Evidence for tenancy deposit disputes

• Your landlord or agent has proposed deductions you disagree with
• You have separate check-in and check-out inventories to compare
• There are photos from different points in the tenancy with no obvious order
• You are about to submit evidence to a deposit protection scheme's adjudication process

• Check-in inventory report
• Check-out inventory report
• Dated photos or videos from move-in and move-out
• Emails or messages about cleaning, damage or repairs during the tenancy
• The tenancy agreement
• Deposit protection scheme correspondence
• Receipts for cleaning or repairs you arranged yourself

Uploads can be PDFs, Word documents, plain text files, photographs and screenshots. Scanned letters and images are read using text recognition, and the page or image each finding came from is recorded.

• Extracts condition notes for each room from both inventories
• Places dated photos into the timeline alongside the inventory dates
• Flags where the check-out report describes damage not mentioned at check-in as pre-existing, or vice versa
• Notes where an inventory item has no corresponding photo, or a photo has no date
• Cites the exact document and page behind each extracted fact

1. 1.A tenant uploads the check-in inventory, the check-out inventory, and photos taken on both dates.
2. 2.TraceFolio extracts the carpet condition notes from each inventory: 'good condition' at check-in and 'stained' at check-out.
3. 3.The report places the two inventory entries and the photos side by side in the Key Facts and Timeline sections.
4. 4.The Missing or Uncertain Information section notes that no photo was supplied showing the carpet at check-in, only a written note.
5. 5.The tenant includes the report as a supporting document when disputing the deduction through the deposit scheme.

• Executive summary comparing check-in and check-out conditions
• Key Facts listing the property, tenancy dates and deposit amount if stated
• Important Dates for inventories, photos and correspondence
• Chronological Timeline of the tenancy's documented condition
• Contradictions and Inconsistencies between check-in and check-out records
• Missing or Uncertain Information, such as undated photos
• Source References for every extracted fact

The report is a downloadable PDF. Every finding points back to the document it came from, and the report carries a verification record so a third party can check that the file they are reading is the one that was produced. See what is in an evidence report for a section-by-section description.

• What each inventory states about the condition of specific rooms or items
• Whether dated photos correspond to the check-in or check-out period
• Discrepancies between the two inventories
• Where deductions relate to items not clearly documented at check-in

• Whether a deduction is fair or proportionate
• Whether damage was caused by the tenant, wear and tear, or something else
• The likely outcome of a deposit scheme adjudication
• Whether photos have been altered

TraceFolio organises and reports on the documents you supply. It is not legal advice, it does not decide who is right, and it cannot confirm that a supplied document is genuine. Where the evidence is silent, the report says so in Missing or Uncertain Information rather than filling the gap.

Your report is visible only to your account. Source documents are deleted 24 hours after processing, while the hashes and the verification record are kept so the report stays checkable. Certification receives cryptographic fingerprints and processing details, never the documents themselves.

The verification page explains in plain language what verification does and does not prove, and security and privacy covers storage, deletion and who processes your data.