For landlords

What evidence do you need for a tenancy deposit dispute in England?

Guide · about 13 min read · Covers the law as at October 2026 · Reviewed on 23 October 2026

In a tenancy deposit dispute in England, the landlord has to show that each deduction is justified, because the deposit scheme guidance treats the money as the tenant's until a claim is proven. What an adjudicator needs depends on the claim, but the evidence most often relied on is the tenancy agreement or written terms, a check-in inventory with dated photos that the tenant saw or signed, a check-out report that follows the same layout, invoices or quotes for the work, the relevant messages between the two sides, and, for unpaid rent, the rent account.

This guide covers England. It explains how a dispute is resolved, who has to prove what, which documents matter and why, and the timescales the schemes publish. It is written for landlords, and a renter preparing their side can use it the same way.

How is a tenancy deposit dispute resolved in England?

A dispute over a protected deposit can go to the free dispute resolution service run by the scheme that protects it. Section 212 of the Housing Act 2004 requires the government to arrange tenancy deposit schemes that safeguard deposits and help resolve disputes about them. There are three authorised schemes in England: the Deposit Protection Service, mydeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, as listed on the GOV.UK deposit protection pages. Each offers a custodial option, where the scheme holds the money, and an insured option, where the landlord or agent holds it and the scheme insures it.

Schedule 10, paragraph 10 of the same Act says every scheme must provide a way to resolve deposit disputes without going to court. The same paragraph says the scheme must not make using it compulsory. GOV.UK adds that the service is free, that both landlord and tenant have to agree to use it, that both will be asked for evidence, and that the decision is final. The alternative is the county court.

The person who decides is an adjudicator. The Deposit Protection Service describes its adjudicators as legally trained, deciding on the evidence from both sides, and says their decision is final and legally binding. There is no hearing in the ordinary way. The file of documents is the case.

Who has to prove what in a deposit dispute?

The landlord has to prove the claim. The Deposit Protection Service's guidance on the dispute resolution process puts it plainly: "The deposit belongs to the tenant until the landlord provides sufficient evidence to justify a claim." It is therefore for the landlord to show a deduction is justified, not for the tenant to show it is not.

The same scheme's page on common dispute misconceptions sets out the test. The adjudicator has to be persuaded, on the balance of probabilities, that the tenant breached the tenancy agreement and that the landlord has suffered, or is likely to suffer, a financial loss as a result. Adjudicators do not read between the lines. The page also says all the schemes follow the same approach to deciding disputes.

For a renter, that does not mean evidence can be left to the landlord. A tenant's own dated photos, or their written comments on the inventory, are part of what the adjudicator weighs. Both sides submit, and the decision rests on what is in the file.

What evidence does a deposit adjudicator look at?

The Deposit Protection Service says that, at a minimum, a landlord should provide a signed tenancy agreement showing the terms. For a claim about the condition of the property, it adds signed check-in and check-out inventory reports. It also says evidence from the start of a tenancy is as important as evidence from the end, which is the part most often missing.

Section 12 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 inserted section 16D into the Housing Act 1988, in force since 1 May 2026 for assured tenancies other than social housing tenancies. Section 16D requires a landlord of an assured tenancy to give the tenant a written statement of specified terms. It says the statement must be given before the tenancy is entered into, apart from some listed cases. GOV.UK says this written information can be part of a written tenancy agreement or given separately. For a tenancy that began before 1 May 2026 with a written agreement already in place, GOV.UK says the landlord instead had to give the tenant the Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 by 31 May 2026. For a tenancy that began before 1 May 2026 on a spoken agreement only, GOV.UK says the written information had to be given by 31 May 2026.

For a deposit claim, the starting point is the full set of terms the tenant agreed, such as a cleaning or garden clause, wherever those terms are written down. The statutory minimum on its own may not cover every obligation a deduction relies on, so keep the whole agreement, not only the required information. A term also has to be fair to count. Where the Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies to a tenancy, section 62 says an unfair term of a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer.

The table below brings together the types of evidence the Deposit Protection Service and mydeposits list in their published guidance.

Evidence	What it shows	Who usually holds it
Tenancy agreement or written statement of terms	What the tenant agreed to do, for example on cleaning, gardens or pets	Both sides should have a copy
Check-in inventory, signed or acknowledged	The condition and cleanliness of each room and item at the start	Landlord or agent, with a copy to the tenant
Check-out report	The condition at the end, item by item against the check-in	Landlord or agent, with a copy to the tenant
Dated photographs or video	What a room or item looked like on a known date	Either side
Periodic inspection reports	What was seen and recorded on the date of each visit	Landlord or agent
Invoices, receipts, estimates or quotes	What the work cost, and the age or price of an item when new	Landlord
Emails, texts and letters	Repairs reported, access arranged, proposals made and answered	Both sides
Rent account or bank statements	Rent paid and any arrears claimed	Landlord, and the tenant's own bank records
Witness statements	An account from someone who saw the condition or an event	Either side

Send what is relevant to each item in dispute rather than everything you hold. A bank statement can show rent received with unrelated transactions blacked out, and other people's personal details that have nothing to do with the claim can be redacted from messages and photos. Check your scheme's guidance on what it accepts.

Our guide to the documents landlords need before letting a property covers the paperwork that should exist from day one, much of which is the same paperwork a dispute later relies on.

What makes a check-in inventory and check-out report count as evidence?

An inventory is only as useful as it is complete and clearly shared. The mydeposits guide to getting evidence ready for negotiation or resolution describes a check-in inventory as a complete record of the fixtures, fittings and decor, with their condition and cleanliness, before the tenant moves in. It says the written detail should be backed by good quality photos. It says video inventories must be clear and digitally dated, and that it helps to point the adjudicator to the time in the video that relates to each cost claimed.

The same guide says a landlord or agent should be able to show that the tenant saw the inventory, ideally signed it, and received a copy. It says tenants should check it and reply with any amendments soon after moving in. An inventory the tenant never saw carries much less weight than one they had the chance to correct.

For the check-out report, mydeposits says it should use the check-in inventory as its starting point, so the two can be compared line by line. Handwritten changes should be legible, next to the item and dated. Both sides should have a copy, the tenant should have a reasonable time to review it, and any conversation about it should be followed up in writing.

The common thread is being able to show that the tenant received the document and had a fair chance to comment on it.

How do fair wear and tear and betterment affect a deduction?

Even with good evidence, a claim has to be for a fair amount. The Deposit Protection Service's guidance on what makes a reasonable deposit claim says landlords have a duty to act reasonably and not claim more than is needed to make good a loss.

Fair wear and tear is not the tenant's to pay for. The guidance quotes the House of Lords definition: "reasonable use of the premises by the tenant and the ordinary operation of natural forces". The factors it lists are the length of the tenancy, the number and age of the people living there, and the lifespan, quality and condition of the items.

Betterment is the other limit. The guidance says a claim should not be a way to upgrade the property at the tenant's cost. Its examples include charging the full price of a new carpet when the old one was already several years old, or a premium brand when the original was a modest one. The scheme's page on misconceptions says a deposit is not an insurance policy that pays new for old.

This is why age and cost evidence matters. The guidance says adjudicators may want receipts or other evidence of an item's age, or its cost and quality when new. Depending on the evidence, they may award a replacement, a repair or cleaning, or compensation for reduced value or a shortened lifespan. Our guide to whether a landlord can deduct for wear and tear covers this from the renter's side.

How long does a deposit dispute take, and what deadlines apply?

Each scheme sets its own timescales, so the rules on your scheme's website are the ones that apply. The prescribed information given at the start of the tenancy names the scheme. GOV.UK says the deposit must be returned within 10 days of landlord and tenant agreeing how much the tenant gets back. It also says there may be a time limit for raising a dispute, and advises contacting the scheme as soon as possible.

The figures below are taken from each scheme's own pages on 23 October 2026 and are estimates or rules that the scheme can change.

Deposit Protection Service. Its page on how long dispute resolution takes says both sides have 14 calendar days from its email to submit evidence. It then estimates about seven days of assessment before the case goes to an adjudicator, and aims to decide the majority of disputes within 15 days of the adjudicator receiving the case. Its overall estimate is about 44 days to the decision being sent out.
mydeposits, insured scheme. Its dispute process page says the tenant raises a case within three calendar months of moving out, or of the deposit becoming unprotected if that is sooner. It says the landlord has 20 working days from the first notification to provide evidence, and the tenant then has three working days to comment. It says that once the case has been prepared and sent to the adjudicator, a decision is made within 28 calendar days.
mydeposits, custodial scheme. Its page on raising a dispute says resolution can be started within 90 days of the deposit release being started. Its dispute process page says both sides are then asked to confirm their final evidence within five working days. It says evidence is confirmed automatically after five days, and that nothing more can be added once evidence has been confirmed, which can be sooner.
Tenancy Deposit Scheme. It publishes its own rules and timescales, which are on its website.

The practical point for a landlord is that the evidence window is short. Inventories, photos and invoices need to be ready before the dispute starts, not gathered once the scheme asks for them.

What if the deposit was never protected?

Then there is no scheme dispute service to use, because the deposit was never registered with a scheme. The scheme services only cover deposits protected with them, whether the scheme holds the money or insures it. Section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 applies to money deposits taken for an assured tenancy. It requires the landlord to meet the scheme's initial requirements within 30 days of receiving the deposit. It also requires the landlord to give the prescribed information within 30 days, both to the tenant and to anyone who paid the deposit on the tenant's behalf.

Under section 214, the tenant can apply to the county court if either requirement was not met. There are two separate kinds of order. The first deals with the deposit itself. If the tenancy has not ended, section 214 says the court must order the deposit to be repaid to the tenant or paid into a custodial scheme within 14 days. If the tenancy has ended, it says the court may order all or part of the deposit to be repaid within 14 days. The second is a separate award. Where the court is satisfied a requirement was not met, section 214 says it must order the landlord to pay the tenant not less than the amount of the deposit and not more than three times that amount, within 14 days of the order. Our guide to how deposit protection works in England covers protection, the prescribed information and this route in more detail.

How should a renter get evidence ready for a deposit dispute?

Start at move-in. Read the inventory as soon as you receive it, and reply in writing with anything that is wrong or missing, since the mydeposits guidance says tenants should send amendments soon after moving in. Take your own dated photos on the day you move in and again on the day you leave. Keep messages about repairs, and keep a record of rent paid.

Before raising a case, check your scheme's own rules. The mydeposits guidance on raising a dispute says that, for its insured scheme, a tenant must first formally ask for the deposit back, allow 10 calendar days to pass, and show proof of that request. It lists the tenancy agreement, the request for the deposit's return, photos and the check-in and check-out reports among the evidence to upload. Free advice is available from Shelter and Citizens Advice.

Does a lettings platform decide a deposit dispute?

No. The weight given to any document, and the outcome, are for the scheme's adjudicator or the court. VEYLO X is a software platform for renting and letting in England. On it, the landlord writes the tenancy record, VEYLO X keeps it, and the renter sees the same record rather than a separate copy. Access to a shared record is not the same as agreement with it, so receipt, acknowledgement and any corrections still need to be shown in the usual way. VEYLO X takes no part in a dispute.

Common questions

The short answers, in one place.

Who has to prove a deduction from a tenancy deposit in England?

The landlord does. The Deposit Protection Service's published guidance says the deposit belongs to the tenant until the landlord provides enough evidence to justify a claim, so it is for the landlord to show a deduction is justified rather than for the tenant to show it is not. The adjudicator decides on the balance of probabilities, using only the evidence both sides submit. The guidance also says all three schemes follow the same approach.

Do I have to use the deposit scheme's dispute service?

No. Under the Housing Act 2004 every authorised scheme must offer a way to resolve deposit disputes without going to court, but it must not make using it compulsory. GOV.UK says the service is free, that both landlord and tenant have to agree to use it, that both will be asked for evidence, and that the decision is final. The other route is the county court.

How long does a tenant have to raise a deposit dispute?

It depends on the scheme, so check the rules on your scheme's own website. GOV.UK says there may be a time limit and advises contacting the scheme as soon as possible. As one example, mydeposits says a tenant with a deposit in its insured scheme must raise a case within three calendar months of moving out, or of the deposit becoming unprotected if that is sooner. Your prescribed information tells you which scheme protects the deposit.

Can a landlord claim the full cost of replacing a damaged item?

Not automatically. The Deposit Protection Service's guidance says a deposit is not an insurance policy that pays new for old, and that a claim should allow for fair wear and tear and avoid betterment, which means leaving the landlord better off than at the start. An adjudicator may award the cost of a repair or cleaning, or a contribution that reflects the item's age, condition and remaining lifespan, rather than the full price of a new one.

Sources

The primary sources behind this guide. Where the law and a summary disagree, the law is what counts.

This article is general information, not legal advice. It reflects the position in England as at October 2026, and the scheme timescales quoted were taken from each scheme's website on 23 October 2026; schemes can change their rules, so check your own scheme's current guidance. For official guidance, see the GOV.UK tenancy deposit protection pages, and consider free advice from Shelter or Citizens Advice, or a solicitor, for your own situation.

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