Fair Wear and Tear UK 2026: What Landlords Can (and Can’t) Charge the Deposit For

General information, not legal advice. Deposit adjudication is evidence-driven and fact-specific; on a contested claim, follow your scheme’s process carefully.

“Fair wear and tear” is the single most misunderstood phrase in lettings, and misunderstanding it is why landlords lose deposit disputes. The rule is blunt: you cannot charge the deposit for the ordinary deterioration that comes from normal living. You can charge for damage, neglect or missing items — but only if you can prove the before-and-after.

This guide, for landlords and agents alike, covers where the line actually falls, the betterment principle that catches landlords out, and the evidence that wins — or loses — the adjudication.

What fair wear and tear actually means

Fair wear and tear is the reasonable deterioration of the property and its contents from normal use over the length of the tenancy. Carpets thin in walkways. Paintwork scuffs. Hinges loosen. A tenant who lived there for three years will leave more wear than one who stayed six months, and that is expected — it is priced into the rent, not the deposit.

What it is not: a burn in the carpet, a cracked worktop, mould from never opening a window, a missing appliance, or a garden left a wreck. That is damage or neglect, and that you can claim for — proportionately.

The betterment rule that catches landlords out

The mistake that loses more deposit claims than any other is asking for new-for-old. If a tenant damages an eight-year-old carpet with a ten-year lifespan, you are not entitled to a brand-new carpet at their expense — they owe the remaining value of the old one, which is small.

Adjudicators apply betterment: you cannot end up in a better position than you started. They weigh:

Claim full replacement for a worn item and the whole claim looks unreasonable, which weakens even the parts that were fair.

The evidence that decides it: check-in vs check-out

Every deposit dispute is decided on one question: can you show the condition at the start versus the end? That comes down to a check-in inventory and a check-out report, both with dated, captioned photographs.

Without a proper check-in, adjudicators have no baseline, and the default is to return the deposit to the tenant — because the burden of proof is on the landlord. With a clear check-in, a matching check-out, and photos that show the same spot before and after, a fair claim is straightforward to win. The full system is in the rental inventory and check-in guide, and the scheme differences are in the TDS vs DPS vs mydeposits comparison.

How the claim works in practice

At the end of the tenancy:

A deposit deduction is only ever worth what you can evidence. A reasonable, documented, depreciated claim usually settles; an inflated new-for-old claim usually fails.

For agents: the deposit return is where reputations are made

For a managed property, the end-of-tenancy deposit return is the moment both landlord and tenant judge you. A weak or missing check-in inventory is the most common reason a managed deposit claim collapses, and a tenant who feels unfairly charged is the most likely to complain to a redress scheme. The branches that hold landlord instructions are the ones that do a thorough, photo-evidenced check-in on every tenancy, so the check-out claim — when it is needed — is defensible.

Making the evidence a by-product, not a scramble

The reason fair claims fail is rarely that the landlord was wrong; it is that the evidence was never captured properly. The check-in was a few phone photos, the check-out months later, and nothing lines up.

That is what LetCompliance fixes. Build a photo-rich check-in inventory that the tenant signs in-app, run a check-out report against it at the end, and the whole thing — condition, dated photos, tenant signature — exports as a single deposit dispute pack ready for TDS, DPS or mydeposits. The baseline is captured the day the tenant moves in, so the deposit conversation at the end is evidence-led, not a memory test.

The one-line takeaway

You cannot charge the deposit for fair wear and tear — only for damage, neglect or missing items, and only on a depreciated basis. The check-in inventory is what proves the difference; without it the deposit goes back to the tenant. Capture the baseline on day one and the end is simple.

Start a LetCompliance trial to build signed check-in inventories and a one-click deposit dispute pack, or read the full inventory and check-in guide first.