of evidence has a reference. “See enclosed estimates” isn’t an explanation; this is.

How long can the statement be?

• DPS custodial: the online field (“additional information to support your claim”) takes up to 1,000 characters. Use it for a summary and upload a fuller statement as a document (DPS).
• DPS insured: evidence, including your statement, goes to DPS by email or post (insured terms, clause 16(k)).
• TDS and mydeposits: neither publishes a length limit. Keep it as long as it needs to be and no longer: one entry per deduction.

What should I leave out?

• Opinion and character. Whether the tenant was difficult doesn’t help the adjudicator decide what a stain cost.
• Long email chains. Include a message only where it proves something, such as the tenant agreeing to the inventory, and point to the line that matters.
• “Available on request”. If it isn’t sent, it isn’t considered.
• Anything you wouldn’t want the tenant to read. They see everything you submit.

DPS adds that photos should come with an explanation of what they show, and contractors’ costs should be itemised (DPS).

Is there a quicker way?

Writing each entry by hand, with page and photo references, is the slow part. TenancyVaults reads your reports and photos, numbers every exhibit, and drafts the entry for each deduction from your evidence, in your scheme’s format, for you to check and change before you submit it yourself.