Or is the landlord being petty?

[Unionofthesnake]

Moved into rental property a couple of years ago. Curtains in the lounge were not to our taste (bit dated, not particularly new looking, water stained lining). We informed the landlord via the letting agent we would buy our own to match our style and asked what we should do with theirs. Received email back to say we should store them and re-hang them when we vacated. I vaguely remember putting them at the back of the wardrobe and then forgot about them. We bought some new ones in Dunelm for about £50.

We've now moved out. Couldn't find the landlord's curtains anywhere and then DP said he was sure he chucked them out as they were "rank". Told the letting agent we couldn't find the curtains but that we would leave ours to replace them. Agent replied by forwarding a copy of the email telling us to store them and said they couldn't guarantee we wouldn't be charged if the landlord wasn't happy with the replacement. I made it very clear we didn't expect to be charged as we were replacing them with better ones (new, unstained).

We've now been told £150 Will be deducted from our deposit towards new, custom made curtains. I of course challenged it and was told ours are inferior - ready made, unlined & ill fitting (they are a bit long but shouldn't be too hard to turn up) vs their custom made lined ones (even though they were dated and a bit scruffy imo).

WIBU?

My tennants took every pendant down and every curtain but stored and replaced with our inferior ones when they left. I do think it's petty if you have been there a while ( was you?) If it's only been say 6 months you do get pissed off with lack of care or respect for the property from some tennents and that feeling of your house being treated like a shit hole unfortunately carries over to the next tenant. One bleached our towels and teatowels, put fag burns and ripped the carpet. Left dog poo and 23 bin bags full of vomit like soup in the garden. If I had the next tenant throw out the curtains then the loss of deposit would come from that place of presuming they just didn't give a stuff and did it from a place of spite to piss me off. Like their predecessors

Sorry YABU

YABU, as a LL it used to cost me thousands to replace good quality items that 'weren't to the tenants taste' that they threw out.Despite me always saying in writing store and put back on vacating.

Dunemlm curtains are cheap rubbish they would not have the insulation qualities or longevity of for example. a pair off well fitting interlined heavy curtains.
For a pair of the above £150 is very reasonable.

Pay the cost and next time don't throw out the LL's items.

"Only" £150 probably reflects that the curtains were a few years old... but not dead.

If you move regularly having curtains in rental homes is useful as it can be expensive buying different ones. The tenant might also expect a decent thickness of curtain, so yous might not be suitable long term.

Remember its a business, even if its your home. Munirvwear and tear is to be expected. But not complete removal of an item on the inventory.

You threw away something that was not yours to throw away. It wasn't up to you to decide. You asked and ignored what they said.

OP . This is exactly what the Deposit Protection Scheme is for.

You shouldn't of destroyed their property. They do not get full value as depreciation is built in.

It's not a moral issue and wont be a decision for either LL or tenant . The DPA will decide it.

Just because you think it's petty doesn't mean the landlord is in the wrong. You were asked to keep the old ones and you didn't. And clearly lined, fitted curtains are superior to cheap ready made ones - perhaps if you had replaced like with like, they might have been happy with yours.

£150 is a lot less than we have paid for custom made, lined fitted curtains. Think yourself lucky. They could have asked for several hundred.

As a landlord I get really irritated when tenants presume that their items are better than mine. If you were told to keep them and rehang them, then you needed to do that. I loathe cheap unlined curtains, and would rather have cleaned the existing curtains. And your curtains were not even the right length!

You're being completely unreasonable. You knew the tenancy terms; the agent confirmed that you should store and return the LL's curtains. Now you've breached the terms you agreed to so of course you compensate the loss. All that was explained in the terms of your deposit.

No way would you get custom made lined curtains for £150, would be several hundred. Sounds like the LL recognises they weren't new and is taking into account depreciation. You were specifically told to store them and you didn't. The ones you've left are not like for like. Don't blame the landlord at all. If you left the property in a good state otherwise , maybe use that to negotiate a lower price. That's all you can do I'm afraid.

YANBU as a landlord I hate the petty charges other LL seem to do.

Definitely query the amount with the Deposit Protection Scheme. Don't pay it. It's far too much and in future they should removed them or not provide curtains. You shouldn't have had to provide storage for them in your home.

At the end of a tenancy I let my tenants off loads of things. If they've paid their rent on time and have been good tenants I'm forever grateful and will cover the cost of any minor damages. That's what the rent should cover.

And as a tenant I get really irritated when landlords leave their own soft furnishings and expect me to store them.

But I say that as someone whose landlord left loads of awful, awful shite and expected me to store it.

Which is your opinion. But you need to abide by the requirements of the owner. If not, then you are free to purchase your own property and put your own items in and thrown the items from the previous owner into the trash. But for a rental property, if you want to use your own items, then you will need to store the items belonging to the owner and replace (in the same condition as they were before) when you leave.

Ll could charge you for the full amount of the curtains. Yabu. You shouldn't have thrown them. You lucky it only £150. Why didn't you turn the cheap curtains you bought up.

Yabu. £150 is reasonable.

Blimey they really are petty! However, you were told to keep them so I can understand their point, I'm a landlord myself and I really wouldn't give a damn about some curtains unless I was intending to move back and I really loved the curtains but as a landlord you have to realise things gets damaged so if they mean that much they should have collected them when you told them you were replacing them.

I'm afraid you'll have to just have to take the deduction as the deposit scheme will rule in the LL's favour because they told you to keep them.

YABU - £50 curtains will be shit, no matter your opinions on the ones you had taken down, they were lined curtains which obviously the landlord wanted to keep. I think £150 is very reasonable!

Having spent £££’s on custom made curtains which are lined and made with decent upholstery material I would be really pissed off to be left with cheap nasty dunelm ones. They may have been stained but they could have been cleaned. I think you got off extremely lightly with £150 to be honest.

yabu. You can’t tell the agent you don’t expect to be charged when you are leaving cheaper, ready to hang ill fitting curtains as opposed to custom. Just because they weren’t to your taste they were not yours to lose . Instructions were to hang them back when you are leaving. $150 is going towards a new set, not enough to buy a new set so LL will need to pay the rest . Your husband had no regard for LL curtains, so this is the result .

This is a DH problem. He ignored explicit instructions and now has to cough up.

I had professional cleaners into my last rental place before I left and despite the amazing job they did, I got docked £50.00 from the deposit because inspector found a single drip of water in the bathroom sink.

Seemed to totally have missed the permanent marker I somehow managed to get on the bathroom floor though.

It does seem petty but you were given instructions by the LL. You've not followed those instructions so I can't see you'd get anywhere arguing.
Your DH has thrown out the LLs property that you were asked to store

Challenge it. Don't rollover and take the deduction. Depreciation is definitely taken into account. Oh and @bluemidnightblue your attitude stinks. You know damn well that most people that are renting aren't in a position to buy.

YABU. You could have gotten the curtains cleaned. The replacements sound cheap.

Then you need to rent somewhere that is unfurnished.

They cannot charge you for new.
They can only charge for the portion of time they didn't get use out of the curtains.
So if the curtains were 15 years old and they expected to get 20 years out of them, they can charge you for 25% the cost of new.