Rented Property landlord being ridiculous

shazza144

hi hope someone can help in 2007 we moved into a brand new build which no one had lived in the walls as you can imagine have been painted with the very thin water based breatherball paint ready to be painted once everything had settled in the 5 years we have been here the property still hasnt been painted due to not being given permission to do so , the carpets are are stained de to having given birth to 2 children while in the housebut we have them cleaned twice a year by a proffesional company , now the children have done the normall thing and have done a few drawings on the bedroom walls which before we were served with a section 21 to vacate we had asked to paint bt no answer was ever given we have tried to wash off but if u do this the paint comes off and the plaster board shows, the landlord resently posted all over facebook that we were scum had no right to live in their perfect house and even called us benefit cheats which we are in the process of taking her to court over liable, bt as we need to move out soon and been told we must ut house back to the standard we moved in do we need to paint the walls now (even though we have been asking for last 3 years) the backgarden is like a desert due to them putting turf down wrongly and not sorting it after we said its not layed correctly yet they expect us to strip and turf the entire garden as well as relace 4 carpets paint the walls before we leave or our deposit will be used surley this cant be right i know we have been eveicted due to the landlord can make more money renting each room out to students but to make us try and turn a 5 year old house back into a brand new property before we leave is asking a little to much i think

angelsmomma

I don't want to comment on the facebook thing but if it was brand new 5 years ago it can't be that difficult to give a coat of paint and have the carpets cleaned, new carpets should not be needed as the landlord should accept fair wear on five year old property.

Did you complain about the garden in writing?

jjlandlord

shazza144 wrote: »

the carpets are are stained de to having given birth to 2 children while in the house

I bet that giving birth on carpets leaves stains, indeed...

sooz

Did the midwives not protect the carpet?
I guess you mean the carpets are stained due to the actions of your children, & not due to you giving birth on them.
This is dirt and damage, not wear & tear.
Likewise, children's artwork on the walls.

sharpee

Is your deposit protected?

Do you have an Inventory signed by both parties?

dodger1

Children doing a few drawings on the bedroom wall is not "the normal thing".

HappyMJ

I'd just buy a tub of cheap magnolia paint from the hardware store and paint the walls myself.

Ithilien

For the Facebook thing I think you can send them a pre-action letter that you'll be taking them to court for defamation (slander). They're not allowed to do that.
For the drawings on the wall... well as someone said before that's not normal so yes the landlord would be in his right to take that off the deposit.
As for the carpets - that depends how dirty they are and whether it would be considered normal wear and tear or not. As someone has asked before - is your deposit registered under a protection scheme?
Regarding the garden - do you have any of this in writing (emails for example) that you told them it needed to be redone?

BitterAndTwisted

Get painting if you don't want to have a proportion of the cost deducted from your deposit. If the carpets are beyond normal cleaning the landlord could charge you for 50% of the replacement costs. This is assuming that the expected life of carpeting in a rented property is ten years. Ditto the paintwork. The garden is their problem: if the turf was properly laid all you would have needed to do was ensure that is was properly watered. With the summer we've just had nature would have done that for you more than adequately.

Your plan for taking them to court for libel is misguided, to put it mildly. It's a risky strategy and bringing a case to court for libel is very, very expensive with absolutely no guarantee of winning or being awarded your costs. Forget about it and expend your energy on getting the property back to a suitable condition.

Edit: dirty and/or stained carpeting is never "fair wear and tear".

thegirlintheattic

Drawings on the walls is not wear and tear and has nothing to do with the original finish. If you want to allow your children to draw on the walls then buy your own place.

Buy a can of paint and colour match the walls.