Gather your evidence
Evidence gathered at the start of the tenancy is as important as evidence gathered at the end of the tenancy. The deposit belongs to the tenant until the landlord has successfully proven their position, so the onus is on you to prove you have a legitimate claim to a share of it.
At a minimum, landlords should provide a signed tenancy agreement showing the terms of the tenancy, and signed check-in and check-out inventory reports.
Other evidence that should be provided can vary depending on the type of claim. Here are some examples:
- Signed reports of periodic inspections of the property
- Copies of any correspondence between landlord and tenant
- Invoices/estimates/receipts and quotes
- Statement of the rent account or bank statements
- Date stamped photographs or video recordings
- Witness statements
Read our in depth look at different types of claims and the evidence that may support them.
Submit your evidence
We'll email you when it's time to submit your evidence. You then have 14 days from the date of that email to submit your evidence.
You can view your evidence submission deadline date and a summary of the disputed deductions on the 'Your evidence' page.
Submit your evidence through your online account using our upload service. You can submit up to 40mb of files per upload and as many uploads as you need for each dispute, as long as they're submitted within the 14-day window.
To upload your evidence
Step 1
Log into your DPS account, open the 'View tenancies' page and click 'Submit evidence'.
Step 2
Click 'Upload evidence' and select the files you want to submit
Step 3
In the ‘Additional information to support your claim’ section, add any extra information about your claim you didn’t include when recording your deductions reasons. The field is limited to 1,000 characters. If you need to provide more information, please create a separate document (e.g. .doc or .txt) and upload this with your evidence.
Step 4
Check you're happy with the evidence you're uploading – you can delete evidence at this point, but not after you've submitted it. When you're satisfied with the files you've added, click 'Submit'.
Step 5
If you have more than 40mb of evidence to submit, repeat steps 2-4.
If you have no evidence to submit, tick the box to confirm this and click 'Submit'. You can add an explanation why you have no evidence to submit in the 'Additional information to support your claim' section.
Lastly, you must confirm you haven't included any illegal or offensive imagery in your evidence, accept the legal disclaimer and confirm you're not a robot.
Acceptable file types
You can upload the following file formats:
- Documents: .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf, .pdf, .xls, .xlsx, .csv, .msg
- Images: .jpg, .png, .gif
- Videos: .asf, .wmv, .avi, .mpg, .mov, .mp4