To ask my landlord for a new kitchen

[hadtoomanymincepies]

We've been here since 2018. Rented privately, no agent just through the landlord.
The kitchen is the original from when the house was built in 2007 so now nearly 15 years old.

What's the etiquette here? We will likely be here a while longer and it's on its last legs. I don't want to offend or be seen as cheeky.

My kitchen is about 22 and still going strong. We have changed the tops to granite though still no doors hanging off or broken drawers.

The land lord might say you have caused the damage. Doors hanging off sounds a bit what the hell to me.

Yes some of the higher up cabinets are hanging on a hinge and I do worry about them giving in and injuring us or the children.

If this is the case I don't understand why you wouldn't have fixed the doors yourself? Re-attatching a hinge isn't complicated.

@gamerchick I was thinking the same. Being a private tenant sounds utterly miserable.

It's reasonable to ask for things to be fixed/repaired. Not to have a whole new kitchen because you want a refresh. Presumably you saw it before you decided to rent?

You are perfectly within your rights to ask for repairs. Cupboard doors that are hanging off could fall on someone and injure them. Sticking drawers are probably easy to fix but you should tell the landlord you would like a handyman to do this otherwise you might do it wrong and cause damage. A worktop with numerous chips might possibly be a hygiene issue if it's used for food preparation - you could catch a bug if you can't clean the surface properly. It's reasonable to ask for these things to be fixed but a whole new kitchen? No.

@Crankley

Yes some of the higher up cabinets are hanging on a hinge and I do worry about them giving in and injuring us or the children.

If this is the case I don't understand why you wouldn't have fixed the doors yourself? Re-attatching a hinge isn't complicated.

🙄 it is when your visually impaired.

Honestly 15 years old isn't that old. My kitchen is probably 25 years old.

Landlord might do it but expect the rent to be increased to reflect.

Don’t listen to the people saying you should attend to maintenance. That literally is not your job as a tenant. It is the landlords job to keep the house in good order and safe. It is your responsibility as a tenant to report maintenance issues. If you were to damage something due to botched diy, your ll would not be impressed.

Oh and this thread is the kitchen equivalent of the mumsnet chicken. A) this is a tenanted house so previous tenants may not have treated it well even if op did. I had a tenant, who shut the door by kicking it, and B) op says the kitchen was very cheap, cheap materials are not made to last.

@WheelieBinPrincess

In my experience if they have no intention of doing the kitchen before new tenants move in, they have no intention of doing the kitchen.

Yeah, this. I think ours is over 30 years old, it's falling apart and was badly done bodge job anyway (curved edges butted up against flat ones so it has annoying gaps that bits get stuck in!). It hasn't ever occurred to me to ask for a new one, but then our rent hasn't gone up much since we moved here 9 years ago and currently a good £500 a month less than similar sized property nearby. I can't afford market rate so I put up with a shit kitchen and shit bathroom and windows and doors that don't work properly...

As a LL I replaced my early 1980s kitchen in about 2018 between tenants. Cost about a year's rent! And TBH it was dated, but not wrecked.

A 15 year old kitchen is not on its last legs just because of age alone. My late mother never renewed hers ( a DIY job inherited from previous owners) in the 35 years she lived in her last home
...

Anything that’s a safety concern should be fixed immediately.

Anything that’s not functioning should be fixed at a time that’s convenient to you.

Anything else - no. Or, expect to be inconvenienced for the duration of the work and then have your rent go up.

I say this as a landlord.

The last house we rented there were issues with cupboard doors and drawers not closing properly. We asked for it to be fixed. Handyman dispatched after some giggery pokery fix lasted 1 week. Looking at it, had clearly been patched up multiple times and bits within the kitchen were on their last legs. They came a second time same thing happened, we gave up. In this house the handyman was the preferred option for several things - leaking shower (at least 3 times - various people turned up none of them plumbers), sliding door off tracks/unable to lock door hence security risk (at least 4 times), huge hole in kitchen wall after being made to sit in fo a boiler change . We were told the law had changed and the boiler needed replacing before it didn't meet regulations. 1 month later I saw a rat scurrying above our kitchen cabinets. GRIM . Being a LL is hard, being a tenant to an cheap LL is harder. We were glad to get out of the place. Good luck OP.

@gamerchick

I was thinking the same.

I haven’t rented for a long time but I’ve had the pleasure of buying two ex-rental properties, from landlords, in the last 10 years (to live in). On both occasions I’ve been absolutely disgusted at the condition of the properties and what paying tenants have been expected to put up with.

In the case of our current house the ex-landlord still lives round the corner and I’ve definitely formed a view of what he’s like as a person based on how he expected his tenants to live.

A kitchen should last a bit longer than that, what sort of condition was it in when you moved in, why didn't you say something then? Cracked tiles and falling off it's hinges suggests you have been very rough with it.

I went halves with my landlord. I paid for a new ikea kitchen (approx £1000) and he paid for the labour to build and fit it (just over £1000).
This felt fair to me and I’ll probably still be here for years longer to enjoy the new kitchen - with loads more storage.

@gogohm

My kitchen is 2008 and still perfectly good. We own our house and it's the original kitchen the builders put in when new (so not great quality), I personally expect about 20 years out of a kitchen

Our house was built in 1998 and while the kitchen isn't the most modern, it is still going strong

WTF happens to make a kitchen need replacing after 14 years

Are people really replacing kitchens after just 15 years? Honestly that is just so wasteful.

If something is broken then you're entitled to a repair but replacing a kitchen after 15 years is insanity to me.

I'm sure your parents and grandparents didn't replace their kitchens after 15 years.

@DifferentHair

Are people really replacing kitchens after just 15 years? Honestly that is just so wasteful.

If something is broken then you're entitled to a repair but replacing a kitchen after 15 years is insanity to me.

I'm sure your parents and grandparents didn't replace their kitchens after 15 years.

Not really your call in SH though for eg and believe me, 14 years in they're ready for replacing. What does that say about the quality of the kitchens?

Good luck.

I've rented my home for six years, the bathroom is 30 years old and falling to pieces and the landlord refuses to update it.
Told me I'd have to pay and pay someone to fit it if I wanted a new one despite leaking toilet, leaking shower, bath panel was broken before we moved in and we are good tenants who always pay on time.

I'm a landlord and our tenant asked for a new kitchen. We did it for them, had to take out a loan as it cost £15k all in ( new absolutely everything including all white goods)

@FoggySpecs

A kitchen should last a bit longer than that, what sort of condition was it in when you moved in, why didn't you say something then? Cracked tiles and falling off it's hinges suggests you have been very rough with it.

I did. All of these things are on the inventory.