Renting a house - can you update the kitchen?

oceanscape

We'll be renting a house for 8-12 months whilst renovations are completed at the house we are buying. I've found the most beautiful and perfect place for us, in a fab location, but it has the most horrible dirty and old kitchen ever. The rest of the house is perfect, but the kitchen is really 70s and not at all to our tastes (or indeed anyone's!).

My question is - if we go for this property can we update the kitchen? I'm not talking about a full refit but maybe some new cabinet doors. Also a new oven, which we would take with us (?) when we leave.

We've never rented before, so I am clueless -- can we do this kind of thing? If the owner's give consent, obviously it's doubtful they will chip-in but is there any chance they will reduce the rent if we've added value to the property? Will there be any problems in installing a new oven/grill and then taking it with us when we move out?

Thanks for any advice and sorry for the dumb questions!

custardy

you can ask,most owners will be happy for you to upgrade at no cost
although they may chip in if they see it as worthwhile/needing done
best to ask before signing the lease

oceanscape

Also, it doesn't have a Sky Dish .... guess it should be okay to add one if the owner is okay with it?

custardy wrote: »

you can ask,most owners will be happy for you to upgrade at no cost
although they may chip in if they see it as worthwhile/needing done
best to ask before signing the lease

Thanks!

sunshinetours

As you are only renting for 8-12 months can you not just get a professional company in to deep clean and live with the kitchen? There is no way I would ever imptove someone else's property for them if I was only staying for that period - seems madness especially on a money saving website!!

Sky dish/box slightly different as at least you can take stuff with you to your new house

tim_n

Check with your landlord whenever making modifications. You don't want to loose your deposit over improving the house. It's better to have good relations with them.

If you replace the oven you either have to put the old one back in which means storing it for a year or leaving the new one.

as sunshinetours says, why bother? Give it a good scrub and once it's clean and clear why worry? 8 months shoots by...

poppysarah

Get it in writing.
With specific details of what you want to do.

Are you sure you want to rent it if it's that grotty? I'd ask them to clean it or rent somewhere else...

Troubletrouble

When we moved into our house the kitchen was awful, we asked the LL if we could replace it and they offered to pay half. We are fairly lucky in a way that our LL is easy going with everything we have done to the house and lets us live in it as a home.

Its worth a go asking, all they can say is yes or no.

oceanscape

Good points, everyone. It's probably not as bad as I'm making out, I am just very fussy as I love cooking and we spend a LOT of time in the kitchen. I'll have a chat with the landlords and see if any agreement can be made.

Thanks again