I'm not a reader. I think that the overwhelming majority of readers these days are women and this is reflected in the best selling book figures and ultimately what gets written.

But I'd like to segue into a contract issue here if I may. Previous landlady wants me to pay for the checkout inventory. Quite unusual. Generally it's the check in that the tenant does and checkout for landlord.

So I got the bill yesterday. £120. I emailed her because earlier she said it would be about £85 plus VAT. She didn't reply.

So I got hot and checked the tenancy agreement. It says that I'm resposonsible for the checkout but only if I receive an invoice at least 7 days before the termination of the tenancy. She also said earlier that I should be receiving an invoice.

BUT I NEVER GOT ANY INVOICE PRIOR TO TERMINATION! ONLY A BILL AFTER THE INVENTORY WAS DONE!

Slam dunk, I'm not paying this. Sweet.

I also told her three weeks ago that I'm happy for her to cancel the inventory and she can do any renovations to the property early. She didn't reply.

These inventories are a scam by the agencies. Absolutely no need for them. Landlords can do the inventory and tenants can as well. We all have cameras.

So she's been a good landlady and I hate to do this but I don't appreciate her ignoring my emails, I don't appreciate the extortionate inventory fee, and the lease is very clear. It's a weird clause but they wrote it and they breached it. There's not a court in the world that wouldn't find in my favour.

And even sweeter, you can't deduct from the deposit something like this. This is something that they'd have to go to court over if they thought they had a case.