The old way of doing a move-in inventory was: pick a room, photograph it, stop, type up what you saw, repeat for every room, then do it all again at check-out. Most landlords either skipped it, did a rushed version, or paid a clerk £75–220+ a visit. Slatebase's new AI-assisted inventory replaces all of that with a quick walkthrough and a review you do later — not hours spent at the property.
How it actually works
Open a property, tap Add photos, and walk the property shooting everything as you go — no stopping to pick a room or type a label first. Slatebase looks at the batch afterwards and groups the photos by room automatically: cabinets and a hob read as a kitchen, a bed reads as a bedroom. You get a "Sort your photos" screen with the suggested groups already laid out — confirm them, relabel with a preset (Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom 1, and so on, plus your own custom names), split or merge as needed, or just leave anything ambiguous in an "unsure" pile rather than have it guessed wrong.
Confirm a group and Slatebase drafts the item list for that room: what's there, its condition, and a short note explaining the assessment — the same extraction that's already been tested against real room photos. Nothing is written as final until you approve it. Anything AI isn't confident about is flagged rather than quietly guessed, because a defensible inventory depends on you catching what the AI got wrong, not on the AI never being wrong.
Appliance details, without a second visit
While you're walking round, a close-up photo of a washing machine or boiler's rating plate gets read too — make, model, and serial number extracted automatically and matched to the right item once you confirm its room group. Add a warranty expiry date and the support number to call, and Slatebase reminds you before cover runs out, using the same reminder logic that already tracks your compliance certificates. If a close-up wasn't captured on-site, all of this can still be added by hand later — the photo is just the fast path, not the only one.
Floor area, read from your EPC
Slatebase also reads the total floor area straight off the EPC certificate you've already uploaded — one figure, pulled automatically, rather than another thing to measure and type in. If the EPC isn't on file yet or the figure isn't legible, it's simply left blank. Never estimated, never guessed.
Why this matters for deposit disputes. A dated, photo-backed, landlord-approved inventory is exactly the kind of evidence that strengthens your position if a deposit dispute or a Ground 13 property-deterioration claim ever comes up. AI drafting it faster doesn't weaken that — you're still the one reviewing and approving every item before it's locked in.
You're not spending hours at the property
This is the part that actually changes how long a visit takes. You don't sort anything, write anything, or check anything on-site — you just shoot. The moment you finish, your photos and the AI's grouping are saved against that walkthrough, so you can close the app and leave. Nothing is lost.
Review happens whenever suits you — that evening on a laptop with a cup of tea, or the next morning on your phone before the rest of the day starts. Pick up exactly where you left off, on whichever device is in front of you. The fifteen minutes at the property is the shoot; the review is a separate, calmer fifteen minutes you do on your own time.
What it costs
AI-assisted inventory is billed per walkthrough, not per room, so a six-room property confirmed in one session is one charge, not six.
- Portfolio: included, no per-session charge.
- Starter: £5 per capture session, covering every room sorted in that walkthrough.
- Free: photos still upload and can be sorted into rooms manually — AI drafting isn't included on Free.
You can shoot up to 50 photos per session on a paid plan (20 on Free), with a clear warning as you approach the limit — every photo submitted gets reviewed, none are skipped to save cost.
Try it on your next visit
If you're already at a property for a viewing, a check-in, or a routine inspection, this is built to fit into that visit rather than add a separate one. Walk round, shoot everything, and leave — sort it later from wherever's convenient, or stay and do it on the spot if you'd rather get it done there and then. Either way works; nothing about the draft depends on which one you pick.