tenancy deposit dispute - garden costs

franklee

jjlandlord wrote: »

If the tenant is responsible for keeping the garden tidy then that's what he should do. It doesn't matter what the garden was like when he moved in.

Nope even the OP's tenancy agreement as quoted in his first post says it should be kept as at the commencement of the tenancy:

"Futhermore, to keep the patio areas (if any), paths, garden areas, lawns, flower beds, shrubs or bushes (if any) as tidy, weed free and in seasonal order as at commencement of the tenancy."

However the inventory fails to establish what condition the garden was in. While the tenant should always cover their backs by documenting and reporting this themselves to curtail arguments the onus of proof is on the LL as he is the one making the claim on the tenant's money.

Pixie5740 wrote: »

This is a serious question but is a clause saying the tenant will keep the garden tidy, even if it was a jungle at the start of the tenancy enforceable? I ask because if you move into a rental property and it's dirty, then you don't have to leave it cleaner than that when you move out.

The garden like everything else should be assessed against the condition at the start of the tenancy. The OP's agreement is fair in that it asks the garden to be kept as at commencement of the tenancy.

franklee

mrginge wrote: »

Well silly old me. Here was I thinking that the TA stated that the garden should be kept in a neat and tidy condition.

...Oh it did.

You're missing the two AS's. The tenancy agreement says to keep AS tidy ... AS at commencement of the tenancy. It doesn't document how tidy etc. that was. The inventory should have but just said "border with shrubs". So the LL overlooked documenting the state of the garden. I already said it would have been better if the T had documented it to cover his back but he overlooked it too which IMO is easy to do if you're concentrating on inaccuracies in the inventory rather than on what is missing.

benjus

jjlandlord wrote: »

If the tenant is responsible for keeping the garden tidy then that's what he should do. It doesn't matter what the garden was like when he moved in.

Wouldn't using deposit money to get the garden from an untidy state at the start of the tenancy to a tidy state at the end of the tenancy be classed as a form of betterment?

jjlandlord

Pixie5740 wrote: »

This is a serious question but is a clause saying the tenant will keep the garden tidy, even if it was a jungle at the start of the tenancy enforceable? I ask because if you move into a rental property and it's dirty, then you don't have to leave it cleaner than that when you move out.

Yes, it is enforceable. It is for the tenant to assert the state of the garden before signing!

franklee wrote: »

Nope even the OP's tenancy agreement as quoted in his first post says it should be kept as at the commencement of the tenancy:

"Futhermore, to keep the patio areas (if any), paths, garden areas, lawns, flower beds, shrubs or bushes (if any) as tidy, weed free and in seasonal order as at commencement of the tenancy."

Good point in this specific case.

franklee wrote: »

The garden like everything else should be assessed against the condition at the start of the tenancy.

No. It depends on what the tenancy agreement states.

benjus wrote: »

Wouldn't using deposit money to get the garden from an untidy state at the start of the tenancy to a tidy state at the end of the tenancy be classed as a form of betterment?

No, it is not betterment to hold the parties to the contract.