Am I legally responsible for pruning a tree in my rented house?

edwink

When we rented a property through an agent some time ago we had large apple trees down one side of the garden. Whilst we were living there the apple trees were pruned. This was all arranged and paid for by the landlord. We were expected to just keep the garden neat and tidy and not to prune any of the trees.

HTH

Edwink

orionmoo

theartfullodger wrote: »

Bet that the inventory & photos from move-in check do not show the branches/tree condition so landlord would be hard put to prove they therefore had got worse during the tenancy.

Silly landlord.

Doesn't matter when it comes to deposit dispute. The arbitrator can still side with one party through word alone on balance of probabilities. That certainly happened to my partner in a previous tenancy regarding the cleanliness of an oven and the black and white photos which were in the report, and even the wording "clean, but shows sign of use" exactly the same on both check in and check out!

FBaby

I'm not clear whether you are at the end of your tenancy and planning to move or not. If you are planning to move, then don't do anything, as it's been stated, it is very unlikely the DPS would expect you to do this if she tried to claim from your deposit.

If however you are in the middle of your tenancy and have asked her to do it because it's taking too much of the sun, and she told you that it's your responsibility, then I don't think you can impose her to oblige.

nikki048

FBaby wrote: »

I'm not clear whether you are at the end of your tenancy and planning to move or not. If you are planning to move, then don't do anything, as it's been stated, it is very unlikely the DPS would expect you to do this if she tried to claim from your deposit.

If however you are in the middle of your tenancy and have asked her to do it because it's taking too much of the sun, and she told you that it's your responsibility, then I don't think you can impose her to oblige.

We're not at the end of the tenancy - she just mentioned the tree when she came for her annual inspection. WE aren't bothered about getting the tree pruned - she's just trying to make us do it under the "keeping the garden neat" clause.

glentoran99

Big chainsaw, chop tree down, job done

Marvel1

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

Not at all.
If the tenancy makes the tenant responsible for this (and I'm not saying that this is the case here) then the tenant is responsible for the result.
It is for the tenant to decide how to fulfil his obligations, and he should hire a professional when needed.

Cutting grass, removing weeds is fine.

But you would be happy to pay out let's say £200 annually to sort the tree out, even though it is not yours and out your control?

Miss_Samantha

cjdavies wrote: »

But you would be happy to pay out let's say £200 annually to sort the tree out, even though it is not yours and out your control?

Terms are agreed, not imposed.

nikki048

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

Terms are agreed, not imposed.

Try telling that to the Health Secretary!

McTaggus

Give it a nice mohawk styling and tell her its been pruned…. she might think twice about asking you to do it in future….

lovinituk

We have just arranged for a willow tree that's gone wild in the garden of the flat we rent out to be chopped down professionally at a cost of £400. Our tenancy agreement also states the tenant should keep the garden neat and tidy but I wouldn't dream of expecting them to deal with the tree or any of the associated costs.

Too many landlords take the p*ss and give the rest of us a bad name far too often.