Help! Problems with X Landlord

hayles21

hi guys i was told by my other half to come here as you may be able to give me soem advice.

I rented a 2 bedroom 1st floor property Last August and moved out This August. During the Tenancy i painted 3 rooms. Bathroom a Green Colour, Hallway a Grey colour and Back Room a Blue colour. And left it in a tidy condidtion but as i wasnt instructed did not repaint the rooms back to the colour of the rest of the property.
After 10 days i did not recieve any written paperwork about the property so i contacted them and explained i had not recieved anything, they replied that could i be patient as its taking a while to sort out. It then became 4 weeks and i contacted them again about not recieving anything, he insisted that he had sent out 2 letters with quotes. I cehcked the address with him and he had the wrong postcode. But i have recieved many letters with the same postcode he had so i didnt see why i had recieved his. I then gave him the corect postcode and recieved apparently the 3rd and final qoute with a letter. That reads.

10 months prior to your occupancy of the property it was fully refurbished including new bathroom and kitchen and the rest of the proprty in an equal condition. The property is now unsuitable for letting and requires redecoration and cleaning.I am fully aware and willing to accept wear and tear from everyday use howeverthe work required to bring to property to an acceptable standard is now alot more. Unfortuneately the painting work you decided to carry out in the bath room hallway and bedroom is not in keeping with the colour scheme of the rest of the property.

You would not accept a property in this condition if you were seeking rented accomadation and niether would any of my clients. i have had qoutes from cleaners and decoratators to try and do the bare minimum of work to bring the property back to standard but as you have see the cost is alot more than the value of your bond. Unfortunealtey time is not on our side and the landlord has instructed me to to re let the property immediatly so i therefore have to instruct the trademen and cleaners to begin work.

The Quote i recieved in the only lette ri have had is £750 .... also he has sent me a cheque for £50 ... he sed if i feel i have a dispute he will send the file to a case examiner.

i dont rmeber signing an inventory and i never signed any photosgraphs... i have received any either and apparently he sent them,

I mean what do i do it was left clean.... im going to the citizens advice on monday but i was wondering if anyone had any advice for me.

bristol_pilot

Yes - don't paint someone else's property without permission.

I hate landlords that keep deposits without good reason with a passion, but in this case it is fully justified. Take the hit and don't do it again.

Imp

To be brutally honest, he sounds reasonable. You should have returned the house in the same state it was in when you received it, including the same colour. Additionally, you may not have carried out a professional paint job and there runs a streaks which you didn't mind. £750 doesn't sound excessive, especially if two coats of paint are required to cover the colours you painted the rooms.

pinkshoes

If you paint a rented house, you HAVE to return it to the same colour before you leave.

If you painted it darker colours, it will probably need a couple of coats of paint to get it back to a lighter colour, so the quote will be for the cost of several cans of paint, along with lots of man hours to do the work.

I think the landlord sounds reasonable, so perhaps in future you should ask before painting, and ALWAYS return it to the original state.

poppysarah

Did it need decorating or is it something you felt like doing?

If it was in a poor state of decoration then you ight be able to argue that you have improved the property.
To say it's bad colours is a bit iffy though. I would make sure that they really paint it if they're charging you for it.

Cleaver

As a landlord I would not want anyone painting the rooms in the house a different colour. I would also want the rooms repainted by decorators, and £750 for three rooms sounds pretty reasonable.

My advice would be the same as bristol_pilots: don't paint the walls of a house you don't own.

olly300

hayles21 wrote: »

hi guys i was told by my other half to come here as you may be able to give me soem advice.

I rented a 2 bedroom 1st floor property Last August and moved out This August. During the Tenancy i painted 3 rooms. Bathroom a Green Colour, Hallway a Grey colour and Back Room a Blue colour. And left it in a tidy condidtion but as i wasnt instructed did not repaint the rooms back to the colour of the rest of the property.

Lots of conditions in contracts in the UK including tenancy contracts is not written down. There are ways of checking what and how you are expected to act as a tenant for example Shelter gives tenants advice.

If you are going to decorate a rental property you need permission from the landlord preferably in writing. The 2 times I painted a rental property I got permission.

You also need to be aware that if the paint job you have done is not a decent one or done in colours that the landlord doesn't like, the landlord can charge you for redecoration after you have moved out.

The best course of action is to actually confirm with the landlord once they agree to let you paint it, that the colours you are going to paint the property are to their taste.

You also need to leave the property in the condition you got it in except for reasonable wear and tear.

Painting the rooms random colours without the landlord's permission is not reasonable wear and tear.

hayles21 wrote: »

......The Quote i recieved in the only lette ri have had is £750 .... also he has sent me a cheque for £50 ... he sed if i feel i have a dispute he will send the file to a case examiner.

i dont rmeber signing an inventory and i never signed any photosgraphs... i have received any either and apparently he sent them,

The inventory and photographs are to stop disputes by producing proof of what was in the property at the start of the rental period.

However it doesn't mean if there was no inventory or photographs the landlord or the tenant is in the wrong with regards to what is in the property or the state of the property, as other proof can be produced i.e. receipts to show this.

If the landlord used tradesmen this time he is likely to have used tradesmen last time and for tax purposes would have kept the receipts.

In addition in England and Wales tenancy agreements can be verbal so no paperwork at all needs to be produced.

You also don't state that you have any proof i.e. photographs you took yourself before doing the painting that the property was in a poor state of decoration, and that you chased the landlord to sort the decoration out before repainting it.

hayles21 wrote: »

I mean what do i do it was left clean.... im going to the citizens advice on monday but i was wondering if anyone had any advice for me.

Don't waste your time. Chalk it up to experience.

If you start a dispute to get your deposit back the landlord could take you to court to get the extra money out of you for the entire cost of redecoration.

Bunnie1982

Did you get written permission from your landlord to repaint the areas in the property?

If you didn't then I'm afraid I don't think you have a leg to stand on.

We're currently in rental property which was in a state of disrepair and poor decoration when we moved in (due to previous tenants) The Landlord was either going to get decorators in (making the wait for us to move in longer) or gave us written permission to paint it ourselves. We mutually with the landlord chose colours that suited both him and us, and we painted it with his help.

moomin_girl

Can you get you own quotes done? you dont nessceraly need access to the property just ring around for a general / balpark figure for repainting the same size / type property.
It is normally standard practice regardless of if u have recived permission to return to the original colour.

I agree with earlier posts it will cause more stress / money to fight than to just except any put down to expierence.

clutton_2

ask for a copy of the inventory

hayles21

hey guys

thanks for the info. its a great help i just needed to see where i stood and my dad was no help what so ever .... thankyou for all the info i think that a dispute maybe going to far if i was in the wrong so i will accept it and move on....

Thank you all again.

Hayles