Rental property - Garden/Weed issues - who's responsible?

ChrisH87

Hi All,

My partner is currently in a rental property - she has recently raised concerns to her landlord that the weeds are unmanageable (both front and rear gardens are laid with a very light covering of gravel/decorative stone over an old layer of weed membrane which appears to be defective / no longer working.- every week she is spending hours - literally - pulling them out!)

The landlord has basically respond - "as per the tenancy agreement, that's your problem - sorry to be so blunt"

As far as I'm concerned, and she has had grounds maintenance people advise her the same - the problem is that:
1) The decorative stone is not laid properly, i.e it's not deep enough - this is basically a single layer of stones (10-15mm deep!)
2) the weed membrane has failed/deteriorated and is no longer effective.

Despite 'weeding' being part of the tenancy agreement - are the landlords responsible for maintaining the sub-base of the garden, or is it her responsiblity to dig up the garden and fix the poorly constructed garden to meet her 'weeding' requirements?

Thanks for any input anyone can offer

Thanks

Chris

anselld

Yes it is your problem.
Get some weed killer.  The stuff that kills and stops them germinating also.

lookstraightahead

Literally hours? How big is this garden?

when we rented we had a big gravel pathway through the middle. Weeds were easy to pull out and took a few minutes a week.

it's not a hotel. It's a home.

Skiddaw1

It'll be easier come autumn when the weeds die back anyway, but I do sympathise. The gravel is no-where near deep enough. It really needs to be redone properly doesn't it? It may be doable by hand depending on the size of the area- I did it to the front garden of our previous house- but it's hard work to do it properly (and surprisingly pricey as you invariably need heaps more gravel than you think you'll need). I think I'm with @anselld - under the circs, and whilst I'd do anything usually to avoid weedkiller, I don't think she has much choice. It's either that or resign herself to hours of weeding on a regular basis. 

ChrisH87

Skiddaw1 said:

It'll be easier come autumn when the weeds die back anyway, but I do sympathise. The gravel is no-where near deep enough. It really needs to be redone properly doesn't it? It may be doable by hand depending on the size of the area- I did it to the front garden of our previous house- but it's hard work to do it properly (and surprisingly pricey as you invariably need heaps more gravel than you think you'll need). I think I'm with @anselld - under the circs, and whilst I'd do anything usually to avoid weedkiller, I don't think she has much choice. It's either that or resign herself to hours of weeding on a regular basis. 

Yep - it's not done correctly which is the fundamental problem here, if it was a few inches deep, as it should be - it's far less likely to be an issue and ongoing maintenance would be far more reasonable.

Again, because of the underlying setup, the weeds aren't just here and there - they are literally everywhere! it's not a 5 minute job unfortunately. - @lookstraightahead you wouldn't happen to have a spare 5 minutes to teach me your ninja-like weeding skills? 

We'll try the weed killer approach and see if it helps... I'm not convinced spraying it over the top of the stones is going to help but it has to be worth a try!

Thanks

Chris

babyblade41

What does it say in the contract ?

I always stipulated tenants maintain the garden .

When the property was viewed initially did it have lots of weeds in it then ? 

90% of the time tenants need to maintain the garden 

sheramber

The weed killer is absorbed by the plants to kill the roots so you It is inactivated when it lands on the soil. You need to spray when weeds are actively growing and there is a reasonable amount of foliage to absorb enough weed killer to kill the roots.

RAS

Go back to the incoming inventory. What does it say about the garden? Are there any photographs? Because that is the state in which the garden needs to be returned.

I can understand why weedkiller sounds an easy solution but you'll still have to pull up the weeds to meet the likely criteria when it's returned to the LL.

And its a lot easier to pull up most live weeds than brittle dead ones (dandelions and the like excluded). Then rake or brush over the surface to make the gravel level.

Start with a quick clearance of the taller stuff and anything that's seeding, wilt and shove in bin liners, unless there's a compost bin.Once you can see the smaller stuff work n a section at a time.

Brie

weed killer as others have suggested.  And then strim.  Much easier than crawling about.  Well for me anyways as I've got a dodgy knee.

CurlySue2017

Slightly different but a previous rental that I lived in stipulated that it was my responsibiity to keep the lawn mown, however the LL had to provide the tools for me to that (a lawnmower) if I didn't have one of my own, which I didn't.

However the weeding and other general maintenance was all down to me as the tenant and nothing was provided for this.

ChrisH87

CurlySue2017 said:

Slightly different but a previous rental that I lived in stipulated that it was my responsibiity to keep the lawn mown, however the LL had to provide the tools for me to that (a lawnmower) if I didn't have one of my own, which I didn't.

However the weeding and other general maintenance was all down to me as the tenant and nothing was provided for this.

Grass would be so much easier - 10-15 minutes a week cutting grass sounds like a dream compared to maintaining this 'maintenance free' style garden! its honestly awful. I had hoped that the LL would have some sort of responsibility to maintain the basis of the garden (i.e. the fundamentals - i.e. membranes and the gravel itself) -I appreciate that general housekeeping / upkeep is to be expected, but when you're expected to get a shovel, wheelbarrow etc out with the potential to basically relay the garden, that personally feels like more than I'd expect from a tenant - but the answers above seem to suggest that it's all on the tenant to figure it out. 

Not what I wanted to hear, but that's sometimes how it goes!

Thanks

Chris