Candle soot damage in rental property

azthal

Hi,

Short lead up, i'm an idiot, and it never occured to me that candles can seriously damage walls. I got into yankee candles during lockdowns. Walls are in real bad shape and i'm moving out.

I didn't fully realize this until I started cleaning, and noticed that the walls were darker. Trying to clean it made it significantly worse with streaking.
I am now scared that I will have to pay massive amounts for this, as I expect that will need to be repainted.

My question is this. Although I do not disagree that I have caused this damage, do I have any other recourse for it? Can I be charged the full amount for repainting? I've been in the property for 3 years, and the paint certainly wasn't new when I moved in (inventory documents several scuffs and marks and similar).

I'm feeling really bad about this, mainly as I've always before had essentially my full deposit back (minus a few quid for minor things), but this time... What justified arguments do I have, and if the costs are not covered by my deposit, then what happens?

Thankful for any advice!

tealady

Try washing soda to clean the walls (use rubber gloves as it is a degreaser and is alkaline)

AdrianC

azthal said:

My question is this. Although I do not disagree that I have caused this damage, do I have any other recourse for it? Can I be charged the full amount for repainting? I've been in the property for 3 years, and the paint certainly wasn't new when I moved in (inventory documents several scuffs and marks and similar).

You can be charged a proportion according to the expected time between repaints.

So if it's five years since it was last painted, it's probably about due anyway - the amount you would be due to pay will be minimal.

The landlord needs to prove to the deposit arbitrators that any deductions are truly justified.

Spinybif

Try washing down with sugar soap 

https://www.wikihow.com/Sugar-Soap-Walls

lookstraightahead

Are the walls magnolia? You can repaint them yourself. We touched up with a sample pot 

Greymug

I had a similar problem in my old flat. My partner liked to have candles on and after a while I noticed the stains, specifically black dots where the drywall screws were.

Washing the walls with sugar soap did not work one bit and made the walls worse. I just painted over before I sold the flat.

I'd repaint them myself with the cheapest neutral paint I can find.

SavingPennies_2

Speak to your landlord first. I thought Id have to repaint my kitchen before moving out of a previous rental (I'd painted it a different colour while living there) the landlord was really nice and told me not to bother as she was going to redecorate anyway before the next tenant moved in. (Most) other landlords have been less understanding but you might be lucky. If it's been 5 years it's probably due a new coat of paint anyway. Even if they do charge, withholding a full deposit would not be fair, a repaint job (especially for a landlord with access to cheap paint and labour) will not cost £1000 or whatever your deposit presumably was.