fully furnished??

willow14710

hi MSE'ers

haven't been on here for a while so hoping someone can help me out.....
my daughter has rented a fully furnished house but on arrival there was no pots & pans etc and no lawn mower to keep the huge garden!! now I thought that fully furnished meant all of the above or am I wrong?? agents now telling my daughter that she has to buy lawnmower!!
hoping someone can help me out.

thanks in advance

theartfullodger

There is a list of things HMRC has that landlords must provide to get the tax break they want - I'll post it in a bit when I'm off this 'phone.

Give list to agent & ask would they like to provide it all or you'll grass the Landlord up.

I'm fairly certain pots and pans are included but not lawnmower.

Cheers!!

thegirlintheattic

My last furnished place did not include pots and pans, and I am also pretty sure that whilst the HMRC might provide a list for tax purposes there is nothing legal stating what a house must include to be advertised as furnished. It could be argued that towels and sheets should be included in furnished properties but they are often not. What was in the advert? Tenancy Agreement? etc? Did it specifically state what was included? Did your DD ask?

A starter set of pots and pans etc. can be brought from a supermaket, Wilkos or Ikea for under £10 so I personally wouldn't fuss and create a bad start to the relationship. If your worried about price, charity shops also have what you need, I think I paid about 60p each for a few pans and then 5p or so per knife/fork/spoon.

As for the lawnmower, I would expect it if the tenancy agreement included a clause about mowing the garden that they should also provide the tools to do it.

theartfullodger

See
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/pimmanual/pim3200.htm

The 10% deduction is given to cover the sort of plant and machinery assets that a tenant or owner-occupier would normally provide in unfurnished accommodation. These are things like:

• movable furniture or furnishings, such as beds or suites,
• televisions,
• fridges and freezers,
• carpets and floor-coverings,
• curtains,
• linen,
• crockery or cutlery,
• plant and machinery chattels of a type which, in unfurnished accommodation, a tenant would normally provide for himself (for example, cookers, washing machines, dishwashers).

Most fair minded persons would consider an owner-occupier would normally provide for himself pots & pans and, on reflection, lawnmower also..

Most landlords with 1/2 a brain will do an awful lot to avoid a HMRC tax inspection, and to hold on to their 10% back-hander...

Suggest you take the list & ask for all the things you ain't got that you'd like (pots, pans, TV, dishwasher, linen(!!), lawnmower...) and discuss the threat of HMRC...

Cheers!

olly300

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

My last furnished place did not include pots and pans

Most furnished places don't provide them.

However depending on the landlord you may be left with stuff prior tenants don't want.

Some even don't provide ironing boards and vacuum cleaners as tenants break them too often.

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

As for the lawnmower, I would expect it if the tenancy agreement included a clause about mowing the garden that they should also provide the tools to do it.

Not all the time.

It's up for you to ask for things before signing the tenancy agreement.

jjlandlord

willow14710 wrote: »

my daughter has rented a fully furnished house but on arrival there was no pots & pans etc

There's no real definition of what "fully furnished" is.
Certainly it does not necessarily imply that pots and pans will be provided.

willow14710 wrote: »

and no lawn mower to keep the huge garden!! now I thought that fully furnished meant all of the above or am I wrong?? agents now telling my daughter that she has to buy lawnmower!!

Landlord has no obligation to provide a lawnmower, a vacuum cleaner, or any tools to e.g. clean the windows.

A tenant should behave in a "tenant-like manner" and thus be responsible for this sort of maintenance.
The famous quote on this is from Warren v Keen (1954):

What does "to use the premises in a tenant-like manner" mean ? ..The tenant must take proper care of the place. He must, if he is going away for the winter, turn off the water and empty the boiler. He must clean the chimneys, when necessary and also the windows.He must mend the electric light when it fuses. He must unstop the sink when it is blocked by his waste. In short, he must do those little jobs about the place which a reasonable tenant would do. In addition, he must, of course, not damage the house wilfully or negligently; and he must see that his family and guests do not damage it; and if they do, he must repair it. But apart from such things, if the house falls out of repair owing to fair wear and tear, lapse of time or for any reason not caused by him, then he will not be liable to repair it.

A new lawnmower costs ~£50, hardly an unreasonable cost, and keeping the garden tidy is certainly a standard "little job".

G_M

There's no legal definition of 'unfurnished' 'part-furnished', 'fully furnished'.

The only definition is what is listed on the inventory and or tenancy agreement (and possibly in the advertisement).

But as artful says, IF the landlord is claiming a tax break (something that is between him and HMRC and not the tenant) on the basis that the property rental income covers a fully furnished property, then HMRC have definitions.

may_fair

I'm afraid your daughter should have checked exactly what is/isn't included before signing the contract. 'Fully furnished' doesn't really mean anything; LL has no statutory obligation to provide a lawnmower.