Most deposit deductions that get challenged are reduced or thrown out — usually because the landlord charged the full replacement cost for something that was already part-worn, or charged for wear that was never chargeable in the first place.
Here is what the deposit schemes (TDS, DPS and MyDeposits) actually apply when they adjudicate, in plain English.
A landlord is entitled to be put back in the position they were in at the start of the tenancy — no better. That principle is called betterment, and it is the reason you can rarely be charged the full price of a replacement.
Fair wear and tear is the deterioration you’d expect from ordinary living: carpet flattening in a hallway, paint dulling, hinges loosening, minor scuffs. You cannot be charged for it, no matter how much it costs to put right.
The dividing line is avoidability. Wear that happens simply because someone lived there is not chargeable. Damage that required an act or a lapse — a burn, a tear, a spill left to soak in, a pet scratch — is.
| Situation | Chargeable? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Carpet flattened along a hallway | No | Ordinary traffic wear |
| Iron burn on a bedroom carpet | Yes | Avoidable damage |
| Paint faded near a window | No | Sunlight, not tenant action |
| Scuffs from furniture over 4 years | No | Expected in a normal tenancy |
| Holes from unapproved shelving | Yes | Alteration beyond normal use |
| Oven left greasy at check-out | Yes* | *Only if it was evidenced as clean at check-in |
| Limescale in a hard-water area | No | Environmental, not neglect |
| Mould from a genuine damp defect | No | Landlord’s repairing obligation |
When something is chargeable and needs replacing, the amount is apportioned against the item’s expected lifespan.
A tenant burns a hole in a carpet. The carpet cost £600 to replace. It was one year old when the tenancy began, and the tenancy ran five years. A mid-range carpet has an expected life of about eight years.
So the landlord is entitled to £150, not £600. A demand for the full replacement cost would very likely be reduced on adjudication.
And if the same carpet had been eight years old already, its expected life would be used up entirely — it was due for replacement anyway, so the chargeable amount would be £0.
| Item | Expected life |
|---|---|
| Paint / decoration | 4 years |
| Curtains and blinds | 7 years |
| Carpet | 8 years |
| Mattress | 8 years |
| Fridge, washing machine | 8 years |
| Sofa (fabric) | 10 years |
| Vinyl / laminate flooring | 10 years |
| Oven / hob | 10 years |
| Bed frame | 12 years |
| Kitchen worktop, wardrobes | 15 years |
| Bathroom tiling | 20 years |
These shorten for harder-wearing tenancies — shared houses, student lets, or where pets were permitted.
Cleaning isn’t apportioned. There’s no betterment discount on cleaning, so a reasonable invoiced cost is recoverable in full — but only if the property was evidenced as professionally cleaned at check-in. Without that baseline, a cleaning claim usually fails.
Repairs aren’t apportioned either. Repairing something doesn’t leave the landlord better off, so the full reasonable repair cost can be recovered. That’s often cheaper for you than replacement — it’s worth asking whether a repair is possible.
Adjudicators work from documents, not recollection. A claim generally fails without a check-in record showing the original condition, dated photographs of both ends of the tenancy, a signed inventory, and a receipt or quote for the cost claimed.
Which cuts both ways: if there was no proper check-in inventory, a deduction is very hard to sustain. If there was, and it shows the item in good condition, the claim is strong.
CheckoutProof applies exactly these rules — lifespan, fair wear and betterment — to your own tenancy, and shows the arithmetic so you can put it in writing. First report free for tenants.
Get the appYour deposit must be returned within 10 days of agreeing the amount. If your landlord didn’t protect it in a scheme at all, that’s a separate and more serious matter.