Tips On Tenancy Deposit Disputes 28: Types Of Evidence

Tip 28: Types of Evidence 

You may see adjudication described as a paper based process, which is slightly misleading because the adjudicators will usually accept evidence in electronic formats, including image files, audio recordings and video clips. What adjudicators do not want to see is physical evidence.

Please do not send in a corner of the living room carpet, so the adjudicator can judge whether it smells of cigarette smoke, a little bag of fluff to demonstrate that area behind the sofa hadn’t been vacuumed, or worse, a selection of the detritus from the student’s bedroom floor. On a practical level, the schemes generally keep files and evidence for a considerable period of time and it isn’t reasonable to expect filing cabinet space to be devoted to dirty carpet. On a personal level, it just isn’t nice to expect someone else to have to sniff something you think smells so bad it has to be replaced.

If you find a dirty area, film it, photograph it, record it however you can. Should you be concerned about smell, or something else that can’t be photographed, you might be best off employing an objective third party, perhaps and inventory agency, to record the condition of a property. 

More on third party evidence next week.

Tom Derrett is the Principal of Deposit Claim, an experienced deposit protection adjudicator and an expert on the Deposit Protection Schemes. Tom helps landlords to claim money through the deposit protection schemes.

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