Redecorating rented property when leaving...

Hi_Mum

Hi all, handed notice on the house I rent over the Christmas period to move out in a month.

When I moved in everything was in brilliant white so I made a couple of decorative changes, nothing major, just painted the four living room walls and a feature wall in the bedroom, Tan and sky blue respectively.

Now I know that I'll have to restore them back to white and that's fine but I just wondered that as the new paint will possibly stand out a bit from the ceilings/other walls - I'm not going to need to do them as well am I? ie: I'm not going to be penalised with my deposit because they then claim the place will need to be completely redecorating with white paint....?

Thanks for your help.

ViolaLass

I would talk to the LL about it first - they may not even want it changed back if you've done a good job and it looks good.

Guest101

Hi_Mum wrote: »

Hi all, handed notice on the house I rent over the Christmas period to move out in a month.

When I moved in everything was in brilliant white so I made a couple of decorative changes, nothing major, just painted the four living room walls and a feature wall in the bedroom, Tan and sky blue respectively.

Now I know that I'll have to restore them back to white and that's fine but I just wondered that as the new paint will possibly stand out a bit from the ceilings/other walls - I'm not going to need to do them as well am I? ie: I'm not going to be penalised with my deposit because they then claim the place will need to be completely redecorating with white paint....?

Thanks for your help.

Did you get permission to do this?

Best thing to do is arrange for them to come round a week or two in advance and let you know what they think.

Loopy28

I would also check first as they may be happy to leave it if it looks good.

Hi_Mum

Hi all,

Letting agent said it would be fine when we moved in - we don't have any direct contact with the landlord.

We've been here for 2.5 years and it has been inspected every 3-4 months and we've never had any complaints, issues raised about anything after the inspections have taken place.

I've bought the paint anyway so I don't mind doing it as a half-full day job but just wanted to see...

adhara

Depends how old the white paint is I guess? It may be wiser to just paint the extra three walls in the bedroom, just so those walls are evenly coloured. Common sense thinks you'll only need to do the two rooms, as the other rooms fall under natural wear and tear.

If the landlord wants and agrees to keep the tan/blue walls, I would get this permission in writing and signed, in case they change their mind and claim it out of your deposit.

Hi_Mum

I've checked the tenancy agreement and it just states to return back in same decorative state to when we moved in (ie: white). I guess if I redecorate exactly what was decorated then we have kept to that clause? There is nothing stating that we have to decorate other walls to ensure consistency etc etc.

There's also a clause regarding carpet cleaning to clean it to a professional standard or hire professional cleaners to clean it. We've kept the property immaculate and were planning to hire a rug doctor when leaving - I take it that will suffice too?

ViolaLass

The LL might prefer to have walls of different colours than walls of different shades of white. Plus, if they don't want the work done then it would save you the time and bother. Why not ask?

Guest101

Hi_Mum wrote: »

I've checked the tenancy agreement and it just states to return back in same decorative state to when we moved in (ie: white). I guess if I redecorate exactly what was decorated then we have kept to that clause? There is nothing stating that we have to decorate other walls to ensure consistency etc etc.

There's also a clause regarding carpet cleaning to clean it to a professional standard or hire professional cleaners to clean it. We've kept the property immaculate and were planning to hire a rug doctor when leaving - I take it that will suffice too?

1: yes, you 'should' paint them white, however, the LL may not want you to, check.
2: you need to return in the state you received, less wear and tear. Ignore this clause for any other reasons than that.

jhs14

Does the LL know the walls have been painted?

In a house I rented, I painted a wall about 6 months before we moved out (we weren't planning on moving out when I painted it!) In that time the LL never saw the wall or knew we had painted it - although he had told us previously that he was happy for us to paint walls as long as we painted them back.

When I moved out I painted it back to magnolia. The colour wasn't a perfect match but only noticeable if you were looking for it - because the LL wasn't looking for it, he didn't even notice when he did the final inspection.

Loopy28

When I rented a few years ago I used a rug doctor to clean the carpets on leaving and they came up really clean.

My tenancy agreement had a clause to state it needed to be professional cleaned with a receipt to prove. I queried when moving in if they had been professionally cleaned prior to us moving in and they couldn't provide proof of this so were happy for me to use a rug doctor and didn't end up insisting on it being done professionally.

Is there an oven in the property? If so ensure that is clean as that is something that they will sting you with if it is not cleaned. I used a box of Oven Pride and it come up brilliantly.