Was I unreasonable to redecorate?

[wlevrta]

We have been in our rental property for almost three years.

However, we will be moving out in January/February.

We have redecorated the rental and I'm just hoping the landlord is going to be okay with it.

For context. The landlord bought the property as it was and made no improvements himself when he purchased it. The dining room wall was bright green! There was gaps between the laminate and the skirting board in the hallway. The bathroom taps were rubbish and water didn't come out very well. The toilet flusher didn't work properly.

It's not his home that he rents. He has numerous properties he rents out and it's his full time job.

Everything we have done to the property, imo, has improved it and everything has been done neutral.

We have put in a brand new bathroom and flooring.

Painting in the rest of the house, etc.

Do you think this will be a problem? He seems like a reasonable guy

This is nuts!! If you don't own a property you can't just replace a bathroom without permission! Of course a landlord might be furious

@dontgobaconmyheart I thought it would be ok as we have improved it but all these comments are worrying me now

If we don't get the deposit back that's fine. It would be nice to have it but not the end of the world if we don't

We have just been approved for our first mortgage on our own home and hoping it will all go through by January that's why we are moving

We made the improvements because we thought we would never be able to buy ourselves and would be renting forever and we loved it here so thought we would be here for a long long time

But why would you not just ASK?

@pigsDOfly we put it in about six months ago

We haven't ever had an inspection since we moved in

We see the landlords at Christmas only when Mrs landlord drops a Christmas card in

You spent your own money doing up his property including a new bathroom and you “don’t mind” (that much anyway) if you lose your deposit. What’s your secret to apparently crapping money?! I want to know how to do that!

LL will very be delighted with the changes however he equally probably won’t admit to that and keep your deposit. But you don’t seem to mind that much so crack on. Won’t make much difference will it?

But your definition of an improvement may not be the landlords. You'd be furious if someone redecorated your new house without permission. Why should your landlord feel any differently?

Because it’s my property not yours!

What if the bathroom fitter you chose had done a substandard job and there’s now water leaking through my walls?

What if I had plans to improve or change the property you weren’t aware of?

What if there were previous plumbing issues that needed to be taken into consideration that you weren’t aware of?

What if you make a decision about the bathroom fittings (eg taking out the bath) that makes it harder for me to rent in future?

You can ask if you can paint - that’s a perfectly reasonable conversation but you cannot go ahead without asking.

Changing someone’s property without consent is incredibly arrogant.

OP the reason he will be angry is while his bathroom is horrible and old least he knows how it was plumbed in and the quality of the suite.

The reason it is stupid is if it isn't done properly he can go after you for damage to his property not just your deposit if it isn't plumbed in properly or he doesn't like your suite, etc. If it is done properly and a suite of decent quality, etc then he's laughing as he can keep your deposit and get a new bathroom.

You are nuts. Of course you can't change a bathroom without permission. Doesn't matter if you think it's an improvement or didn't like the green walls. IT IS NOT YOUR DECISION TO MAKE.

It is not your bathroom. You have in effect disposed of his property and replaced it with something which may or may not be to the landlords taste.

It isn't your place to decide that you've done him a "favour!" This isn't your property! Do you honestly not understand this? It is absolutely shocking that you didn't get his permission first. However, given you spent money to redo a bathroom in a home you don't even own, none of us should be surprised you didn't ask.

I'm absolutely gobsmacked. I felt bad enough about rearranging the lounge furniture of my last rental (which I put back when I left!)

And if you only put the bathroom in six months ago thinking you would be there a long time, what on earth has happened since that means you can now afford to move out and buy a house?

The LL is now responsible for maintaining whatever you have put it. It might be more expensive or less hard wearing. This is why council properties rip out everything put in by the previous tenant.

I actually feel that knot of anxiety when I think about the conversation you're going to have to have with your LL. i would not want to be you right now

Yes, I'm wondering how you can be fine with potentially losing so much money.

My tenant's deposit is well over £1000, which I imagine they will really want to get back at the end of their tenancy - I accept yours could be a lot less.

Then on top of your deposit there's all the money you've spent on the 'improvements'.

Most people don't have that sort of money to just throw away. What's your secret?

You treated your rental as if it was your house. It’s not. You made changes you like but your landlord may not.

You broke your tenancy agreement and behaved disrepectfully. It’s not your house.

You are utterly in the wrong and the fact you can’t see it is very worrying.

It’s of zero consequence whether the changes would generally be considered an improvement. You had no permission to do it.

I was a landlord for a year and I would have been furious. You could have kissed goodbye to your deposit, gained accurately poor references and possibly been sued for the costs to put it back how it was.

You are renting OP. You must ASK.

First I’m really surprised you’ve have no inspections. I own properties and they are inspected usually every 3 months.

Second sorry OP, but I’d be pretty pissed off if someone made changes to one of my properties without my consent. It doesn’t belong to you and regardless of wether it’s an improvement it’s really bad form.

Third why would you sink so much money into a place you don’t own??

We made the improvements because we thought we would never be able to buy ourselves and would be renting forever and we loved it here so thought we would be here for a long long time

But even if you wanted to stay there's no guarantee that the landlord wouldn't have asked you to move out for any number of reasons after your 6 month contract. What if he/she had given you notice the month after the bathroom was done? A bit of paint (with permission) is reasonable but this is utterly mad.

In your landlord's position I would be worried about the quality of the work done. We had to have our entire hallway ripped out including all the floorboards because a toilet (put in by a previous owner) hadn't been plumbed in correctly and was leaking for years. It was thousands of pounds to repair everything.

I am a renter and I agree with all the PP’s!

Our landlord is brilliant, but anything we want to do in the house we run past him 1st with plenty of notice and always in writing. We’ve decorated throughout and replaced curtains and he’s gone halves with us on new blinds and that’s all good, but to replace a bathroom without his consent and this really could end up costing you more than your deposit!

If I were your landlord I would sue you for damages.

Just a note OP, if you are buying then I would advise against giving a months notice on your rental til you have exchanged contracts. The sale could quite easily fall through at any point up til then I’d be delayed and you don’t want to be stuck with nowhere to live if you’ve already given notice.
It costs a bit more as you end up with couple of weeks or more overlapping between the two properties but it’s much less hassle. And it makes moving easier as you can do it in stages !

I agree you should have asked and the landlord could be very angry about this.

If however, you have a landlord like DD's, he has dozens of houses all refurbished to "bodge it" standard, then you may be lucky, because he wouldn't have a clue what colour or fittings were in that house.

What were you thinking! It doesn't matter if it looks nicer! It's not your house. You've wasted your own money too.

Didn't you ask? We always ask...our landlord is fine with us painting etc as long as we don't do weird things like paint the walls black or something.