Would you ever pay to do up your landlord's property?

James_Morgan_McGill

I've been renting an unfurnished flat for five years, and I hope to stay in it for many, many more years to come. In that time the landlord has replaced all the white goods and generally shown himself to be agreeable, but very detached. He owns it outright and just wants a quiet life. He last put the rent up two and a half years ago. It's now at least 30% below the market rate, and I am "saving" at least £4,000 a year.

I could probably get the landlord to pay for more renovations, but I think that would be stupid of me. I don't want to push him to sell it, or to put up the rent. If he did decide to sell, I'm sure I'd get plenty of notice and it would be amicable, but I don't want him to do so for a long time. Therefore I am happy to spend my own money on any further improvements, if I want to live in a smarter place than I'm paying for.

The landlord is happy for me to do whatever I want that doesn't involve builders. I've paid for fixtures, fittings and furniture. I just repainted a few rooms, and paid for new carpets. I'm thinking to pay to get the floors sanded and repolished, and to replace some light fittings. The bathroom and kitchen really need replacing - I would draw the line at that, and will just have to leave them as they are.

Have any of you ever been in a similar situation, where it's actually made financial sense for you to spend your own money doing up your landlord's property?

enjoyyourshoes

We took over a shambolic ex council house in village.


redecorated and carpeted throughout


after we did it he put it on the market to sell

agrinnall

I only pay for consumables or things that I can take with me when I go while I'm renting. However, my renting is short term compared to yours, in your situation I might well consider it. The danger is that you spend money only to find that soon after you get issued with a notice to quit. If you don't think that's likely then I'd definitely consider spending some money to make my living environment more pleasant, although like you I'd probably draw the line at kitchen/bathroom replacement - but even then you might want to think about whether to approach the LL about sharing the cost with you making the arrangements so he doesn't have to do anything other than hand over some money.

clark24

We are currently improving the rental property we are in. The place was left in a state by the pervious tenants but the 'bones' of it are perfect for us, it just needs a lot of TLC and things replacing or repairing. The rent for the area is very reasonable and the cottage is exactly what we want, and the landlady is happy to pay for the structural things but the finishing touches are something we are undertaking as they are what we want, rather than an essential need.

We've replaced taps with much nicer ones, decorated, put better light fittings in, removed bad flooring (manky carpets due to previous tenants dog and general skankiness) etc and are currently landscaping the garden, the landlady is paying for slabs and masonry paint and we are doing the re-turfing and new plants.

She is happy to take the money we need for certain things off our rent, as we are improving her property (obviously we are not taking the mick with it, and are getting the best deals and doing the work ourselves).

It's a win/win, she gets an improved property with tenants she wants to keep and don't cause her stress, and we get an improved home with a landlady who wants to keep us.

SailorSam

I was brought up on a Council Estate and everyone decorated their own houses. Little different than your case in so much that none were furnished or carpeted so everyone again did their own. Some but very few paid for things like double glazing and central heating.

goodwithsaving

clark24 wrote: »

She is happy to take the money we need for certain things off our rent, as we are improving her property (obviously we are not taking the mick with it, and are getting the best deals and doing the work ourselves).

Get any deductions agreed in writing. I did this once but when I left (not on happy terms - the landlord was drilling until midnight and at 0600 on successive occasions when he had let himself in to do work on the place) they tried to screw me over for money we'd agreed to be deducted.

James_Morgan_McGill

Good to hear so far that this is something that does happen, and I'm not being a patsy!

A few of the double-glazing seals need replacing, I'll probably pay for that myself. I want to get better curtain rails (wooden, rather than plastic rails) and better curtains. I've also spent a lot of time in the garden planting a lawn (it was just scrub), flowers, shrubs, etc.

I feel like I get *some* of the benefit of home-ownership: a sense of secure tenure, and the freedom to do what I like. Though of course I don't get the benefit of increasing capital value, and the rent I pay is still dead money, I couldn't actually afford to buy a property around here, though.

Pixie5740

Small things I'll fix myself, like the cracked shower hose, but larger things, hell to the no. If I had a secure tenancy it would be different matter.

clark24

goodwithsaving wrote: »

Get any deductions agreed in writing. I did this once but when I left (not on happy terms - the landlord was drilling until midnight and at 0600 on successive occasions when he had let himself in to do work on the place) they tried to screw me over for money we'd agreed to be deducted.

Oh we have, we give her copies of the reciepts and she deducts that amount from our rent that month.

We actually have a very good relationship with her, she knows how much we love this place and appreciates how much physical work we have done, and are still doing, to maintain and improve her property. We are lucky in that her last tenants (who were also her first tenants) were utter scum, shafted her out of thousands in unpaid rent, destroyed the place as much as possible, stole things from the cottage, had the police chasing them round the county, basically tenants from hell and then we come along and are the complete opposite so she is very good at making sure we are happy here as she knows we are worth holding on to.

James_Morgan_McGill

I don't actually have any kind of security - I'm just on a rolling period contract. The sense of security I have is mostly just a state of mind, that I don't think he has any plans to do anything with the property any time soon.

Although I'm certainly aware that it might one day help me that I paid a 'disguised deposit' of two months rent upfront which was not protected, so the landlord probably couldn't evict using a Section 21.

macman

By all means refurnish and redecorate with your LL's permission, but I think it's crazy for you to pay for jobs such as replacing sealed double glazed window units. That is clearly structural maintenance and is the responsibility of the LL. Otherwise, where do you draw the line? For example, if the boiler breaks down, are you expected to pay for it's repair?
The fact that you pay less than market rent is not strictly relevant, as paying for this kind of work yourself does not improve your security of tenure one bit.