An inspection that produces no written record has achieved almost nothing. Someone walked around, formed an impression, and left. Six months later nobody can say what the property looked like, whether the damp was there, or what was said about the garden. The visit happened and the value evaporated.

The useful part of an inspection isn't the looking. It's the record it produces and the conversation it starts and both of those are cheap once you've already made the trip.

This guide covers how to run one. It's about practice rather than obligations: what notice you must give, and in what circumstances you may enter, depend on your occupation contract and on legislation. For those, check your contract and the Welsh Government's guidance for landlords.

Arranging It

Give more notice than you think you need. A week is comfortable. Whatever the minimum position is for your circumstances, treating a minimum as a target is how relationships get scratchy over something that didn't need to be.

Put the arrangement in writing. Date, rough time, who is coming, and why. "Routine inspection" is enough of a reason and reassures more than saying nothing.

Offer an alternative if the date doesn't work. A refused inspection is usually a diary problem. Offering a second date converts most of them.

Say what you'll be looking at. People assume an inspection is about judging their housekeeping. Saying you're checking the condition of the property, not the tidiness of it, removes most of the anxiety and gets you better access to the places that matter.

What to Actually Look At

The instinct is to look at what's visible. The value is in the things that don't announce themselves — which is the same logic behind the Welsh Government's fitness for human habitation guidance, whose stated aim is prevention rather than remedy after the fact.

Two things are worth more attention than they usually get.

1. Damp and moisture:
   Some damp problems develop gradually, and the early signs can be easy to miss black spotting at window reveals, condensation running on glass in the morning, a musty smell in a room that's otherwise fine. Note what you see and where. What's causing it is a separate question: damp has several possible causes including leaks, penetrating and rising damp, building defects and condensation, and they are not distinguishable by looking at a wall for thirty seconds. Record the observation, then investigate properly rather than deciding at the doorway.

2. Slow leaks:
   Under sinks, behind appliances, at bath seals. They cause more cumulative damage than anything else because nobody notices until the ceiling below marks.

What to Write Down

This is the part that gets skipped, and it's the part that makes the visit worth making.

• Record what was fine, not just what wasn't:
  A note saying the property was in good order in March is genuinely useful evidence when something is found in September. An inspection record that only lists problems tells you nothing about the state of everything else. Records that can be pulled up as a dated sequence rather than a stack of separate documents are what turn a set of visits into a history you can actually read.

• Date it and name who attended.

• Photograph anything you'd want to compare against later:
  Same principle as check-in: wide shot for context, close-up for detail, originals kept rather than pasted copies.

• Note what the contract-holder told you:
  People mention things in passing during an inspection that they'd never put in writing. "Mentioned the back bedroom feels cold" is a lead worth having.

• Separate observation from conclusion:
  What you saw, then what you think it might be, then what you're going to do. Merging the three produces a note that reads as a diagnosis when it was a glance, and diagnoses made at the doorway are hard to walk back later.

• File it with the property:
  Alongside the contract, the inventory and the repair history. Kept together, an inspection record is part of a timeline. Kept in a folder of inspection reports, it's an isolated document nobody will find.

The Conversation That Follows

An inspection generates obligations of its own, in the practical sense that you now know things you didn't know before.

Tell them what you found, in writing, within a few days. Including that everything was fine, if it was. A contract-holder who hears nothing after an inspection assumes either that it didn't matter or that something is being held back.

Say what you're doing about anything you spotted. Even if the answer is "I'm going to have someone look at it properly."

Investigate before you attribute. Where there are signs of damp, the useful next step is finding out what's causing it. Treating it as a ventilation issue before that has been established risks missing a defect and turning a repair conversation into a blame conversation, which helps nobody.

Be specific about anything for them to act on. "Please keep the trickle vents open and use the extractor when showering" is actionable and reasonable to ask. "You need to ventilate better" is a criticism, and it presumes an answer to a question you haven't investigated.

Log anything they reported during the visit the same way you'd log a report that arrived by email. Verbal reports made in person are the most commonly lost of all, because nobody treats them as reports.

Frequency, and When It Stops Being Useful

There's no universally right interval, and the honest answer is that it depends on the property, its age, its condition history and the arrangement you have.

More useful than a fixed schedule:

• Inspect after the first few months of a new contract. It establishes the pattern early, and it catches the problems that only appear once someone is living there.

• Inspect before winter if the property has any history of damp or heating trouble. October tells you things August doesn't.

• Inspect after significant work. Not to check the contractor, but because a repair often reveals a second issue nearby.

• Don't inspect for the sake of the schedule. Visits that produce nothing and communicate nothing train everyone involved to treat them as a formality, which is how the one that mattered gets rushed.

Conclusion

The inspection isn't the point. The record and the follow-up are the point. A visit that produces a dated note, a few photographs, and a message to the contract-holder saying what you found and what happens next has done four things: caught something early, created evidence, shown the property is being looked after, and made the check-out unsurprising. A visit that produces an impression and nothing else has done none of them, and it cost the same afternoon.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How much notice should I give?
What is required depends on the circumstances and your occupation contract. As a matter of practice, a week is comfortable and avoids most access friction.

2. What should I photograph?
Anything you might want to compare against later, particularly windows, ceilings, walls in damp-prone areas and outside elevations. Keep the originals.

3. Should I record things that were fine?
Yes. A dated record showing the property was in good order is useful evidence later, and an inspection note listing only problems tells you nothing about everything else.

4. I've seen signs of damp. What now?
Record what you saw and where, photograph it, and investigate what's causing it. Damp has several possible causes and they aren't distinguishable by eye during a walkthrough, so the inspection identifies the question rather than answering it.

5. Do I need to tell the contract-holder what I found?
Not necessarily as a matter of obligation, but doing so in writing within a few days is the single thing that makes inspections feel collaborative rather than adversarial.

Important Notice

This article applies to Wales only, and it covers inspection practice rather than legal requirements. Housing law is devolved, and Wales operates under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, using occupation contracts and contract-holders rather than tenancies and tenants. Guidance written for England does not apply here.

Nothing in this guide states when you are entitled to enter a dwelling, what notice you must give, or in what circumstances entry is permitted. Nor does it state what repairs are your responsibility, or what causes any particular instance of damp or disrepair. Those depend on your occupation contract, the terms incorporated into it, the condition of the individual property, and legislation that changes. Entering without a proper basis can have serious consequences. Confirm your position using Welsh Government guidance and your occupation contract, and take advice where it matters.

This content is general information only and does not constitute legal advice. RIOO is not a law firm.