6 years wear and tear on magnolia walls and cream carpets

lookstraightahead

Moving out soon after over 6 years and we will get cleaners in at the end of the tenancy to do a thorough clean and professionally clean the oven.

When we moved in the house was clean, but not professionally cleaned (noted on inventory), so we feel we're going beyond with this which we are more than happy to do.

The walls are magnolia and had been touched up in places (not redecorated) and the carpets were, i would estimate, about three years old, when we moved in.

I'm going round making good our marks (eg blue tack marks in office) by using magnolia paint, but there are some quite dirty bits in thoroughfares which I feel will mean whole walls painted and I'm not convinced I should really have to do this as I've been here so long and the whole house needs decorating really.

Same with carpets - probably ten years old now, a couple of our stains but lots of marks from previous.

What would you do?

lookstraightahead

So what is wear and tear on walls and what can I be charged for a 10 year old carpet?

lookstraightahead

If we are charged for redecoration it would be betterment

jonnygee2

1) What you have described doesn't sound like damage. So it wouldn't be chargeable. 'Dirty bits' are wear and tear, if you are talking small scuffs/marks on walls. after 6 years.

2) At 10 years old your paint job and carpets are probably beyond their life expectancy anyway. So I don't think there'd be much to claim for.

Have you actually spoken to the landlord? Do you expect issues? Seems likely he will be redecorating anyway.

lookstraightahead

Thanks Jonny. He's fab but I think is expecting us to move out one day and have a new tenant in the next so we were really trying to help him out. But i agree he needs to invest some time and effort in bringing it up to standard. My magnolia is looking a bit cleaner that the old stuff so doesn't really help.

Slithery

If I was a LL I'd have already budgeted for both the void period and redecoration at the end of a 6 year tenancy.

A one month void and a couple of hundred quid for redecoration in 6 years would be way better than I'd have accounted for.

LocoLoco

lookstraightahead wrote: »

Thanks Jonny. He's fab but I think is expecting us to move out one day and have a new tenant in the next so we were really trying to help him out. But i agree he needs to invest some time and effort in bringing it up to standard. My magnolia is looking a bit cleaner that the old stuff so doesn't really help.

Could you ask him to come round and have a look so you all know where you stand? I tend do this when we leave a place; generally I find landlords don't want hassle and a battle over who's doing what anymore than tenants do. It might save you trying to guess what to do and what to leave and means he won't have a shock if he finds he's got to redecorate when he's not expecting to

jonnygee2

Could you ask him to come round and have a look so you all know where you stand?

I always think communicating with the landlord is a good idea.

But where the OP stands isn't really up to the landlord. If they haven't damaged anything, and if the carpets and walls are already so old that any charges at all would be betterment, then the landlord can't charge anything.

newbieFTB

I agree that what you're describing does sound like fair wear and tear but to save any hassle fighting someone who doesn't understand that definition I'd do as much as possible to make sure I got my full deposit back.


I moved out of a rental property after 8+ years a year or so back, the carpets were new when I moved in but landlord suddenly started talking about carpets being professionally cleaned which was not in the contract when the tenancy began - in the end I used Dr Beckmann carpet stain remover which is just insane (£3 from most supermarkets) for the odd spot stain. I then hoovered with a new Shark hoover which showed me how rubbish my old hoover was... I didn't ever tell the landlord that I had or hadn't 'professionally cleaned' the carpets but on check out the person commented on how clean the carpets were and 'he could tell I'd had them cleaned'!