Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

Is this "normal wear and tear" on a rental property

119 replies

Dundundun · 07/02/2019 21:30

I hand my keys back to my rental property tomorrow and just wondered what counted as "normal wear tear" as i really need my full deposit back.

So I have cleaned every visible surface including paintwork and windows, cleaned inside all kitchen cupboards and drawers, cleaned the oven and extractor etc. Basically if you can see it I've cleaned it.

I've filled in all holes from where I had my TV on the wall and painted over the marks with the paint the landlord said the last tenants had used and left except it's a lot lighter shade of magnolia now it's on the wall so it's obvious where I've painted, will be charged for this?

I've tidied the garden but can't mow the grass as A) we've had really bad snow and rain for 2 weeks and B) I sold my mower already without thinking. Will this matter?

There is also about half a bin of garden waste as my council don't collect the green bin between November and March. Will this matter?

And finally one wall of my bedroom was a purple colour and I didn't have any paint of the right colour paint and my bed has left a black Mark on the wall, I have scrubbed it best I can but it's still slightly noticeable (but not a big black line any more) will this matter?

Thanks in advance 🙂

OP posts:

nowahousewife · 07/02/2019 22:14

I’m a landlord of several properties. I nearly always give back the full deposit unless major damage done or major cleaning required.

One time I held back £500 of a £1500 deposit which the tenant disputed through the deposit scheme. They were very thorough and asked for checkin and check out reports which I provided as well as the receipts I had to repair the damage the tenants had done. They upheld my decision to withhold the money. Unhappy tenant but they did leave the place in a state.

I think your landlord will have a difficult time holding back any money without having done a checkin report.

Mammajay · 07/02/2019 22:15

We try to give the full deposit back on the one property we let.

HateIsNotGood · 07/02/2019 22:15

Nothing helpful to add except I've found it totally depends on LL/Agent - sometimes I've got 100% deposit back and sometimes I haven't - although I've always put an equal great effort and great expense into leaving the Property as good as, if not better, than found.

I do recall one Agent that, although returning 100% deposit, required a £25 fee to provide a reference to a later LL. The actual Owners were very nice though (they came to fix a broken doorbell rather than pay through the nose via the Agent, so I met them). So it was the Agents requiring the £25.

Hopefully you have a decent LL/Agent.

GB54 · 07/02/2019 22:15

I think being charged for the lawn is fair but don’t let them overcharge you. Anything else I’d dispute.

GabsAlot · 07/02/2019 22:17

depends were u meant to put y0ur tv on the wall and paint a diffeent colour?

other than that u should be ok if theres no inventory

elasticfantastic · 07/02/2019 22:18

I'm LL and I have never kept even any part of a tenant deposit. I'd be delighted if my tenants left it as clean and tidy as you describe! When a tenant moves out I then always have the carpets cleaned and I do paint touch ups... I wouldn't dream of expecting a tenant moving out to do these things or pay for them. If the carpet was damaged or it'd be redecorated in something that was going to cost me more than £50 to sort out , at that point I'd consider having a conversation with the tenant.

I think you'll be fine OP.

Original poster

Dundundun · 07/02/2019 22:18

I think it's unfair to expect me to empty the garden bin when the council don't do collections for 5 months, can't the new tenants just put it out in March when collection start again? I can hardly put it in my car or tip it upside down.

The mowing of the lawn I will accept without argument because I understand it's not their fault I was ill. It's about £20 to get someone to mow the lawn round here so can i still dispute if they try to take more than say £50 for lawn?

OP posts:

WatchingTVagain · 07/02/2019 22:18

As a landlord I would be happy with what you've done and return your deposit in full. I don't mind having a few little things to sort especially if they've been good tenants. One of our properties was left riddled with damp after the tenants failed to inform us of a water leak so I'd be over the moon with how it sounds like you've left yours!

Is this "normal wear and tear" on a rental property

Canshopwillshop · 07/02/2019 22:20

I’m a landlord and in the 20 years I’ve been renting out, I’ve only ever withheld some of the deposit twice. Once when the tenants trashed the year old carpets by spilling paint over them and the other when it was left in such a disgusting, filthy state (they said it had been professionally cleaned!) and had left holes in doors and paintwork. I certainly would not charge for the things you’ve described.

Mammajay · 07/02/2019 22:21

Why don't you do a walk round with the landlord? We always do that and if there are any things to talk about and agree, you will be there.

AnyFucker · 07/02/2019 22:22

I am a landlord

If what you say is true, the deposit company would be refunding you in full

That money is yours, not the landlord's unless there is major damage to the property

Raspberry88 · 07/02/2019 22:23

I don't think you should be charged for the lawn OP. It's perfectly normal not to mow in winter and it shouldn't be done if the weather is particularly cold or wet. Would have been worse for the lawn than leaving it and doing it in spring.

viccat · 07/02/2019 22:25

It's not easy these days for a landlord to falsely claim for damages and keep the deposit - if you dispute it, it goes through an independent body to decide.

My tenants left a lot of damage/extra items/didn't clean/changed the locks/lost keys etc. last time and after their dispute I got about £120 held back from a £1250 deposit. It cost me a lot more to sort it out for the next tenants!

I wouldn't worry about mowing the lawn in winter or the garden waste bin at all, by the way! I doubt the person doing the check-out report will even look in the bins?!

Joopy · 07/02/2019 22:25

We were told that if they don't do an inventory they have to give you your deposit back! (Wales)

TalbotAMan · 07/02/2019 22:29

We're small scale landlords; we have one house which we have been letting now for about 10 years, and we let another one for about 3 years before that.

We try not to be picky. We had a big dispute with one tenant who completely ignored the no smoking clause in the lease and we had to have the whole house redecorated because all the walls were yellow and the stink was something else. They flatly denied that they had ever smoked anything, which did make us wonder where all the cigarette burns outside had come from. We held money back from the tenants with the small child where there was dried food on the kitchen ceiling, the master bedroom blind had a huge stain - the kind you get when someone throws their full cup of coffee at someone else and misses -- and dog poo all over the garden.

But we've refunded in full more times than we have withheld.

Original poster

Dundundun · 07/02/2019 22:29

joopy I'm in Wales too. Hope that is true because I honestly think it's as good if not better as when I took it over and it's not my fault there is no inventory, I even asked for one twice after I moved in!

I asked the letting agency about going round the property with them and they said I wasn't allowed

OP posts:

RamblinRosie · 07/02/2019 22:29

Hi, suggest you look at MSE House Buying Selling Renting forum, lots of really good stuff about exactly this situation from some very very knowledgable people.

Whatever your contract says, they cannot force you to have a professional clean.

Agree, take lots of photos.

If there was no inventory, they cannot demonstrate that you have left the property in a worse situation than when you moved in.

Check that your deposit was properly protected and that they provided you with the required information within the necessary timescale, if not, you have a dead easy small claims court case of up to three times your deposit (you may not get the three, but courts are losing patience with bad landlords, and the threat may concentrate their minds).

If everything was done correctly and they try to retain any part of your deposit, that you consider unreasonable, raise a dispute via the deposit scheme. (Without a check-in inventory, they’re stuffed.)

MSE will give you all of the links you need!

I’m a (very nice) landlord, and it infuriates me when cowboy landlords take advantage of tenants who don’t fully understand their rights.

hatethinkingofusernames · 07/02/2019 22:30

I got charged for changing the shower curtain as there's was useless and also for changing the lightbulbs, even though they had stopped working! Absolutely ridiculous

VanGoghsDog · 07/02/2019 22:31

I don't think holes in the wall for a TV are normal wear and tear actually. Did you get permission to make the holes?

Currently in dispute with our landlord who is trying to claim £600 for full redecoration of whole house!

This is cheap - can you find out who they use......?

Aeonium · 07/02/2019 22:36

If they didn’t do an inventory when you moved in, they have no evidence of what the property was like at that time, so they can’t prove that it’s not in the same condition now. Even if there is any damage they can’t prove it wasn’t there when you moved in. On those grounds you should get your money back.

In terms of stuff like the lawn, if they come back to you about it you should make a note of the time elapsed since you moved out. It’s reasonable to complain a few days later that the lawn hasn’t been cut. But if they wait several weeks I’d tell them to get stuffed - tell them it was mowed when you moved out and has grown back since then. Same if they complain about the garden or dust or dirty windows - sorry but it was perfect when you moved out, they have to expect that plants will continue to grow and dust will continue to settle in the weeks since you left.

Original poster

Dundundun · 07/02/2019 22:36

vangoghsdog Not in writing but they have been round and seen it on the wall and not said anything? Now I'm worried about that too I have a toddler and Tv's aren't safe just on a stand becsuse they can tip over I always thought?

OP posts:

SinkGirl · 07/02/2019 22:37

When my mum passed away, her house was rented out - I took over everything until the tenants gave notice and then we sold it.

I didn’t charge them for any damage to the house or items on the inventory, and there was quite a lot either damaged or completely missing - the only things we charged them for were things they were supposed to have done profesionally and didn’t. They had to the windows cleaned and they did, but only the front of the house (very weird!). I had to pay to get the back done before having viewings so I charged for that. Same with the bushes - in their contract it stated they had to have the front and back bushes cut back but they only had the back done. I was happy to let anything in the house go, we had to repaint it etc anyway and we got rid of all the furniture and other items so I didn’t care, but the things I actually had to pay out for that they were supposed to do and didn’t, I charged them for. The agency told me to charge them £5 for every light bulb that needed changing - I told them not to be ridiculous! Not all landlords are arseholes :) (although I was an accidental one and would never ever do it again!) I could have absolutely rinsed them for a lot of things but it didn’t feel right to me.

LadyFlumpalot · 07/02/2019 22:38

We lived in the same rented house for 8 years, during which we had two children. Our eldest liked to take pens to his bedroom wall.

When we moved out we repainted The Whole House (it was a bizarre mix of red, yellow and mint green when we moved in) and over the years we'd gradually started paining rooms magnolia and a nice soft grey - all with landlords permission - so we finished that off.

We tidied, mowed and weeded our huge garden, it had been a jungle filled with dog mess when we moved in.

We had the carpets professionally cleaned.

We had the oven professionally cleaned.

We probably spent near on £500 and countless hours getting it up together.

Landlord tried to charge us our whole deposit because the fireplace surround was cracked. It was cracked because the cement was blown because the dodgy builders had used crappy mix with bits of metal in and we'd informed them 4 years previously!

They didn't win. I won. We kept the whole deposit.

Lemonysherbet · 07/02/2019 22:41

Think positive, I got my full deposit back :)

Gudgyx · 07/02/2019 22:42

We’ve had TVs on the wall in every rented property we’ve had, as long as we’ve made good like you describe before we left they didn’t even mention it. I’d maybe try and get a wee touch up pot of the right colour paint tho, so it’s not as obvious

Flip

1 2 3 4 5