How clean is your rented house?

[bellsandwhistles89]

The tenants in a property we rent out have just moved out and have left it in an awful state. When we started it was gleaming and shiny but now is haggard and stinks of smoke (not allowed in the tenancy agreement).

The carpets were brand new and now look like they have been in the property for years. The walls are scratched and marked - they had only just been painted. The bathrooms are disgusting and the kitchen is sticky even though there has apparently been a 'professional clean' - my arse!

We have had a Check in and a Check Out, we have deposits and the such so it is fixable after a good clean, paint, recarpet and fix the broken bits. I am just shocked as to how someone could look at the property and go yep this is how I found it.

I admit that I am emotionally invested in the property as it was my first home and maybe I am naive in thinking that people will treat properties they move into with respect.

I am a good landlord, we dont overcharge, we listen to our tenants, we fix things quickly and make sure we aren't unfair. So maybe this is our fault? Maybe we need to crack down and become arseholes? I feel like they have royally taken the piss.

I think I may just be posting for a moan, as theres not much help mumsnet can give ... unless you have any paintbrushes handy?

When the tenant moved out of the place we rented out it was not in the condition it had been previously with the same tenant. It was clear to me that the tenant had been struggling and had let things slide. The items which weren't reasonable wear and tear were agreed and deducted from the deposit. The tenant was expecting it and was expecting the deductions to amount to more than they did.

Unfortunately some people just don't have the same standards as you or me. It's the same for people who own their homes too.

The property should be returned to you in the same standard of cleanliness it was rented out in. Check-in-out should evidence this.

How long was the tenancy? Repainting should be expected at the end of a tenancy, unless it's been a very short one.

I think you need to step back & let your agent sort out the deposit deductions etc.

And sadly, this is quite the norm for some tenants. We've all had a bad one by a law of averages.

I say this as someone who rented for 5 years & left places immaculate. I'm also a LL.

Suppose I will just wait for the Check Out and go from there.

I know I need to emotionally detach and after a mumsnet talking to I feel that I am well on my way.

I am well aware that its never going to be up to the same standard as when we left it but its not even clean, I feel that even though there are marks on the walls if it was clean it would of been easier to accept. There are broken light fittings, rubbish left everywhere and its just dirty.

Oh well, time to get the gloves on and get the wine out.

@MoreProsecco its been let for a year.

This is just the risk you take when you go into business as a landlord. It’s why you take a deposit and it should be factored into the rent you charge and all your costs. TBH from what you describe you got off lightly in terms of damage. There are landlords up and down the country whose properties are absolutely destroyed. I don’t mean smelly carpets. I mean walls knocked through, dog shit seeping right through the floor boards, stolen boilers, and no rent paid after the first month! Being a LL is a risky way to try and hold onto your money. Don’t believe the hype that it’s easy money.

My advice now would be:

-decorate to a very good standard to attract a tenant who will be drawn by that. As a tenant a high standard of decor gives me a bit of confidence that the LL is interested in the property and will maintain it well. I would expect new carpets and fresh paint throughout at least before I would be interested in a property.

• take two months rent for deposit

• get at least two references and check them out properly!

• meet the tenant yourself at least once before signing even if using an agent. (Which I would advise that you do as you are struggling to detach)

• some people disagree with this but on my application for this house there was a section for “tell us about yourself/ any additional information” I used it to let the LL know I was a cleaner for a living and kept my Home to a very high standard, that we are a shoes off household and that although we have a dog he is cofined to the kitchen using a safety gate. I also offered to pay an additional deposit for having a pet. (LL didn’t take one)

-carry out 6 monthly inspections. (Well, have the agent do it)

• and expect the worst, hope for the best on check out!

We have rented for years and have always left properties spotless. DH will touch up any paintwork damage etc. We also get The carpets professionally cleaned (this is normally included as a condition of having pets. The people before us in our current house trashed it (needed new floor boards, etc) and when we first moved in there were 3 monthly inspections. Now they are happy with us as tenants it's yearly inspections. We have been left with pots of left over paint in the garage which is always useful if any touching up is needed. We do have a very pale carpet though which stresses me as I'm constantly at it with the vanish foam particularly as Dcat has bright orange vomit for some reason which even when scrubbed can leave a stain.

We keep our places perfect, we use rugs in every room to avoid stains and I clean and polish often. Bleach and mould spray around window frames and sills etc. Any holes we drill for sheves/curtains whatever are filled, sanded and repainted before we leave. We are good eggs

A kicking like this is part of the deal, be grateful if it doesn't happen. This is why rentals don't have expensive carpets or pricey fittings. Normal people look after their homes but there is no skank test.

Filth, rubbish piled up, food all over carpets and walls, smoke - it is how some people live.

Rework it, clean it thoroughly, get condition properly documented ( many inventory clerks seem to forget their specs) and hope.

You can see why many LL are now changing to unfurnished - less of your belongings to trash & less battling with the deposit schemes for a fraction of the damage.

If it's the tenants own stuff they ruin, that's fine.

Definitely worth thinking about, OP.

You are a landlord. This is not your home. Tenants will live whatever way they want. Their only duty is to return the property in the same condition as they received it, minus reasonable wear and tear.

Use a good inventory clerk....and relax.

You can get an ozone treatment company in to remove the smoke smell. I think it is relatively expensive and can only be done when the property is uninhabited by living beings (including plants as it will kill them).

Furniture is cheap. Carpets, bathrooms, kitchens, heating systems , doors, windows , banisters are not . unfurnished houses have all those.

Our tenants are generally great and have been there nearly 8 years. We were forced to let it due to a short notice posting overseas (military) However, they have utterly destroyed our beautiful garden. It was the best thing about the house; 80ft garden which is very rare in a town filled with Victorian houses. We had a big celebration there the day after our wedding and it was lovely. Their kids jumped over the pond and it collapsed in, they haven't pulled the seedlings up so there are mini trees everywhere and the lawn & flower beds are a dust pit, it looks awful. I was nearly in tears last time I visited. We're protected a bit as it's in our tenancy agreement, so when they do decide to leave we will be taking the deposit to sort the garden, but it will cost a lot more to make it nice again. The only reason we haven't sold it is because it's their family home and thus we have let them stay and haven't raised the rent in 8 years. We also paid for a redecoration. It's still our first home to us, we don't really want to be landlords, we just don't want to kick a family out that regard it as their home. When we rented 2x houses living overseas we treated it immaculately like it was our own home. I spent hours & hours cleaning it and hand polishing the wooden floor before we handed it back, so I really don't understand a shitty attitude towards a property. Sorry that you had to go through that. X

Oh and all are walls are painted in Dulux Trade Diamond paint; flat matt is useless in a rental. We were luck as zeros had 2 dogs so everything we redecorated whilst we lived there was durable! The commercial laminate looks new 10 years after it was laid!

Let go, 4years . sorry. Not everyone is bothered about a garden and I doubt that is a legit deposit deduction.

Agree. Advice I was given very early on was that if I cared about a garden I needed to employ a gardener. Tenants almost never look after gardens. Even small London back yards will be completely overgrown after a couple of years. And that includes tenants who look after properties.

It specifies in the contract to take care of the garden including weeding, thus they haven't fulfilled their contract. It's going to cost around £2k to get it in a condition to sell.

I admit that I am emotionally invested in the property

Big mistake. You have to disconnect and treat it purely as an asset and a business transaction. You might get lovely tenants who treat it better than you would, or you might get filthy pigs or anywhere in between.

I advise regular check ins (6 months) so you can catch problems like smoking ASAP.

Sorry, but good luck enforcing that. I do sympathise , we also learnt that lesson the hard way.

How long were they there for?

We care well for our rented house...but scratched paint is normal after years of residency.

My last one must have been ok, as the check out bloke (we live in Belgium) couldn't find - fault. The owners moved in the day of the checkout, despite us still having the tenancy and paid rent for a further two days!

Current rental is clean too, the flooring downstairs are very old terracotta tiles, and there is no carpet in the house apart from the rugs, which are mine anyway. On check in the inventory guy said that certain things already count as written off in the report due their age, so I won't get done for much. Belgian landlords are rapacious when one moves out.....

whilst I sympathise OP, really its just dirty - it could be so much worse.

Id say most of our rentals need a better clean or carpet clean or professional oven clean when tenants leave. Our inventory company is now pretty good and the contract used by the Agents is now pretty thorough. Even so some extras always need doing and mostly if the tenants have been long term or flexible in allowing viewings for example I just wear the cost myself.

Going forward, paint in washable white from a standard manufacturer and leave a tin behind (magnolias never match). Provide a strimmer or a cheap lawnmower if the lawns a big deal for you, maybe a few hand tools. Replace fittings as and when with durable, rather than high end or trendy, use commerical lino in bathrooms and kitchens, fit a darker carpet with good underlay, do/have regular inspections.

Unfortunatly being a LL isnt hugely profitable these days and its a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

We rent and always leave the houses in as good as or occasional better condition as we found it (not including usual wear and tear). We might might not own the house but we live there and want it to be a nice place.
One house we rented we painted over awful dark cartoon character wallpaper and we had the carpets cleaned when we moved in. A year later the ll sold the house, I think that the small changes we made helped him.
Not everyone will ruin your house, but that's what deposits are for.

We rent and we treat it as if it were our own. It’s our home, despite us not owning it. We do small bits of decorating and repairs when we can and make it our responsibility to fix anything we might make “dirty”, for instance just repainted hallway as there was scuffs caused by pram.

I can totally understand where you are coming from, we drove past our old rental house a few months ago and saw the new tenants outside on the garden and felt a pang of sadness to see other people enjoying it, we lived there for 4 years and was our sons first home. Rental or not, it was “ours”