No. 17 The Ardenholt RegisterIn the press for 2026Home & Family Est. MMXXVI

Photograph it on the first day.

A guided move-in and move-out walkthrough that timestamps every room, captures the damage that was already there, and produces a dated PDF a landlord cannot argue with. Built for the single most winnable dispute in renting.

The deposit is not lost at move-out. It is lost on the day you take the keys and photograph nothing, because a year later the burn in the counter and the stain under the window belong to whoever can prove they were there first. Walkthrough makes that proof while it is still free to make.

Join the register Read the program

$19.99Paid once, for the whole move

0Photographs of yours we hold

14–45The days most states give a landlord

0Renewals, accounts, or upsells

§ I

§ I — The program

Most of what they kept,
they cannot keep.

What Walkthrough photographs, the two rules it applies to the bill afterwards, the line it will not cross, and the promise attached to the one payment.

The evidence has a deadline, and it is the first day

Nearly every deposit lost is lost in the same silent way: the keys change hands, the place is a little tired already, nobody photographs it, and eleven months later a scuff that was always there arrives on an itemised bill with a price beside it. There is no argument to be had at that point, only two recollections, and the one with the money already in hand wins.

Walkthrough runs a route through the flat while it is still empty and still somebody else's fault — room by room, surface by surface, each frame stamped with its own date. It takes an afternoon once, and it is the only part of this that cannot be done later.

Day one

Wear is not damage, and the bill rarely says so

A landlord may generally charge for damage and generally may not charge for ordinary wear — the paths worn into a carpet, the pin holes, the paint gone flat, the grout gone dull. That single line decides most of the money, and the person drawing it is the person sending the invoice.

So Walkthrough draws it again, item by item, against what your own photographs show. A small nail hole is wear. A doorknob through plasterboard is damage. You mark what is true; it sorts what may lawfully be charged from what may not, and the difference becomes a list rather than a feeling.

The line the case turns on

Old things are billed as though they were new

This is the lever almost nobody pulls. Things in a rented flat wear out on a schedule whether anyone damages them or not, so a carpet six years into a seven-year life had about one year of value left in it. That year is the loss. The full price of a new floor is not.

Walkthrough ages every replacement charge before it accepts it, and shows the gap between the fair figure and the one on the statement. On the largest line of a typical itemisation — carpet, paint, a worktop — the gap is usually most of the charge.

Aged, then billed

It hands you the letter. You send it.

Walkthrough is an informational tool. It does not practise law, it is not a lawyer or a law firm, and using it creates no attorney–client relationship. What it produces is a template addressed to your landlord, carrying your photographs and your own arithmetic, which you read, correct, sign and post yourself.

That boundary is not modesty and it is not fine print. A product that files on your behalf is practising law without a licence, and the tenants who most need this are exactly the ones who cannot afford a company that gets that wrong. For a dispute that turns on your lease or your state's statute, a tenant lawyer or a legal-aid office is the right call, and we will say so every time.

A tool, not a law firm

The oath attached to the price

The estimator, unlimited dated photographs and the basic PDF record are free, with no card asked. The full kit is one payment of $19.99 — cheaper than one disputed deduction. It covers both walkthroughs, the full report and the letters — for this move and every move after it. There is no second purchase behind it and no subscription arriving quietly the year after you have moved.

Purchases go through Apple, and Apple handles refunds. Photographs and records stay on the device, so nothing is stranded either way — a file we never receive cannot be sold, subpoenaed, leaked, or handed on by whoever owns this company later.

No ads, and no landlord-side product. Not now and not at any price: no screening tool, no portal, no inspection licence sold to the other side of the same dispute. This company only ever has one client in the room, and that is the only reason the wear-versus-damage line above can be drawn honestly.

The house's word

The test of a deposit kit is not the month it produces a handsome report. It is the afternoon eleven months later when a landlord's itemisation arrives, and the only thing that matters in the whole flat is a photograph taken before you owned the problem. In Case, No. 12 in the same register, does this for the paperwork a family will one day have to find — a sibling, not a next step.

Standing prohibitions

Five things Walkthrough will not do, held as terms of the program rather than as a roadmap that can quietly change.

No landlord-side product, at any price — no screening tool, no portal, no inspection licence sold to the other side
No ads, and no referral money from cleaners, contractors, letting agents or insurers
No cloud copy of your photographs, and no sync switched on without you switching it on
No account, email address, or sign-in wall standing in front of a walkthrough
No legal advice, no filing made on your behalf, and no promise of any outcome

§ II

§ II — The purchase

One payment, and the move
pays for it itself.

Bought outright on the day you buy it, and carried from the day you take the keys to the day the money comes back.

One payment

$19.99

The estimator, the photos and the basic record are free; one payment and the whole kit is yours — both walkthroughs, the dated report and the letters. There is nothing to renew, nothing to cancel, and nothing that turns into a bill after you have moved.

Join the register

The terms

One payment of $19.99 — cheaper than one disputed deduction
Photographs and records stay on the device
No ads, and no landlord-side product

Free to download, on every platform it ships to.
Seven full days of the complete program.
A free core that stays useful forever, unpaid.
Thirty days, money back, no reasons needed.

§ III

§ III — Questions

Asked the week the
keys change hands.

The six questions a renter actually has at move-out, answered without a consultation to sell at the end of them.

What counts as normal wear, and what counts as damage?

Wear is what living in a place does to it: traffic paths worn into carpet, small nail holes, paint gone flat, grout gone dull. Damage is harm on top of that — a burn, a pet stain soaked through to the underlay, a hole in a door. The distinction decides most of the money, because a landlord may generally deduct for damage and generally may not deduct for ordinary wear. Walkthrough sorts your own photographs into one bucket or the other, item by item, so you can see which lines on an itemisation are actually arguable before you reply to anybody.

My landlord kept the whole deposit. What do I actually do?

Ask for the itemisation first. A lump sum with no list of charges and no receipts is the weakest position a landlord can take, and in most states an itemised statement inside a set number of days is required rather than optional. Then answer it specifically instead of angrily: name the lines that are ordinary wear, ask for the age-adjusted figure on anything that was already part-way through its life, and request receipts for the rest. That is the letter Walkthrough drafts for you — not a court filing, not legal advice, just a clear reply that shows you have done the arithmetic.

Can they charge me full price for a carpet that was already worn?

Usually not, and this is where most of the money hides. Fittings wear out on a schedule whether anyone damages them or not, so a charge for replacing something that had already spent most of its useful life is normally reduced for the age and use it had before you arrived. You are not expected to hand back a six-year-old carpet in new condition or to fund a brand-new one for the next tenant. Walkthrough ages every replacement charge that way and shows the gap between the fair figure and the one on the statement.

Do you see my photographs, my deposit figure, or my landlord's name?

No. Everything you put into Walkthrough — the room-by-room record, the photographs, the deposit figure, the tenancy dates and your landlord's details — is held on your device, behind its own lock, and there is no account and no cloud copy. There is no file on a server for us to read, lose, sell, or be asked to hand over, which is the only version of that promise worth making. The single piece of personal data we hold is an email address, and only if you write yourself into the register on this page.

Is this legal advice?

No, and it will not be talked into pretending otherwise. Walkthrough is an informational tool: it does not practise law, it is not a lawyer or a law firm, and using it creates no attorney–client relationship. What it gives you are educational approximations drawn from widely published general norms — what tends to count as wear, how a fitting tends to depreciate, what a refund might come to — and the letter is a template you review, sign and send in your own name. Deposit law is written state by state and your case may turn on facts a tool cannot see, so if the dispute is heading to court, talk to a tenant lawyer or your local legal-aid office.

There is a free estimate on this site. What is the $19.99 buying?

They are different things and we would rather say so than blur it. The estimate on this site is free, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you the wear-versus-damage sort and the depreciation arithmetic for a statement you already have — it is not a demo and it is not going behind a wall. The app is the version that photographs the flat on day one, keeps both walkthroughs on the same dated route, and produces the file you can put in front of somebody eleven months later. If the free page is all you need, take it and go; nothing here depends on you not noticing that.

The register

Be written in for the day Walkthrough opens.

One address, kept on our ledger and used once: the day the kit ships. No newsletter follows it, and it is never attached to a walkthrough, a photograph, or a figure.

Most of what they kept,they cannot keep.