Landlord Utility Payments

Consecca

Hi,

QQ - Is it reasonable to ask your landlord to pay for a new shower curtain and shower rail if the one I currently have is heavily rusted and corroded and the shower curtain is starting to collate a lot of black mould along the bottom?

Should he be paying for that or will he think I am taking the p*** for being a tight a***?

Thanks

Consecca

HampshireH

Rail yes curtain no. But just my opinion

The curtain should be replaced regularly as they do go mouldy. I wouldn't say this is a landlord responsibility.  Nice if they do though.

Have you ever washed your shower curtain?

You can pick them up for a couple of ££. 

[Deleted User]

Put the shower curtain in bleach. 

macman

What ventilation is there in the shower?
What has this to do with utility payments? Those are normally the responsibility of the occupier in a tenanted property.

theartfullodger

How long have you been there?  If, say, 19 years probably no, if only 19 days yes.

Ventilation, heating.....

Consecca

Thanks for your responses people, in the end people.
I ended up buying the rail and shower curtain myself in the end. only come to £20 for both of them from Dunelm

My landlord is so slow to respond to things like this, so I figured if I want something done about it and I'm the one that has to live with this, it's up to me to do something about it, glad I did now, the bathroom feels so clean and fresh now with a shiny new rail and clean curtain. Will just need to get into the habit of cleaning the curtain more often though.

[Deleted User]

The money I’ve spent on shower curtains whilst renting. I favour shower screens, if the choice was mine to make. 

If it’s a fabric curtains, putting it through the wash, after a handful of times, will remove the water-resistant coating. This doesn’t stop me doing it, though I now just use fabric curtains as an outer layer. Once the coating is gone, they end up soaked through and horrible. Although they can be recoated with water-resistance stuff, it’s cheaper just to bin the curtain and buy another.

I use a plastic/pvc/peva/whatever it is, fairly thick curtain as a liner, which takes the abuse from the shower. I’ve cut mine down in size to fit better within the bath area. After each shower, I give the curtain a good shake out to get air around it; helps it dry quicker and, so far (over a year), has prevented any mould or mildew.

Your shiny new rail might or not last long, depending on what (quality) it’s made from. I switched from a boring white rail to a new shiny rail, and switched back within six months. Nice, shiny rail rusted fast, despite being marketed as rust-resistant. There are other shiny chrome bars in my bathroom (towel rails) and these are proving rust-resistant; seven years and just a few specks. 

Equalee

I've been in rental properties where we couldn't even replace the curtains after many, many years. Asked several times about replacing and never came back to us.
Don't blame you just doing it yourself

user1977

Equalee said:

I've been in rental properties where we couldn't even replace the curtains after many, many years. Asked several times about replacing and never came back to us.

The shower curtains? Not sure what the harm would have been in replacing them, or the likelihood of a landlord noticing. What are they going to do - demand you replace the nice new one with the old manky one?

badmemory

I would say curtain definitely down to you - rail not so much but don't use metal ones.  When hanging new curtain make sure the "hem" side is not the side that gets wet as it makes water collect (mould trap).