Scope: England and Wales. Deposit protection and adjudication operate in both; in Wales the tenancy is an occupation contract and the deposit rules sit in the Renting Homes framework — see deposits in Wales. Verified 10 August 2026.
Adjudication is not a negotiation and it is not a court. It is a paper exercise in which the burden is on the landlord to prove the deduction. Most failed claims fail for that reason alone.
The two doctrines that decide most cases
Fair wear and tear
A tenant is not liable for deterioration from reasonable use over the length of their occupancy. Carpet worn along a hallway after three years is wear. Carpet burned through is damage. The longer the tenancy and the more people in the property, the more wear is reasonable — a family of four over four years is expected to leave more marks than one person over six months.
Betterment
You cannot end up better off. If a five-year-old carpet with a two-year remaining life is ruined, you are entitled to the remaining value, not a new carpet. Adjudicators apportion by age and expected life, and a claim for full replacement cost of an old item is the single most common reason an otherwise good claim is reduced.
The same applies to redecoration: a proportion, not a full repaint.
The evidence that wins
- A signed, dated inventory with photographs from the start. This is the whole case. See inventories and condition evidence.
- A check-out report in the same format, so the two can be compared item by item.
- Photographs at both ends, dated, of the same angles.
- Invoices or quotes for the actual work, not estimates you made up.
- The age of the item, so apportionment can be calculated rather than guessed at your expense.
The claims that fail
- Cleaning, with no evidence of the starting standard. The commonest deduction and the commonest loss. Since the Tenant Fees Act 2019 you cannot require professional cleaning as a term; you can charge for returning it to the documented starting condition, which requires you to have documented it.
- Full replacement of old items. See betterment.
- Redecoration after a long tenancy. Usually wear.
- Garden "tidying" where the inventory shows nothing about the garden's starting state.
- Rent arrears claimed without a statement. Have the ledger — see rent arrears step by step.
- Anything at all, if the deposit was never protected. An unprotected deposit is a separate and much larger problem — one to three times the deposit.
Process
Tell the tenant what you propose to deduct and why, itemised, promptly. Return the undisputed portion without waiting — holding the whole deposit over a dispute about part of it reads badly and gains nothing. If it cannot be agreed, the scheme's free adjudication decides it.
Run the free compliance check to keep the rest of the file in order.
Common questions
Can I charge the tenant for professional cleaning?
You cannot require professional cleaning as a term of the tenancy — that is a prohibited payment under the Tenant Fees Act 2019. You can deduct the cost of returning the property to the condition documented at the start, which means you need that documentation. Cleaning claims with no evidence of the starting standard are the commonest deduction and the commonest loss.
Why was my claim for a new carpet reduced?
Betterment. You are entitled to the remaining value of the damaged item, not a replacement that leaves you better off than before. Adjudicators apportion by age and expected life, so a five-year-old carpet with two years of life left is worth two years, not a new carpet. Claiming full replacement cost for an old item is the commonest reason a good claim gets cut.
What is the single most useful piece of evidence?
A signed, dated inventory with photographs taken before the tenant moved in, matched by a check-out report in the same format so the two can be compared item by item. Adjudication is a paper exercise with the burden on the landlord, and without a starting record there is nothing to compare the end state against.