Nobody keeps records for their own sake. You keep them because at some point a tenant, a landlord you act for, an accountant, a tribunal or the taxman will ask a question about something that happened two years ago, and the only acceptable answer is a document.
The awkward part is that you cannot tell in advance which document it will be.
Per tenancy
The signed agreement, in the version both parties actually signed, with every annexure. Not a blank template of the same type. If terms were varied later, keep the variation with it rather than filed separately, because in eighteen months nobody will connect the two.
The inventory and condition report from move-in, dated, with photographs, signed. This is the single most valuable document in a residential tenancy and the one most often skipped. Almost every deposit dispute reduces to a disagreement about what condition the place was in when the tenant arrived, and fair wear and tear arguments are unwinnable without it. Take more photographs than feels reasonable.
The deposit record. Amount, date received, and its running balance held. A security deposit is the tenant's money held by you; it needs to be traceable as its own figure from the day it arrives, not reconstructible from a bank statement.
Every notice given or received, with proof of how and when it was served. A notice you cannot prove was served is, for practical purposes, a notice that was not served.
Correspondence that changes something. Not every message, just the ones that agree a rent change, permit an alteration, accept a late payment arrangement, or acknowledge a repair. These are almost always on WhatsApp and almost never filed anywhere. Screenshot them into the tenancy file as they happen.
Per unit
Repair and maintenance history: what was done, when, by whom, what it cost. This has three separate uses: proving you responded to a report, deciding whether to repair or replace, and demonstrating that a deduction from a deposit reflects actual cost rather than an estimate produced afterwards.
Meter readings, every one, with the date and the reader. Utility disputes are settled by the sequence of readings, not by the last bill.
Statutory and compliance documents applicable to the property. Which apply depends on the premises and the county, so this is one to confirm locally rather than work from a generic list.
Money
Every receipt issued, showing what the payment settled rather than just the amount received. A receipt without the split is a record that money arrived, which is only half of what you will need.
The ledger itself. If you are collecting on behalf of owners, this is not optional in any practical sense: a landlord remittance that cannot be traced back to the underlying entries is a claim, not an account.
Invoices and proof of payment for anything charged to a landlord or deducted from a deposit.
Bank and mobile-money statements for the collection account, kept in a form that can still be read years later. An export is more durable than a login.
How long
Retention periods vary by the type of record and by what governs it. Tax rules, accounting practice, data-protection obligations and the limitation period for a potential claim all pull in different directions, and they do not all give the same answer.
The practical approach most landlords end up at: keep tenancy and financial records for several years after the tenancy ends rather than after it starts, and take advice on the specific periods that apply to you rather than adopting a number from an article. That includes this one. We are not going to print a figure that might be wrong for your circumstances.
There is one exception that pushes the other way. Personal data you no longer need is a liability, not an asset. Applicant files for people you never housed, copies of ID documents collected for verification, phone numbers of former tenants: holding those indefinitely because storage is cheap is the opposite of good practice. Kenya's Data Protection Act, 2019 governs how tenant information is handled, and handling tenant data responsibly covers the shape of those obligations.
The form matters as much as the fact
Two things separate records that settle an argument from records that merely exist.
They are dated and attributable. A photograph with no date, or a note with no author, invites the question of when it was really made.
Corrections are additions, not edits. A record that can be silently changed proves nothing, because nothing about it distinguishes the original from a revision. This is the same principle that makes a double-entry ledger evidence rather than bookkeeping: the trail has to survive the correction.
You will keep a great deal that is never looked at again. That is the cost of not being able to predict which document the question will be about.
The file structure that makes records findable
Keeping documents and being able to produce one are different achievements. What separates them is a structure decided once, before anything is filed.
Organise around the unit as the permanent object, with tenancies hanging off it. Units outlive tenants, and a repair history attached to a tenant disappears when the tenant does, taking with it the evidence that the pressure problem predates the current occupant.
Per unit, five folders and nothing cleverer:
- Property. Title or ownership documents, plans, statutory and compliance documents, insurance.
- Tenancies. One folder per tenancy, named with the dates and the tenant, containing the signed agreement and every variation, the handover records, notices, and the closing statement.
- Maintenance. Every job with its date, the contractor, the invoice and a photograph.
- Meters. The reading history, with serials, in one place rather than scattered across tenancies.
- Correspondence. Exported threads and letters that changed something.
Two naming rules do most of the work. Start every filename with the date in reversed order, as in
2026-09-18, so folders sort chronologically without anyone thinking about it. And name the
document by what it is, not by what the phone called it: 2026-09-18 unit 3B move-in inventory
beats IMG_4471.
Then keep one index: a single sheet listing each unit, each tenancy, the dates, the deposit held, and where the file lives. It takes an afternoon to build and it is the difference between answering a question and searching for the answer.
Scanning, and what makes a copy stand up
Most landlords now hold more photographs than paper, which is fine provided the copies are usable later.
Capture the whole document, flat, in focus, all four corners visible, in a single file per document rather than eleven images in a gallery. PDF for documents, not a chat-compressed image.
Keep the original metadata. A photograph re-sent through three chat apps has lost the date it was taken, which was the most useful thing about it.
Keep the paper for anything signed, where you can. A signed agreement, a signed inventory and a signed notice are the three worth holding physically as well.
Back it up somewhere that is not the phone. The failure mode is not a dramatic loss. It is a stolen handset, or a laptop that dies, and a year of meter photographs gone with it.
Test a restore once. Most people discover something the first time, and it is far better discovered on a quiet Tuesday.
What to record every month, in ten minutes
The records that decide disputes are not usually created during a crisis. They accumulate in small monthly habits:
- Meter readings, dated, photographed, with the reader named.
- Payments received, applied to specific charges, with receipts issued showing the split.
- Any repair reported, with the date it was reported and the date it was attended.
- Any agreement reached by phone or in person, confirmed in a message that restates it.
- The month's arrears position, saved rather than recalculated later.
A landlord who does those five things spends about ten minutes a month and can answer nearly any question asked about the tenancy two years later. A landlord who does none of them is relying on the other party's memory being worse than theirs.
For landlords using an agent
If someone manages on your behalf, your records are a layer above theirs, and the questions to ask are specific:
- Can they produce the ledger behind a single figure on your statement within minutes?
- Are deposits held identifiably, and shown as a standing liability rather than inside collections?
- Do they issue receipts showing what each payment settled?
- What happens to your records if the relationship ends, in what format and how quickly?
- Who at their end can edit a posted entry, and is the change visible?
Keep your own copies of the four things that are yours regardless of who manages: the management agreement, the monthly statements, the tenancy agreements for your units, and the deposit positions. Agencies change hands, and a landlord holding none of their own records is dependent on an archive they do not control. The wider trade-off is in managing your rentals yourself vs hiring an agent.
For anyone holding this across more than a few units, the honest summary is that the discipline is available on paper and the retrieval is not: the reason landlord software for Kenyan portfolios exists is that one index, one ledger and one document store replace a folder structure that depends on everyone naming things the same way for years.
Common questions
What records must a landlord keep in Kenya?
Per tenancy: the signed agreement and variations, the handover inventory with photographs, the deposit record, notices with proof of service, and correspondence that changed something. Per unit: repair history, meter readings and applicable compliance documents. Plus the money records: receipts showing allocations, the ledger, invoices and statements.
How long should those records be kept?
Periods differ by record type and by what governs them, and they are generally measured from the end of the tenancy rather than its start. Take advice on your own position rather than adopting a number, and note that personal data you no longer need is a liability. See what to keep, and for how long.
Are digital copies acceptable?
Generally yes, if they are complete, legible, dated and retrievable. Keep the paper for signed agreements, signed inventories and served notices, and back the digital copies up somewhere that is not a single phone.
What is the most valuable record in a tenancy?
The dated, signed move-in inventory with photographs. Nearly every deposit dispute reduces to a disagreement about condition on arrival, and nothing else substitutes for it.
Do I need receipts if the tenant pays by M-Pesa?
Yes. The transaction record proves money moved; it does not show what the payment settled, which is the thing tenancies actually argue about. Issue receipts showing the allocation. See why itemised rent receipts prevent disputes.
What should I keep if an agent manages the property?
Your management agreement, every monthly statement, the tenancy agreements for your units, and the deposit positions, held by you and not only by them. Everything else you should be able to request, which is a different thing from having.