Blu Tac and deposit - Update

nigem

Any ideas please?

Friend is moving out from his shared 2 bed flat in 1 week. Whilst showing prospective new tenants round, the LL has noticed marks on the walls from blu tac. (The lease says no blu tac as they have just realised!):eek: Although the inventory doesnt mention the walls condition either.

They had planned to remove/ paint over the marks this weekend but LL has just sent a text to say he will require £950 for redecorating due to the marks.

Would it be best to,

• remove then paint over the marks...and what works well on blu tac?

• Dispute the amount as its not all the walls, so not all the flat needing redecoration

The lease says no painting/decorating without prior permission so they cant repaint all the walls I guess.

DVardysShadow

2 parts to this, the technical aspect of removing blutack marks and the business of redecorating, which the DIY forum may be able to help with.

The LL is on a more sticky wicket claiming if nothing is on the entry inventory - and if the flat is returned in the same condition as it was taken, there is no basis to make any charge. If they do repaint, they should take pictures before they leave and obviously get a good colour match. If they achieve that, I cannot see that the LL could do much about the technical breach of the no decorating clause

Kynthia

The LL has no right to claim anything yet as all that matters is the condition of the property at the end of the tenancy. However tenants should not redecorate without LL permission, especially if it's prohibited in the lease. So whatever they can do now to improve the marks they should do, but not paint.

If the inventory doesn't mention the condition of the walks it's because there was nothing to mention, ie. no marks. If they have left marks then they should pay to rectify it. However if they feel it's excessive or the landlord wants new for old at their expense they can dispute it. To prepare they should take dated photos the day they leave as evidence.

princeofpounds

However tenants should not redecorate without LL permission, especially if it's prohibited in the lease. So whatever they can do now to improve the marks they should do, but not paint.

Not strictly true. If they were to get the identical colour and paint, and the colour match is not off (say perhaps because the exiting paint is very aged), then even if they were breaking the tenancy agreement the landlord could not claim damages either in court or through the tenancy deposit system.

Why? Because the landlord has not suffered loss or damage.

I'm not saying it's easy to achieve good finish with retouching, but it isn't 'banned' if it is achievable.

Secondly, a landlord is not entitled to betterment. If they were not very far away from needing to repaint anyway then they cannot charge much - you don't get to replace old with new and any claim should account for depreciation. If the blutac marks are very limited then they cannot charge to repaint every surface, in fact possibly not much more than spot-retouching.

However, if the paint was new and the marks are everywhere then a full claim might be valid.

Werdnal

Have you actually tried to remove the stains? They are often caused by the grease from the hands that put the stuff up in the first place.

Google "removing blue tac" and you get a mutitude of different suggestions, although proceed with caution as some may do more damage than the blue tac in the first place! I have heard that fresh bread, rolled into a ball and rubbed over the mark will help soak out the grease and remove it.

Are the walls cheap matt emulsion - its a b*&&*r for showing the slightest mark, but tends to be the landlord's decoration of choice!

Errata

As mentioned, the marks are grease, which will show through a fresh coat of emulsion.

tbs624

There's a good reason the LL requested that this stuff wasn't used. Blu (and white)tac is the very devil for marks on walls IMO and if you check the (very) small print on the packaging it comes in the possibility of it leaving marks is flagged up.

The only way to stop the damn marks coming through the next coat of emulsion is to use a stainblock paint first and, unfortunately, that generally means using the stainblock over the whole affected wall, rather than spot touching it. If you just spot touch it and then emulsion, there is a tendency for the spot touched bits to "flash" through.

In my experience it is cheaper to have to fill in drawing pin holes than see to the marks left by that stuff.

nigem

Thanks for the help so far.

The inventory is the most basic I have seen, no mention of walls at all. They have also found previous evidence of touch up marks so any good touching up that is done will mean that the condition will not be substantially different.

They have found the paint used on the walls in the back of a cupboard so no worries there either.

I have googled removing blu tack but has anyone experience of what worked for them?

Rockporkchop

I have used this before with decent results:

http://www.3mselect.co.uk/p-1019-3m-citrus-cleaner-adhesive-remover-spray-500ml.aspx

Roll a big piece of blu tak over the remaining bits on the wall to remove all of it, scrape over the wall with a credit card to make sure it is all off, use the above stuff sparingly then paint over it.

Or if there isn't much grease on the wall they could try a bit of lemon juice on the grease stains instead before painting.

ognum

The amount being charged is rediculous, before my last tenants in one property I had a whole 4 bedroom, 2 bath house redecorated for £900 and the house is on an expensive area.

Did he put blue tack everywhere?

[Deleted User]

If the inventory was very basic with no mention of condition of walls, I would suggest the LA would have difficulty charging anything, let alone £950 for the state of the walls.., blue tack or not as its not possible for them to identify which tenant made the marks (your friend or the tenant before etc, etc).

However, if your friend has found the paint, and is prepared to remove the marks, doing so could save him/her a lot of hassle arguing about the issue. Just try one or two of the methods u've found, until u find one that works on a spot or two of blue tack. Then use that method on the whole wall. It won't cost £950!