Is this acceptable to ask as a tenant?

[Bea89J]

I’ve lived in the same house for six years, it was redecorated just before we moved in. As is the case with most buy to lets it was done in what was probably the cheapest way possible, which is fine and what I expect. However after six years the cheap redo is of course struggling a little. We’ve kept/improved upon everything we feel would be acceptable as tenants, we’ve never missed a payment and accepted some quite steep rent prices.

The one thing I can’t fix is how worn and dated the carpet looks, there is typical rental thin grey carpet throughout the house and it’s had 6 years of footfall (including two kids), I’ve used a carpet cleaner, dry brushed it, everything. It’s just simply had its day. It’s just totally flat. Is it acceptable for me to ask if we can replace the flooring? I don’t mind paying, or maybe landlord could go halves. It’s just making the whole house downstairs feel very ‘urgh’.

Ask. They can only say no.

Ask, and don’t offer to pay straight away. You can use that as leverage if they hesitate, that you are willing to contribute.

I had the same issue with an ugly, dated lounge carpet in a rented house I used to live in years ago. I asked the landlord if I could replace it and he said he’d go halves, which was a good result. Certainly worth asking, the worst they can say is no.

I'm a landlord. Ask for it to be replaced and don't offer to pay unless they say no. I'd replace this at my cost as a landlord, but obviously I don't speak for all landlords!

Ask but don’t offer to pay. See what asking gets you first. It’s wear and tear so I think the LL should be paying.

Ask but i agree hold off paying towards it.
After 6yrs of being a tennant they should be happy to replace it.
Has the landlord seen its condition recently?.

Agree with above. If landlord does agree to pay they might go for the cheapest again. If you would prefer something a little more expensive you could offer to pay the difference.

Hi OP, I'm a landlord and we replaced hall and stairs carpet for our tenants, and we put in a really good quality long lasting carpet for them (and showed them what we had chosen first). A good landlord will invest in their property especially for a good tenant like you 😊

Agree ask but don’t offer to pay.

I was a landlord for a while. We would have done this.

Of course you should ask! I would consider it to be fair wear and tear, and perfectly acceptable. Don't offer to pay anything but I would suggest if they are going for a cheap option again then maybe offer a contribution for an upgrade.

Agree - I'm a landlord and I wouldn't expect you to pay towards this

Unless it's changed, the lifespan for a carpet, judged by the deposit schemes, is seven years. So that seems reasonable to me to ask.

Was the carpet new when you moved in? If it was, 6 years isn't particularily long, personally I wouldn't replace my own carpet after 6 years so wouldn't replace a tenants. At 9 or 10 years I would without question.

Ask but anticipate no, especially now landlords are squeezed in terms of profits.

Yes. Ask for a long term solution. Will you stay on for a few years? You sound like a perfect tenant and they should be trying to keep you.

Landlord here - ask but don’t offer to pay upfront. You sound like ideal tenants and they’ll want to keep you.

Don’t underestimate the miserliness and malice of some landlords.

He may whine that he’s had his own carpets for 15 years and say that you must have damaged what was a “perfectly good” carpet at the start of the tenancy.

And he’ll just as likely look at market rents, and tell you that if you want a new carpet the rent will go up enormously.

It’s a difficult situation because you also don’t want to be shelling out on it yourself. It really does come down to your judgement about how much of a prick he is.

Many landlords don’t have mortgages and have owned their properties outright since the 1990s. Yet still complain about the slightest expense.

Hopefully that’s not the type you’ve got.

I had condition surveys done on my rental
houses. Don’t you have these? They told me as a LL if carpets were in good condition or not. I replaced with laminate floors downstairs and tenants bought rugs. Suited us all. My carpets just went flat too but the biggest issue was on the stairs. So I had a much better quality on the stairs and then into bedrooms. I had the house for 20 years and did one big floor refit!

Life expectancy of cheap carpets is 2-4 years. It's suggested that landlords replace flooring every 5 years or so. It's their responsibility not yours OP.

Christ, I'm astounded by the generous landlords on here 😂Not my experience at all, if it's only six years old and hasn't got big holes I'd expect them to say it's in good condition. One of our landlords told us to buy some rugs to cover stains. (He also served us notice when we insisted on a lockable back door, so not the most reasonable of people.)

Don't pay for anything you can't take with you, unless you can easily afford to lose the money. If it's a small area it might be worth paying yourself for something you like, but bear in mind Section 21 hasn't been abolished yet and you could get one through the door any day.

I would just buy rugs

Defo ask. Our tenants have just complained that they have been in the property for 3months and nobody has gone round to hang the curtains. (Previous tenants took them down and put up their own. They have been advised repeatedly to hang them themselves but they refuse).

I mean I could pay someone to go and hang the bloody curtains but actually the money all pays my dad's care home fees. He has advanced dementia. It's not like we make a profit on the house.

You sound like amazing tenants.