Bosty64

Hi everyone! I’m new here and came across this forum while looking for advise. A young man stayed in my home as a lodger and due to extreme lack of care of this room, and personal hygiene himself, my zip snd link mattresses were left badly stained. He never showered or changed his sheets (the latter not even once), and subsequently the bed linen was soaked in sweat and this has leaked through on to the mattresses. Obviously it was remiss of me not to have provided a mattress, but that’s in the past now and having sought advise I’m assured I should still take the cost of the mattresses out of the deposit. However, tenant and his step father, who don’t deny he never washed sheets and have seen photos I took of appalling state of the room during the tenancy, are trying their luck (IMO) are saying ‘how do we know that damage wasn’t existing prior to this tenancy’ and that without being able to provide photos of the mattress in the condition they were in prior to the tenancy, that I won’t have a leg to stand on! Do others take photos of everything, including mattresses, on the day or the tenant moving in, so that they will have evidence should this situation arise? Is this expected of a landlord taking in a lodger?