Question for Landlords and Tenants

franklee

Wellll, I don't hang pictures on my landlord's walls. Sometimes I feel an urge to nail jelly to the ceiling, it'd be easier than posting here but I resist!

Although my last unfurnished rental did come with some lovely pictures in situ. Ahhh bless!

MonkeySaving?

MJMum wrote:

But why would you have signed a contract with that clause in it, if you didn't intend keeping to it?

We have that clause in our tenancy agreement, but it's not as bad as it sounds, because there are existing picture hooks to use. OK, it's not perfect but I'd quite like my deposit back at the end of the day.

I would have signed it purely on the basis that i'd love to see someone like you take me to court for hanging a picture up. I would have thought the court would order me to pay approx 10p, the amount it costs for a bit of filler and blot of magnolia paint

fishpond

And of course you forgot time & labour for doing the job, minimum £50.:beer:

MJMum

I would have signed it purely on the basis that i'd love to see someone like you

Like me? Why am * I * suddenly the bad guy here? OP asked for advice and I gave it - as a TENANT :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

take me to court for hanging a picture up. I would have thought the court would order me to pay approx 10p, the amount it costs for a bit of filler and blot of magnolia paint

Or completed re-wallpapering plus court costs.

And I wouldn't laugh at all when you came on here and looked for sympathy.

Edited one time to sort out the quote marks

fishpond

MJMum
Quite agree, comments from the likes of monkeysaving do nothing to foster good LL/tenant relationships.As a landlord I would go through MS property with a fine toothcomb AND HAVE 'IM LOCKED UP.

Normally, even though my tenants contracts do state no holes to be made etc, common sense should (and in my case )does prevail.
If the tenant causes no serious breaches of contract, I tend to be forgiving on minor points, which I would class this as.
I do not even mind the tenant redecorating, on the condition it is done in general good taste,they are made aware that if the redecorating isn't acceptable to me then it has to be brought back to what it was when they leave, at their expense.
One chap has just about done his whole flat and I have to say it is stunning. I am considering asking him to do my house, then again he is a longterm tenant and we get on very well.
Unlike MS I suspect.

Paul_Herring

catewithers wrote:

In your rental contract, do you have a clause that says "The tenant must not damage the walls with fixing nails, screws or adhesives"?

This clause appears in neither my contract with my landlord, not the contract with my tenant. (Separate accommodations before anyone gets too confused with this.)

I'm assuming that this includes hanging pictures in the property. Is that right?

If this clause was in a contract, and especially if it was in relation to hanging pictures, I'd suspect that that clause would be unenforcable, unless there was an underlying (good) reason for not being able to do this (listed building perhaps?)

Tenants, do you stick to this absolutely? If not, what do you do about the walls on vacating the property?

.. that said, I don't have any pictures to hang up, so this clause would not apply to me. But to answer the question, I'd be asking the landlord about it.

Landlords, do you expect tenants not to hang any pictures? If so and the tenant does, what reparations do you expect? etc. etc.

I wouldn't enforce this clause on any tennant (I'd strike it, or not have it included to begin with,) so the question is irrelevant.

prudryden

Most professional contracts will say no nails etc. A landlord may not have a problem with pin sized holes, however, the danger is that in hammering in a nail or even taking one out that you might damage substantially some of the plaster with it. You then could end up in a position for having to pay for replastering that section and repainting the whole room.

One could argue that painting a whole room rather than one wall is betterment, however, the other party could argue that you can never match the paint and therefore the whole room needs to be done. You know where that argument will eventually end up AND no one really knows how a judge will rule on any given day.

Kaminari_2

As a LL it doesn't bother me that tenant put their own pictures up, how can i expect a tenant to feel at home if they can't personalise their space? They can't change the colour of the room or the carpet so pictures can only be expected. I only expect them to return the walls to the original condition if there is any damage or excessive hooks/pins/nails.

As a tenant i have alway put up pictures. At our last flat it said no pictures, blutack etc but i did it anyway knowing that i could return the walls to the original magnolia condition easily when we left.

At our current flat we have put up loads of pictures and the LL doesn't mind as long as we can return it to how it was when we leave.