New rental place and state of garden

[surreygirl1987]

Hello,

We just moved into a rental property. The house itself is great but the garden is a complete state - it's overgrown, stinging nettles, brambles and thistles everywhere, and clearly hasn't been touched for months. It would be a huge task to sort it out. Also a fence panel is missing. I have kids and it's not safe for them in the garden at the mo. We viewed it online as a virtual viewing, and the garden looked really well looked after in the video, so we feel misled. Am I right in thinking that it is the responsibility of the landlord/property manager to sort this out?

Thanks!

What does your contract say?

When was the video filmed? Nettles come up SO quickly. I would 'assume' that the garden should be tidy and start in a state as they want it back- same as the inside, but depends what the contract says. Didn't you see it in person before signing up?

How big is the garden? You'll have to maintain it once you rent it anyways. Couldn't you strim it?

The fence panel the landlord should sort. But did you rent it sight unseen? If you want thru an agent I'd complain to them. But you are responsible for maintaining the garden.

Yes we signed it without seeing the property. But we watched a video if it, which we later found out is an old video taken before even the previous tenants moved in. We know we are responsible for maintaining it but honestly it's months worth of growth. Brambles do not take over the garden overnight and there is a huge thistle in the middle of the grass that's more than 6 foot tall! The grass is about as tall as my toddler - it's like a wild meadow but also filled with brambles, stinging nettles and thistles. Contract says we are responsible for maintaining it which is fine, but I thought the starting state of it should resemble what was advertised!

As for the work- it would definitely be a very big job as it is incredibly neglected. The neighbours must hate it. It is definitely not just a simple strim.

You need to contact the agents and demand it's sorted. They let the property on the video, not the one you got.

And for the love of all things holy, PHOTOGRAPH AND VIDEO the house and garden now, at the start of your tenancy. They could easily use their outdated video to slap you with loads of charges at the end, using it as an extra bit of an inventory.

The landlord should hire a gardener to bring the garden into an acceptable state - cut back nettles, brambles and long grass and dispose of the waste and replace the fence panel. They might need to use weed killer. This could be done in a day by a professional gardener with the right tools. You will not be able to do it yourself.

You would then be expected to return the garden in a similar state.

Thank you. Yes, this is what we thought. I have emailed the agency now. We also took a 15 min video of the property as soon as we got the keys! Good point about them trying to use the outdated video! I will try to send the video to them somehow so there is proof of date taken. Thank you.