Wall cleaning - end of tenancy

kunekune

Well, in our case, it's the entire stair well and living room that will need to be painted. I think the LL will say "it was newly painted 20 months ago, and should not need it again" - the inventory contains LOTS of pictures of pristine walls. There's a difference between what LLs ought to regard as fair wear and tear and what they actually think, and when you're dealing with someone who only owns newbuilds, I suspect their expectations might be unrealistic. But I could be proved wrong. OH is almost looking forward to going to the tribunal, LOL. On the other hand, looking at it from the LL's pov, we are messier than most because my son can't get up the stairs without holding onto something and he is left handed, so the bannister is no use! The wall around the staircase is a mess. And as the stairwell spans 4 storeys, repaining it is no amateur job.

I will be really glad to be in our own place in a few weeks! THough am tempted to paint everything bog standard white to make touching up easy.

sooz

kunekune wrote: »

Well, in our case, it's the entire stair well and living room that will need to be painted. I think the LL will say "it was newly painted 20 months ago, and should not need it again" - the inventory contains LOTS of pictures of pristine walls. There's a difference between what LLs ought to regard as fair wear and tear and what they actually think, and when you're dealing with someone who only owns newbuilds, I suspect their expectations might be unrealistic. But I could be proved wrong. OH is almost looking forward to going to the tribunal, LOL. On the other hand, looking at it from the LL's pov, we are messier than most because my son can't get up the stairs without holding onto something and he is left handed, so the bannister is no use! The wall around the staircase is a mess. And as the stairwell spans 4 storeys, repaining it is no amateur job.

I will be really glad to be in our own place in a few weeks! THough am tempted to paint everything bog standard white to make touching up easy.

in your new place, unless you are ultra minimalist, consider putting a dado rail in, especially up the stairs. Then you can easily repaint under it. I frequently repaint under mine in one afternoon, & it really brightens the place up if you remove all the finger prints at 2 foot off the floor! We also use washable matt paints, in a creamy-beige dirty colour, rather than plain white. I found that got dirty in seconds...this takes weeks

GrammarGirl

We're also having a painting issue in our house, and we're due to move out in a month. We have varnished wooden floors throughout, except in one room (used as a study) where the bare floorboards have just been painted white. We have a roller chair in this room and the wheels have chipped off lots of the paint. I'm not really sure if this comes under fair wear and tear (landlady has admitted she couldn't afford to have that final room varnished like the others, so obviously it's not as hardwearing and practical) or if we have actually damaged the flooring by having a roller chair... although this was unavoidable, it's an office and we had already purchased the chair!

barnaby-bear

kunekune wrote: »

Well, in our case, it's the entire stair well and living room that will need to be painted. I think the LL will say "it was newly painted 20 months ago, and should not need it again" - the inventory contains LOTS of pictures of pristine walls. There's a difference between what LLs ought to regard as fair wear and tear and what they actually think, and when you're dealing with someone who only owns newbuilds, I suspect their expectations might be unrealistic. But I could be proved wrong. OH is almost looking forward to going to the tribunal, LOL. On the other hand, looking at it from the LL's pov, we are messier than most because my son can't get up the stairs without holding onto something and he is left handed, so the bannister is no use! The wall around the staircase is a mess. And as the stairwell spans 4 storeys, repaining it is no amateur job.

I will be really glad to be in our own place in a few weeks! THough am tempted to paint everything bog standard white to make touching up easy.

If it's a new build are the developers still around? My mate's LL tried to go for repainting because of the new build weird let-the-plaster dry paint and they went to the sales office of the next phase of the development to ask for the colour match to repaint it.... where they were told the LL was informed that the life expectancy of the paint was short and it was temporary and to expect this issue - even got a copy of the document - so Mr. LL didn't get to keep the deposit as he wanted...... shame

orangeslimes

Doozergirl wrote: »

Do you think that being off your faces may have helped?

Hey- don't stereotype...we spent ages cleaning and the tippex seriously did fill in the gaps and not show up as it was bumpy wallpaper. we got all our deposit back minus window cleaning.

Anyway I think if you have reasonable non money grabbing landlords a few marks on the wall should just be put down to wear and tear.

porlock

Our LL's don't seem to know the meaning of 'wear and tear' - they've already had £200 off of us for re-hanging the front door, which had sunk(?) at the hinges and at times I couldn't open it from the inside. How could that be anything other than wear and tear? I'm still very cross with partner for agreeing to it.

So, I'm going to do what I can with a Magic Sponge, and have to suck up the rest. I'm just annoyed - first rented house, the LL disappeared with the deposit (despite small claims ruling in our favour, couldn't find him so couldn't make him pay was what we were told), second time renting my deposit was swallowed up by debts I owed people - I wonder if I will ever see a full one!

sooz

porlock wrote: »

Our LL's don't seem to know the meaning of 'wear and tear' - they've already had £200 off of us for re-hanging the front door, which had sunk(?) at at times I couldn't open it from the inside. How could that be anything other than wear and tear? I'm still very cross with partner for agreeing to it. :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

So, I'm going to do what I can with a Magic Sponge, and have to suck up the rest. I'm just annoyed - first rented house, the LL disappeared with the deposit (despite small claims ruling in our favour, couldn't find him so couldn't make him pay was what we were told), second time renting my deposit was swallowed up by debts I owed people - I wonder if I will ever see a full one!

The second deposit had nothing to do with your LL, so you can't blame him for that. The deposit service should help you this time. Did you get anything in writing about the door. Why on earth did your OH agree to pay £200 to rehang a door??

porlock

I know! I was so angry. He said he would have a word with them about it, because I am very poor at this sort of thing, I'd back down immediately. I asked after it and he said he was too busy to deal with it and we should just accept it.

We do (I think) still have the letter in which they quote us for the door re-hanging - we agreed for it to come out of our deposit at the end - is it still possible to address this, do you think?

Failing that, I think I'll tell him that it can come out of his share of the deposit when it does come back!

sooz

If you haven't actually paid any money towards rehanging the door, why not try. It depends on what exactly you have in writing, & what your OH wrote to the LL. Unless you deliberatly damaged the door, I can't see how this could be your fault. Do you climb up & swing on the door as you open it?

By the sound of it you are heading towards a dispute over the deposit anyway.

ladylumps45

the magic eraser stuff is on ebay now.its a buy it now at 3.89 plus 1.99 postage.:o