To not know what is classed as "poor condition" re HA home

[Frustratedmum2021]

Hopefully moving out of our HA home but we have had explicit instruction that nothing will be approved if the home is in "poor condition" and I'm panicking a bit now.

I have also never moved out of anywhere at the end of a tenancy before.

What do I need to make sure I do?

Aibu to think "poor condition" is a bit open to interpretation?

I don't know exactly what it means either, but I suspect you should leave the property in the condition you'd expect to find it - so clean, tidy and empty.

Poor condition was when my tenant ripped off the kitchen cupboard doors and threw them away and allowed her daughter to throw paint all over the carpets.

General wear and tear is expected. How long have you lived there?

Have you had a moving out pack?

That should give you both a checklist and detailed instructions on how they want the place left, e.g. no floor coverings, loft completely empty, removal of sheds is quite usual!

If you do everything in that list you should be fine.

I left a housing association house years ago and left it as I would expect to find it. I painted the kitchen and dining room because they were a bit tatty. I left it spotless. I was going to leave the carpets but they made me take them up.

I had to be out by noon and a bloke came to inspect before I left. The key bit for me was to have a van big enough for all our possessions because i didnt get the keys for our new house until 2pm.

We transferred within our HA last year.

They did an end of tenancy inspection and gave us a list of what needed fixing - in our case a Replacing a broken door and filling in a hole that had appeared inside a cupboard. All furnishings including flooring had to be removed and we gave it a clean.

We had been there 14 years so general wear was to be expected on the cheap kitchen etc.

It would be leave as you'd expect to find it - so clean, all furniture removed. No massive dents in walls, or hugely stained/ chipped paintwork (but the odd scuff or chip would be fine). Any changes reinstated (I grew up in a HA house, when neighbours moved out quite a lot of them had removed a tall cupboard from the kitchen to accommodate a fridge freezer. Those who hadn't had the foresight to save the cupboard to put back were charged for it).

Some HA's want you to remove all carpets and curtains when you leave but it should say in your agreement one way or other.

Thank you.

We have been here 6 years.

Main issues will be the easily 30 year old kitchen they are adamant was done in 2010 and is falling apart.

There will also be an issue with the built in wardrobe previous tenants had put in where the massively heavy sliding door kept coming off. We spoke to HA 4 times to a verbal shoulder shrug but with two under 2s was too dangerous so we binned the doors. I sort of think that isn't our fault?

Will be a shame re carpets, they were put in 4 months ago

Does YOUR HA ask for carpets to be removed?

And if you have a paper trail, pictures of the kictehn and wardrobe, an inventory when you moved in? You can use all of that to defend any claim

We were allowed to leave carpets and curtain poles in good condition who I wasn’t expecting. To be honest I found the receipt for the industrial cleaning including removal of human waste and pigeon flea extermination when we moved into our HA property so I think they were quite please to have it back with only a few bumps and scrapes!