What constitutes reasonable wear and tear?

meester

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Biro on walls is vandalism, scribbling on walls is not normal wear and tear it's why we prosecute grafetti 'artists'.

Small children scribbling on walls are not vandals!!!!! They are just doing what children do. Of course it should be removed, but it's absurd to describe it as vandalism.

Jo_R_2

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Wear and tear isn't dirt.

It's worn flattened piles on carpets, indents from furniture, scuffing or ageing of paintwork. Stuff that means it doesn't look like new but isn't damaged, vandalised, stained or dirty.

Biro on walls is vandalism, scribbling on walls is not normal wear and tear it's why we prosecute grafetti 'artists'. Making holes in walls through cr*p DiY is damage. Spilling drinks on carpets and not clearing them up so they leave marks is staining / dirt. All those I think you should put right.

I'll be reporting my two down the police station then!

I should clarify - I wasn't implying that the things I mentioned I was just going to leave, what I should have said was what can I do about them? The question about what constitutes reasonable wear and tear was a general question.

And just to say, it would be pretty gross for the LOs to spill drinks and for me to just not clean them up - if that were the case I think I'd be asking about getting rid of ants and how to deodorise the smell of milk on the carpet LOL!

Also the walls in the living room are wallpapered so have no idea how to get felt tip off!

barnaby-bear

meester wrote: »

Small children scribbling on walls are not vandals!!!!! They are just doing what children do. Of course it should be removed, but it's absurd to describe it as vandalism.

End result same as if vandalised.... large children doing the same is classed as vandalism... I certainly never scribbled on walls and I certainly wouldn't expect a LL to accept it as fair-wear-and-tear just because it was done by badly behaved children.... if the children are too young to know right from wrong the parents should and that includes righting damage caused by your kids.

barnaby-bear

Jo_R wrote: »

I'll be reporting my two down the police station then!

I should clarify - I wasn't implying that the things I mentioned I was just going to leave, what I should have said was what can I do about them?

The old-style board is full of people who can remove radio-active contamination frm Chernobyl with a cabbage leaf, some spirit viniger, salt and stardrops - they may have ideas.... I wasn't suggesting they were criminal but that the results if it wasn't put right are the same and the LL would be reasonable pursuing the responsible person (in this case the adult) for the damage. Can't you just buy them a blackboard and only let them play with white (or better still - runs off to patent - magnolia chalk) until they understand it's wrong to draw on walls...

Jo_R_2

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Can't you just buy them a blackboard and only let them play with white (or better still - runs off to patent - magnolia chalk) until they understand it's wrong to draw on walls...

Hahahahahaahahh magnolia chalk, I like that idea!

*Runs off to Old Style board*

barnaby-bear

Jo_R wrote: »

Hahahahahaahahh magnolia chalk, I like that idea!

*Runs off to Old Style board*

I generally avoid cleaning products but for years have relied on M&S tie cleaning wipes - they have some sort of dry cleaning fluid in them that seems to remove all the stains I've ever needed to remove... I know it's not your fault if the kids are naughty (most seem to be at points) but I just dislike people who don't take responsibility (which you are) but I hope no offence caused.

How about origami rather than drawing as a creative hobby for them - no glue or mess.... or duplo... or a carboard box...

RoxieW

I hope the blackcurrent stains come out- ours didnt after a professional clean - and in that case you may be looking at replacing the carpet.
We learnt the hard way and are now strict with the kids having food/drink only in the kitchen/dining room.

Fuchsia_a

My parents' house has had the same wallpaper since we moved in, which was before I was one year old, and there is *no* scribbling on walls anywhere. I can only assume that either we were well trained not to do it, have magical wallpaper that's cleanable, or my parents didn't let my brother or I have writing implements when we were unsupervised that could damage the decor.

We did spill blackcurrent on the floors, but we also had anti-spill cups to try to minimise it and my parents picked a carpet colour that it doesn't really show up on. Obviously they were better at avoiding writing damage than food damage.

None of what you describe sounds like fair wear and tear to me - fair wear and tear should be the unavoidable sort of damage that just happens to a house as it's used and worn over time, not children going wild with marker pens or rough holes being left in the wall.

mummyd_2

i have 2 kids who also like to scribble,
i have found baby wipes really help on walls and for really stubborn stains the magic rubber is fab
hope this helps

moneysavinmonkey

Jo_R wrote: »

Hi all

I'm currently in a rented house, been here for going on two years. In the next year or so I'm planning on giving notice as I need somewhere bigger; however having had a good relationship with my landlord and landlady, who have left me to it basically but have always sorted any problems out asap, I wanted to make sure I left it in a decent state for them.

I'm thinking ahead because it'll probably be just me sorting out anything that needs doing. So what constitutes 'reasonable' wear and tear?

For example. My oldest took to my bedroom's magnolia walls with a black biro when I was doing housework and I have now have a lovely (!) biro mural over two walls. I was just going to repaint that myself as I feel it would be a bit out of order to leave it. Here and there through the house there's odd bits of biro and felt tip on the walls.

Carpets throughout are beige and so show up lots of marks (imagine two kids running round with blackcurrant cordial and you get the picture!) I'm happy to vax them all but I have found that even doing that doesn't get some of the stubborn marks out. Would this warrant a professional clean?

The ex put up a set of coat hooks in the hall, but didn't use the correct rawlplugs and it started to come out, bringing the plasterboard with it. Fortunately my father fixed the problem but it has meant there will be four holes left there, two of which look a bit messy where the panel for the coat hooks started to come out of the wall.

There's nothing major, it's just that it looked so pristine when we moved in (the landlord had just bought it and put in the new carpets) and I really want to get all of my deposit back when I do move out.

Any tips on what I've mentioned or general pointers are good. I've rented before so know roughly what is expected, but any advice would be good!

my understanding of wear and tear is damage to the property that you can not be expected to avoid and not including dirt or stains.

So slight wearing down of carpets would be wear and tear but vimto stains would not be!

ie. you can not avoid walking on carpets but you could have avoided spilling juice on them/walking dirt in etc. You could definitely have avoided biro on the walls, likewise pulling plasterboard out of the wall! So I think you need to rectify these in order to get your full deposit back.

Could you ask the landlord/letting agent to do a informal check before the end of the tenancy to identify things that you need to get put right and give you a bit of time to do it before the full check out inventory?