"Wear and tear" in a rental property

Zara33

thesaint wrote: »

Could all those people who have a problem with the O.P. 'Take it outside'?

This board is supposed to give advice, not carry on a witch-hunt from another place, it was mildly amusing, but it's getting ridiculous now.

There is some good advice getting lost in amongst the nit-picking that has been going on. The board guides won't bother to sort out the silly posts from the informative ones, and will probably delete the thread altogether if it carries on.

The OP was given advice :rolleyes:
The OP brought the au pair thread into this thread, just because some of us posted on that actual thread and we have posted in this thread does not make it a witch hunt :rotfl:

Just because a few of us query what miss k actually says isn't a crime, she had previously stated her mother was a lawyer but she needs advice on wear and tear of her property oh please.

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD

Miss K read all the posts ! I've found you will never get a property back without some problems, the things you are on about are quite trivial, the non smoking policy is really a non starter, if people have friends round and they smoke, well ! Occasionally I get properties back dirty, damaged ( but never wrecked ) some LL have though, I own 37 properties, and when I think of the increases in their value over the last few years I turn the property round quick as possible and smile to myself. Maybe that's what you and your mother should do.

missk_ensington

kimevans wrote: »

Out of curiosity I read the Au Pair thread mentioned here.

The reason you have such argumentative replies is that you constantly contradict yourself.

On the Au Pair thread I think you said you claimed £200 allowance from the DHSS (social) for having an Au Pair of which you gave her £50 pocket money & claimed £150 was for board & lodging? I am in the process of claiming, currently pay £50, will give her raise when money comes through, never said I claimed £15o for Board, I said if she lodged in someone's house that is approximately what it'd cost her a week for rental of a room, council tax, food, water, gas, electric... all of which I pay for. It was an approximate estimate to explain to people that she gets all this in addition to her wage

Then you said you couldn't afford to keep buying cartons of juice at £2.25 for three in Asda as yoo only have a £45 a week shopping budget for 3!!!!!!!!!!!! :rolleyes: I could afford it if neccessary, possibly wrong phrasing so apologies, what I mean is it is a huge chunk of my budget. My food budget isn't set because I am poor, my budget is set at £45 as part of my household budget and I do not feel it necessary to raise it any more as it has always been sufficient in the past. To do so would mean balancing the books by cutting back on something else, perhaps hairdressers, clothing, going out, takeaways etc. I account for all my income/expenditure and allocate amounts for food, credit card payments, renovating house....

So if you allow £15 for feeding her where does the other £135 you claim from the DHSS go??? I never said that, although rent in a room is approx £50 I think going rate is, £30 a week for food (if she was renting a room in someone elses house she wouldn't feed herself for the amount I can feed her for given that she can't even cook beans on toast) I manage it so cheaply purely because I am a good shopper and cook efficiently, a chicken does 2 days out of 7 with soup etc, gas/elec easily £40 a week (My last bill for gas alone was £358 Dec-Mar because she's had heating on all the time) We're at £120 already without mentioning a contribution to Council Tax, water and other thing it might cost

Also if your blackouts are as bad as you say they are, should you be driving, do DVLA know about this???? Already been discussed, on the say so of consultant I can still drive

Also you complain you come in & she has had the heating on ALL DAY. Do you expect her to NOT HAVE THE HEATING ON WHILE YOU ARE OUT??????
Surely you do not want your son sitting in a cold unheated house while you are out? Of course she can have the heating on, I wouldn;t want her to be cold, however I'm sure you'll agree that flicking it onto constant and raising the thermostat as high as it'll go and then leaving it on from 9am until 6pm 7 days a week is not appropriate, hence £358 gas bill for 3 months

Hmmmmmmmm all of this seems a bit odd

That should have explained your concerns.

Guy_Montag

Sorry to go off topic, how do you claim £200 (pw??) for having an au pair?

bionic_banjo

Just put it down to experience. Either get a decent photographic inventory signed up by landlord and tenant - or be prepared to lose the lot.

I once let a property to a police man and his girlfrield. I got it back missing a sofa bed, missing a bath, missing a letter box, missing handles to the fridge and loft hatch. The brand new pine bed was broken and their dog had torn up areas the brand new carpet. The worst bit was the bed mattress - which had been brand new. It was covered in blood stains and urine and black stuff. I am not exaggerating - it was really, really disgusting. Needless to say they did not get their deposit back. It cost me over over a thousand to make the place lettable again - re decorated throughout and fitted a new bathroom suite. I will never let with a mattress again!!!! They can buy their own!!!! Everything else comes from the charity shop. Apart from the white goods.

kissingthepink

Goodness me. So, if you are a claimant you can get £200 per week to get an au pair to look after your child and assist with household duties? Is this correct? Sorry if I come accross as naive, but I do not know how "the system" works? And you do what you want with that £200 by way of deciding how much you give to the au pair and what you want to do with the rest? Surely this can be abused?

I know you say that you have black outs but if a medical consultant says that you are well enough to drive surely you are capable of cleaning the house and looking after a child yourself? Is an au pair reallky necessary, it sounds more like a luxury to me.

thesaint

The title of this thread:

"Wear and tear" in a rental property

MJMum

bionic_banjo wrote: »

missing a bath

:huh: :shocked: The mind boggles what they did with the bath!

janey_uk

There is no need at all to repaint to get rid of the smell of cigarettes - a wash down of the walls with sugar soap and washing curtains will do it. I would expect a landlord to do this between tenants anyway - part and parcel of offering a refreshed property to the market. Mild nicotine stains wash off easily. If they weren't meant to smoke, just offer the tenant an opportunity to do this themselves first, that way it gets done at no effort to your mum and without the bother of arguing over money.

In relation to wear and tear, if the tenant has already had a sofa professionally cleaned, ask for a receipt. If the sofa is a light colour and liable to stain then it arguably isn't suitable for rental.

I rented a flat with a carpeted kitchen and dropped a hot baking tray, leaving a massive square burn on it. The landlord agreed that it was wear and tear as carpet isn't appropriate for a kitchen, and had there been a suitable floor I wouldn't have damaged it.

milkydrink

missk_ensington wrote: »

That should have explained your concerns.

Out of curiosity I read the Au Pair thread mentioned here.

The reason you have such argumentative replies is that you constantly contradict yourself.

On the Au Pair thread I think you said you claimed £200 allowance from the DHSS (social) for having an Au Pair of which you gave her £50 pocket money & claimed £150 was for board & lodging? I am in the process of claiming, currently pay £50, will give her raise when money comes through, never said I claimed £15o for Board, I said if she lodged in someone's house that is approximately what it'd cost her a week for rental of a room, council tax, food, water, gas, electric... all of which I pay for. It was an approximate estimate to explain to people that she gets all this in addition to her wage
If you are claiming £200 a week for her off the social & paying her £50 then you are charging her £150 a week for bed & board. You can dress it up however you like. Whether you give her a raise or not, you are currently pocketing £150 a week. If you are still waiting to recieve it, I'm sure you will be expecting them to backdate it?

Then you said you couldn't afford to keep buying cartons of juice at £2.25 for three in Asda as yoo only have a £45 a week shopping budget for 3!!!!!!!!!!!! :rolleyes: I could afford it if neccessary, possibly wrong phrasing so apologies, what I mean is it is a huge chunk of my budget. My food budget isn't set because I am poor, my budget is set at £45 as part of my household budget and I do not feel it necessary to raise it any more as it has always been sufficient in the past. To do so would mean balancing the books by cutting back on something else, perhaps hairdressers, clothing, going out, takeaways etc. I account for all my income/expenditure and allocate amounts for food, credit card payments, renovating house....
You have taken that out of context, it was with the first paragraph, What I said was how can you think £150 a week is fine for bed & board one minute & then only allocate £15 per head for shopping?


So if you allow £15 for feeding her where does the other £135 you claim from the DHSS go??? I never said that, although rent in a room is approx £50 I think going rate is, £30 a week for food (if she was renting a room in someone elses house she wouldn't feed herself for the amount I can feed her for given that she can't even cook beans on toast) I manage it so cheaply purely because I am a good shopper and cook efficiently, a chicken does 2 days out of 7 with soup etc, gas/elec easily £40 a week (My last bill for gas alone was £358 Dec-Mar because she's had heating on all the time) We're at £120 already without mentioning a contribution to Council Tax, water and other thing it might cost
I think charging live in staff for rent is a bit strong, how can you say £30 for her food when the shopping budget for 3 is £45. You contradict yourself all the time. If its £40 a week for your gas/elec you will understand that this was probably not much less before she moved in & has possibly only risen by a small amount. A house will use much the same regardless of how many people live in it. We use about £75 a month gas/elec, if our daughter were to move out, it would be unrealistic to expect this to fall to £50. Its not proportional to the amount of people living in it.


Also if your blackouts are as bad as you say they are, should you be driving, do DVLA know about this???? Already been discussed, on the say so of consultant I can still drive
Its a strange system we have, you are well enough to control a car but ill enough for the state to pay for live in help in case you blackout?

Also you complain you come in & she has had the heating on ALL DAY. Do you expect her to NOT HAVE THE HEATING ON WHILE YOU ARE OUT??????
Surely you do not want your son sitting in a cold unheated house while you are out? Of course she can have the heating on, I wouldn;t want her to be cold, however I'm sure you'll agree that flicking it onto constant and raising the thermostat as high as it'll go and then leaving it on from 9am until 6pm 7 days a week is not appropriate, hence £358 gas bill for 3 months
I'm a housewife, I have the heating on constant & max all through the winter & I live in the south east, you live in the north west! I really wouldn't expect someone in 2007 to be in an unheated house during the day/evening. I really don't think it unreasonable to have the heating on 9am - 6pm. Are you at work or college during this time, is that not heated?

Hmmmmmmmm all of this seems a bit odd