Landlord inventory template (free, Word or PDF)

A free landlord inventory template for UK lets. Pick the rooms, rate each item’s condition and cleanliness, add the meter readings, keys and alarm check, and download it as an editable Word document or print it as a PDF. It works for whole houses and for single rooms in an HMO, with the shared areas listed separately. No email needed.

Luke AshtonFounder of Bricky Bot and Based Lettings · Updated 21 October 2026

What goes in a landlord inventory

Every good inventory has the same seven parts. The template above builds all of them; the rooms come with their usual items already listed, so you only rate them and add notes.

Inventory and schedule of condition are often spoken of as two documents: the first lists the contents, the second describes their state. Landlords and clerks normally combine them, and so does this template. Describe condition in plain words a stranger could check later: “carpet, beige, two pin-sized marks by the window, photo 14” beats “good”.

How to do the inventory on check-in day

1. Build the list first. Set up the rooms and items here, download the Word file, and take it (or a print) round the property.
2. Clean, then record. If the property has been professionally cleaned, say so: it sets the standard the tenant returns it to.
3. Photograph everything, room by room in the same order as the document, close-ups of any existing marks, and number the photos in the notes.
4. Read the meters and count the keys as you hand them over.
5. Test the alarms. In England the landlord must check each smoke and carbon monoxide alarm is working on the day a new tenancy begins (regulation 4 of the 2015 alarm regulations). The check-in is the natural time, and the inventory is the natural record.
6. Give the tenant time to comment. Seven days is common. Ask for a signed copy back, and keep it with the photos. If they add comments, check them and agree any changes in writing.

A professional inventory clerk does the same job for a fee, which suits landlords who live far away or let several rooms a month. Doing it yourself is fine if you are thorough and consistent; the record matters more than who wrote it.

Inventories in an HMO

• One inventory per room let. Each tenant has their own tenancy, so each gets their own inventory: their room in full, and the shared areas as they were on their move-in day. Our free tenancy agreement template writes the matching agreement per room.
• Shared areas are shared responsibility. When one tenant leaves, a damaged kitchen worktop is rarely theirs alone to pay for. Recording the shared areas at every move-in, with dated photos, at least shows when damage appeared.
• It doubles as your management record. The HMO management regulations require each room and any furniture supplied with it to be in clean condition at the beginning of a person’s occupation (regulation 8), and the shared parts, fixtures and appliances kept in repair (regulation 7). A dated check-in record is evidence you did both.
• Furniture fire labels. Note whether upholstered furniture and mattresses carry their permanent fire safety label (the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, regulation 11 and Schedule 7). The template adds “(fire label)” to those items.
• Turnover. Room lets change hands often, so the inventory gets done often. A tenant moving in mid-month? The pro rata rent calculator works out the first payment.

Check-out, wear and tear, and the deposit

At check-out, walk the same list in the same order and note what has changed. Anything beyond fair wear and tear, such as burns, breakages, missing items or rooms left dirty against a clean check-in, can be a deduction; the ordinary ageing of a home over the tenancy cannot. The longer the tenancy, the more wear is fair.

• The deposit must be protected in a government-approved scheme within 30 days of receiving it, with the prescribed information (Housing Act 2004, section 213).
• Once you agree how much goes back, you must return it within 10 days (GOV.UK).
• If you can’t agree, each scheme has a free dispute service, which decides on both sides’ evidence. The signed inventory and its photos are usually the centre of it.
• Note any damp or mould at check-in, with photos. Our guide to Awaab’s Law for private landlords explains what is coming for hazards like these.

What Bricky Bot does with inventories

Bricky Bot is the HMO management software we built to run our own rooms. It handles the photo side of the inventory; the template above is the written side.

• It builds a photo inventory as a PDF from the photos filed for the house and the room, with your logo, the tenant, the move-in date and a cover page, and keeps every edited version.
• It sends the inventory for e-signature through your own SignWell account (tenant first, then you), with a box for “anything not shown or not right”. It only goes once the tenant has seen the room, and only when a person approves it.
• Move-in and move-out each have a checklist (keys handed over, checkout booked and done, keys back), and deposit deductions are logged by type: cleaning, damage, redecoration, rent. The deposit-return message is drafted for you to approve and send.
• Six-monthly inspections score each area and put today’s photos next to the move-in photos, and tenants’ repair photos from WhatsApp land on the issue. See landlord maintenance software. Between move-ins, our free HMO inspection checklist covers the house rule by rule.

What it doesn’t do yet: a written item-by-item schedule, meter readings, a key count or an alarm-test record. That’s what this template is for. The certificates themselves (gas safety, EICR, alarms servicing) sit in a landlord compliance reporting app; to see whether the report you hand over is still in date, use our free EICR checker.

Questions landlords ask

Sources

• The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015, regulation 4 (as amended from 1 October 2022)
• Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 1 (permitted payments)
• Housing Act 2004, section 213 and GOV.UK: Tenancy deposit protection
• The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006, regulations 7 and 8
• The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988
• Checked 21 October 2026.