01/09/2026
We all enjoyed a really useful BNI Spotlight from Toby Harding of the Property Inventory Company, and it's one of those businesses you don't think about until you desperately need it.
Toby talked us through the difference between an inventory and a schedule of condition, which I'll be honest I'd never properly understood before. An inventory covers everything movable in a property, furniture, curtains, kitchen items, that sort of thing. The schedule of condition goes further and covers the actual fabric of the building, so damp, cracked walls, worn carpets, all of it. He showed us a couple of examples of inventories done properly against ones that were, let's say, a bit thin. A three bedroom house done in three pages with no photographs, compared to a small two bedroom flat his team did that ran to forty pages and around five hundred photographs. Quite a difference.
What stood out was why it matters so much. These reports protect everyone, tenants from unfair claims, landlords from damage that goes unnoticed for years, and letting agents caught in the middle. Toby's approach is thorough over fast, though they still aim to turn reports round by the next working day, which given how last minute some of these requests come in is no small thing.
He also mentioned they've moved to new software that integrates with AI, so everything's tracked properly, when a report was opened, how long it was looked at, whether it's been signed. Nice bit of accountability built into the process.
Twenty two years in the business and it showed. Practical, straightforward, and clearly cares about doing the job properly rather than just ticking a box. Thanks Toby, great session.
