What constitutes reasonable wear and tear?

mummyd_2

just managed to clean my carpet with a product called spotless dry clean solution.
took a dirty mark from my livingroom carpet after having tried 4 well known products on it!
it wasnt dear about £4 from tesco

even removed green nail varnish from my wee ones carpet

hope this helps:j

sandraroffey

i hired a rug doctor thing from johnsons dry cleaners. booked 24 hours and got 24 hours free. total cost, with the liquid cleaner, less than £30 and it worked miracles. my carpets look like new. give it a go.

also, dettol on a cloth is great at removing all sorts of things. a bit of bread rubbed on the walls may help get rid of pencil but if the walls are painted, there is nothing life Jif!! i have had five kids growing up over the years and have had some pretty horrendous stuff. its all do-able!!

paintpot

Just a point from a landlord's perspective. If you are going to do some painting to patch up any damage then find out from your landlord what make and colour they used or if they have a preference. Just explain you want to put the house back to the condition it was in when you started the tenancy.


Different makes of magnolia are different colours. I use the same make in all of my houses for ease. If you try and patch up with a different make it will look like a dogs dinner, trust me. Even if you repaint a whole room I would still find it irritating as a landlord because I wouldn't know what make you'd used and then next time a tenant moved out and there were odd bumps/scrapes to patch in I'd have to repaint the whole room again.

A recent tenant of mine touched up the walls all over the house, she used a different shade of magnolia and she used silk rather than matt. It looked a god awful mess.

The odd bump and scrape on the paint work is wear and tear and I wouldn't deduct from a deposit for that.

I hope this helps.

lil_me

I live in privately rented accomodation and will leave the house probably better than what it was when we moved in. This would include redecorating wherever required (which would inc filling any holes in walls etc) and ensuring there were no stains etc left. Most contracts include what is expected of tenants inc to 'make good' any holes made, some insist on professional carpet cleaning/suite cleaning if provided etc. I agree with either asking what paints were used or being prepared to redo it all (I usually redo it all anyway) but checking with the landlord is usually a very good idea. Luckily when we moved in here someone had made such a shambles of the decorating we could only make it better.

JenC

ah i too know the perils of renting! My LL said that furniture indentation is acceptable, bu thats about it. I'm a really clean and tidy person living on my own, but sometimes the inevitable happens! I had a leak under my sink which has swollen up the bottom of the cupboard so I'm expecting trouble for that. On the other hand the house is only 6 months old so I blame the builders!

When it comes to marks on the walls, I was asked not to touch them up with a paint pot for fear of the colours not matching. I have found that a bit of jif on a damp cloth gets rid of lots of marks ont he walls. White spirit is excellent on the carpet too, even got rid of hairdye! Fake tan would not be budged though.

:beer:

wymondham

'fair wear and tear' is one of those odd legal things that does not really mean anything - it's wide open to interpretation (often deliberately). What one person would say is FWT, another would say is Damage .. who is right???

check with the landlord exactly what is expected.

sandraroffey

my private tenancy expects carpets to be cleaned and curtains dry cleaned (large curtains) before leaving. plus walls in a good good and clean condition and windows cleaned, oven cleaned (often forgotten) and cupboards cleaned out as well. basically as good as it was when you moved in!!

linda4767

I had a young couple who moved out of my rented property recently and thought a ten minute rub over with a cloth was sufficient to get the deposit back, when they moved in it was spotless. The carpets were clean and all was in excellent condition. They were there for 12 months - made the carpets filthy and never once bleached the wc, the bowl was black with limescale.
Its amazing what 3 hours can do after i refused to return the deposit. I have never seen two people move so quick with a carpet cleaner and scouring pads down the toilet :ji felt a little mean but it had to be done!
I believe a property should be handed back clean and tidy. The odd mark here and there is not a problem as long as its not dirty

tbs624

sandraroffey wrote: »

my private tenancy expects carpets to be cleaned and curtains dry cleaned (large curtains) before leaving. plus walls in a good good and clean condition and windows cleaned, oven cleaned (often forgotten) and cupboards cleaned out as well. basically as good as it was when you moved in!!

and that's the key point:the LL can only ask for you to have the property in the same state as it was at the start, FW&T excepted. If the curtains were not dry cleaned before the start of your tenancy, there is no obligation for you to return them in that state.

Agree with the others - biro etc scribbled over walls definitely not wear and tear. Don't get the scribbling on walls bit at all - my own kids have never done it. Do your kids also scribble on Granny's walls, the nursery school walls, the library walls, the inside of buses etc ? If they are not old enough to understand the word "no" then just keep pens out of their sticky little mitts. Paintpot is right - talk to the LL before patching up walls with random paint.

Stains on the carpet - agree with others - blackcurrant is terrible stuff (also grim for their teeth but that's another issue) and I can't help think that some tenants would make their kids behave differently if it was their own carpet. As another poster has said there is nothing wrong with getting kids to sit down with their drinks, rather than "running around" with them. That said, try some stuff called "Groom", that you can get from places like Halfords. Not keen on the name but its an upholstery cleaner and it can get many indescribable marks out of carpets before a general clean up.

sooz

tbs624 wrote: »

Agree with the others - biro etc scribbled over walls definitely not wear and tear. Don't get the scribbling on walls bit at all - my own kids have never done it. Do your kids also scribble on Granny's walls, the nursery school walls, the library walls, the inside of buses etc ? If they are not old enough to understand the word "no" then just keep pens out of their sticky little mitts.

I used to think just that until last week. Mine have never scribbled on a wall...until now

Currently my boys are sharing, & the eldest left a colouring pencil within grabbing reach of the little one, when he was still in his cot. Somehow, houdini managed to reach it, & now the walls all above his cot have beautiful orange tiger stripes. How, i don't know, as when I give him paper to draw on, he can't get the pressure & angle right to make a mark yet! It seems he saved his creativity for the wall. Both he & his big brother have had a BIG telling off, & all pens & pencils have moved another 3 feet up the shelves & first need permission . However, it's a total PIA when I need to write a phone no. down.