Hopefully I've posted in the right place; I've had some good advice on here before!
I am pregnant with our first child, due in August. We are currently in a long-term rental which we've been in for nearly 11 years. We have no prospect of buying a place of our own with the market being how it is and the part of the country we live in, so that's not even in question. We've accepted our lot and are trying to make the best of it!
Our current house (2 bed terrace) doesn't really have enough space. We'll struggle to fit a cot into our bedroom and there isn't really anywhere to store a pram/toys, etc. We could resolve this by having a good clear out and a shift around, and putting a load of stuff in the attic, so it's not insurmountable. More worrying issues include a mould problem (particularly upstairs- it's not terrible but the ventilation in the windowless bathroom is poor despite a new fan being fitted relatively recently which can lead to mould on bathroom walls/bedroom ceiling despite our best efforts to air the place), dated decor- think early 90s rag-rolling and paint with borders!- and fittings and very old, very manky (some threadbare) carpets throughout the house. This is the main issue; I wouldn't be happy lying on them myself, to be honest, let alone putting a baby on them! We wanted to get a quote for having them professionally cleaned, but the person who came round said there wasn't any point cleaning them because they were so old and worn.
We've been looking at moving into another rental, something a bit more 'modern'- we have been to see a few houses- but they all seem terribly overpriced for what they are, don't really have that much more space, plus the locations have been far from ideal...we really like it where we are- we're close to facilities, family and friends and it's a lovely quiet cul-de-sac where we know the neighbours, etc.- it's just the house. It's worn and dated and could use a bit of modernisation.
We have decided- having looked at the current rental market- that in an ideal world we would like to stay where we are. We are good tenants, have never missed a payment in 10 years, we are quiet...both our neighbours have small children so would be understanding in terms of baby 'noise' so our concerns about living in a terrace wouldn't matter from that perspective. Would it be unreasonable to approach the letting agency and ask them to contact the landlord about negotiating some modernisation work? By this I mean new carpets/laminate, a fresh lick of paint, maybe new doors on the kitchen cupboards...that sort of thing. We'd be happy to pay a higher monthly rent if the work was done.
Can any landlords/lettings people out there know if this is the done thing? What kind of reaction would you anticipate? The long and short of it is that, were we to move out, she'd have to do the work anyway to stand any chance of letting the place to someone else...so why not do it with tenants in situ? We'd happily make ourselves scarce for a week or so whilst the work was being done.
Honest advice welcomed! 