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Deposit disputes rarely come down to who is more confident. They come down to who can prove condition and change with evidence an adjudicator can verify.
MyDeposits is explicit: if photographic or video evidence is not date stamped, an adjudicator cannot verify when it was taken. It also points to best practice such as embedding photos into the inventory and condition report and capturing signatures at the start and end of the tenancy.[1] The NRLA echoes the same fundamentals around date stamping, embedding evidence and tenant sign-off.
The takeaway is simple: if your evidence is easy to question, it will be questioned.
The hidden cost of “good enough” reporting
Most teams lose time and money to disputes because their process produces avoidable gaps:
- Photos are not clearly tied to rooms, items and condition notes
- Reports look different depending on who did the visit
- Sign-off is missing, late or unclear
- Evidence is hard to retrieve quickly when a dispute lands
Even when you are in the right, poorly packaged evidence can make it harder to defend deductions.
What adjudicators want is boring, consistent proof
The standard is not complicated, but it is operationally hard to do consistently without a toolset that supports it. Date stamping, embedded evidence and reliable sign-off are repeatable behaviours when your workflow makes them the default.
How Kaptur turns evidence quality into an everyday workflow
Kaptur’s positioning is built around producing professional, evidence-first reports: guided templates, capture of notes and photos in one go, signatures captured on site and reports syncing to secure cloud storage.
In practice, that changes how disputes play out:
Reports stop looking like a bundle of attachments
When photos and notes are captured as part of a structured reporting workflow, it is easier to understand what you are looking at and why it matters.
Consistency across the team improves defensibility
When the whole team uses the same structure, the same style of reporting and the same evidence approach, check-in and check-out comparisons become clearer and less arguable.
Sign-off becomes part of the job, not a chase
Kaptur signature capture is a built-in capability, which helps reduce the classic “they never agreed to that” argument.
Evidence is still there when you need it
Deposit disputes often arrive weeks after move-out. Shelter’s guidance notes schemes will want evidence such as inventories, photos and messages.[92] Having all reports stored securely and consistently reduces scramble time when you need to respond.
The commercial outcome: fewer disputes, faster resolutions, more capacity
The point of better evidence is not just to win disputes. It is to prevent them. When reports are consistent and professional, fewer cases escalate, fewer arguments drag on and teams spend less time rebuilding timelines.
If your goal is to reduce dispute admin without lowering standards, the simplest shift is moving to one evidence-first reporting workflow for every check-in, inspection and check-out.
[1] MyDeposits, Using photos and videos as evidence https://www.mydeposits.co.uk/content-hub/using-photos-and-videos-as-evidence/ [2] Shelter England, Evidence for a deposit dispute https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/tenancy_deposits/how_to_get_your_deposit_back/evidence_deposit_dispute