Fair Wear & Tear

alexmcd777

Afternoon.

This is my first post (and the reason I joined) so if you can give me your opinion it would be appreciated.

So basically, I've been in my current place for 4 years. Its a 3 bed semi in Wokingham, Berkshire.

I have 3 young children (3, 4 and 8) and as you can imagine, wear and tear has occurred. However, I'm a fair man, and I accept some of it is not fair wear and tear and I wanted peoples opinions on what they thought would be. I'll list below some of the things they've done:

Drawing on the walls (not bad but with pencil)
Finger prints on walls
Dents in wood work
Spills in carpets
Lots of dark marks on a cream carpet in the lounge
marks and paint chips on a radiator


The lounge carpet i accept and I'm getting it professionally cleaned before we move out, along with giving the house a professional clean. But do you think I'd need to paint the whole house (fingerprint issues) or do you think those would be considered fair.

I look forward to helpful responses

ManuelG

When you say 'finger prints' I assume you mean more etched on than can be cleaned off?

Ditto the pencil drawing, can't be rubbed off?

I'm also assuming the paint chips are bigger than a small little chiop you barely see, on the radiator?

alexmcd777

walls will be cleaned etc, but the paint is rubbish and if you rub to hard, the paint comes off...

Radiators are chipped, not massively, but noticeably... could do with a good tipex-ing

DUTR

Basically leave it in a state that you yourself moved in, the next person shouldn't have to clean up etc.

RAS

Was the decor new when you moved in? Even so I think most LLs would re-paint after a 4 year tenancy so I would argue no deductions.

Carpets; depends on the quality. Budget would be replaced at least every 5 years so max duduction 20% of value. High quality I would expect to last 10 years or more.

[Deleted User]

How hard is it to paint a radiator? Same for drawn on walls? I painted my whole house for £50 (one can of gloss, two large cans of vinyl matt that was on offer at the time and covered well).., lot less than paying the LL if he needs to get in a decorator. Spend £1 on a box of powdered plaster stuff that will fill any cracks (any pound shop).

House looked like new. No worries on my part about enormous reductions from deposit for things I could easily do myself. Yes the LL got 'betterment' but I got a lot less stress.

G_M

A good test might be to ask yourself

a) what was it like when you moved in? How did you feel about the condition? and then
b) if I & my family were moving in today, how would I feel about the condition? The same as in a) or would I think "this is a bit of a tip..."?

Having said that, many LLs would expect to 'freshen up' if not re-paint after 5 years or so.

FBaby

RAS wrote: »

Was the decor new when you moved in? Even so I think most LLs would re-paint after a 4 year tenancy so I would argue no deductions.

Carpets; depends on the quality. Budget would be replaced at least every 5 years so max duduction 20% of value. High quality I would expect to last 10 years or more.

Is it really what is considered reasonable? Because I've been in my property for over 4 years when the walls were freshly repainted and they still look fresh and clean. Same with carpets, new 4 years ago and it looks not much different to what it was fitted. I have two kids but we look after the place. Do most home owners repaint their house every 4 years and change carpets every 5?

sniggings

G_M wrote: »

A good test might be to ask yourself

a) what was it like when you moved in? How did you feel about the condition? and then
b) if I & my family were moving in today, how would I feel about the condition? The same as in a) or would I think "this is a bit of a tip..."?

Having said that, many LLs would expect to 'freshen up' if not re-paint after 5 years or so.

not a good way to look at it or fair.

This takes no account of a place that has been lived in, if you expect the place to look the same as it did on day one.

OP, what deposit did you pay?

Writing on walls, is normalish for kids but is not "fair wear and tear", the chips depending how bad may not be acceptable, cleaning the carpet is fair.

Just leave the place as you think fair, then fight any deductions you think unfair.

buttonmoon

When I moved out of my last flat I hired a carpet cleaner from B&Q which didn't cost very much and I washed all the walls (I can't remember with what) to get all the marks off e.g scuff marks from shoes near the door. When I leave a rental property I always clean it from top to toe so that the LL has no reasons to withhold any deposit (this was even in the days before the deposit schemes). My LL always told me they were really pleased the property was so clean (which made me think that others don't bother)

A clean property goes a long way with a landlord (or at least in my experience it does!)

debtmess

We just moved out of our rental to a new one and house was cleaner than when we moved in! We gave a clean to all rooms, windows doors skirtings etc, one room was wallpapered and never been slept in, we painted all rooms bar kitchen and what was my room as the kids rooms had marks etc (not bad ones but just out of politeness) re papered hallways and painted.have my own carpet cleaner And although carpets are now thread bare (been in for years) they came up spanking cream again, oven pride in the cooker (I had to have it professionally cleaned when I moved in) brought it up gleaming. My 2 cents is too leave it as you moved in after all if it was your house you would like it to be treated as it should.

Just awaiting my 'unprotected' deposit back