When the deposit dispute lands, will your paperwork win?

Section 21 died on 1 May 2026. That changed everything.

Under the old rules, landlords could evict with notice alone. Now you need Section 8 evidence, and that evidence is built from your documentation: the check-in inventory, the clean standard, the check-out record. A poor inventory at the start of the tenancy can lose you a possession claim that should have been won.

Cleaning disputes alone account for 54% of all UK deposit adjudications.

You already know to get an inventory. The problem is how it's checked.

Most landlords commission an inventory at check-in and never think about it again. Then six months later, a cleaning dispute lands at TDS or DPS and suddenly that inventory becomes evidence. If it's vague, undated, or doesn't match what the tenant saw, you lose deductions you should have won.

You shouldn't have to check the clerk's work.

In reality, many landlords do. You go through the report to make sure the brand-new blinds are recorded, that the freshly painted walls say "no marks", that the mattress protector you supplied, still in its packaging, is on there. Because if it isn't recorded at check-in, you can't claim for it at check-out. A good clerk gets it right first time. A good report doesn't need a second pass.

Clear, concise, factual. No padding.

A lot of inventory reports bury the facts in words. Ours don't. Straight points, consistent format, and only what you need to know. Less time reading, less back and forth clarifying what something means, and a stronger document if it's ever tested.

One standard. One team. No gaps.

Most of the market runs cleaning and inventory as separate businesses. Lynch runs both to a single published standard, with the same team. The cleaner knows what the inventory clerk will check for. The clerk knows what the clean is supposed to deliver. No "well, the cleaner didn't touch that." Same list. Same people. Same accountability.

The consistency that protects you across years

If you have multiple properties or tenancies, consistency matters. One year a pristine check-in, the next a lower bar. Tenants notice. Disputes surface. Lynch's advantage compounds over time. Your portfolio runs to the same baseline across every turnover.

At the end of the tenancy, your tenant chooses the cleaner. Make it an easy choice.

Your tenant doesn't have to use your contractor, and we'd never suggest forcing it. But there's a practical problem with a cleaner nobody knows: once the tenancy ends, the tenant has no access to the property. If anything needs putting right, you're arranging access for a company you've never met, or it simply doesn't get fixed. If Lynch did the clean, we go back in and sort it. Keys, access, coordination, handled.

Recommend us to your tenant at the end of the tenancy. Whether they use us is up to them. If they do, any issue that comes up afterwards is ours to fix, not yours to manage.

Book the check-out, and we'll make sure it actually happens.

A surprising number of check-outs fail because the tenant didn't know they had to be out. The appointment is still chargeable, the report is delayed, your new tenant or your works are suddenly waiting on a rebooked slot, and if works start before the check-out is done, the report can be compromised. When you book a check-out with Lynch, we coordinate the handover with the tenant directly and confirm in writing that they know when to vacate. If it still goes wrong, the record shows where the responsibility sits.