Does a student landlord need to provide a lawnmower if they want the garden maintained?

[longwalk]

DS has just finished university. His Y3 landlord wants to retain £150 of their deposit because he says they haven’t cut the grass and maintained the lawn. However, he didn’t leave a mower or any other tools. Nor is there a shed or anywhere else they could have stored their own mower even if they were so inclined to buy one. Small terraced house so no room in house either.
On top of this the landlord also wants to charge them a further £100 as they are saying the black council bin wasn’t there when they did the check out. This sat out the front on the pavement unsecured all year. Mid terrace house so nowhere else to put it. It was there when they left. I know this for definite as I put a rubbish bag in it myself. We left on the Sunday and Monday was their bin day.

Any thoughts or anything we can do about either of these two issues? Thanks!

raise a dispute with the respective deposit protection scheme 0 that is what they exist for, to adjudicate on deposit disputes.

the lawn needed to be returned in the condition it was in on check in [ if the inventory fails to describe what condition that was then more fool the LL.

no the LL does not have to provide tools, indeed they would be foolish to do so as that makes them liable in the event of injury from using them

you assert the bin was there, the LL avows it wasn't. The dispute service will decide who is right

your student child should be dealing with this himself, it is part of his university experience and preparation for entry into real life.
He can always ask the university accommodation office for guidance, although as a now ex student they may refuse to support him...

No they don't have to provide a lawnmower.

Look in the contract itinery. Most LL's don't provide a lawnmower or garden tools in a rental, that would be up to students or other tenants to do.

Thanks. My experience of renting our own home out when we went abroad for 3yrs was that if we did not provide a lawnmower, we couldn’t expect the tenants to mow the lawn. Ours did as they had their own but it was made clear to us that we couldn’t expect this. It seems unreasonable to expect them to bring a lawnmower from home and drag it through the house to use every few months. No shed or space to store one in the house.

Not sure how the bin situation can be adjudicated on at all! He was at B’ham and the bin situation was horrendous. Bins were surrounded by at least 40 other black bags-you couldn’t walk on the pavements etc so I can’t understand where it could have gone anyway.

Genuine question: How are 6 kids, miles from home supposed to maintain a garden without tools? They couldn’t even buy a lawnmower themselves as nowhere to put it and can only reach the garden through the house.

I suppose they are supposed to buy one like they have to buy a hoover and cleaning materials to maintain the inside of the property, if it's in the contract.
Fund out how much the council charge for a replacement bin and offer that.

they could chose to pay their own gardener to do a pre check out tidy up
or
they could chose to hire equipment as needed during the tenancy
or
they can "suffer" whatever amount is agreed in the deposit dispute resolution as being a fair compensation to the LL having to do it after check out

They did actually buy a hoover but they can obviously be stored indoors.

From experience with various offspring in various student houses my take is: some landlords don’t include garden maintenance in student properties, which makes sense for the reasons you state. Some do include it and imho they do it because it means they can make some money from the deposit

irrelevant
if they bought their own mower then how/where they choose to store it is their decision

they chose a property with a garden but failed to consider the implications of having one. You as parents failed to advise them?
Life lesson now learned.

Yes, I guess we’ll see what they say. The landlord also owns the cleaning company that they’ve quoted to do the clean. I’ve advised son and friends to say no and pay another company to do the clean. Agent has confirmed they’re entitled to do this but are complaining how awkward it will be. This house was a disgusting shambles from the start and I can’t imagine will be much better for the new lot in September. They had to get someone out to fix things/make things safe 31 times over the year. Shower never worked properly, hot water was intermittent and wires were loose. All documented and copy of this will also be sent to give a fuller picture.

The landlord can say what they like, I would leave it to the deposit protection service. It can take a while though.

Life lesson now learned.
To be fair, we had no such issue with older sibling nor with the house my son rented in Y2. We gave all the sensible advice re taking lots of photos and reading the meters etc. I totally get paying for any damage, missing items and a deep clean. The garden issue is new to us. Contract mentions nothing about maintenance, just describes the garden.

I took photos of every angle of my daughter’s student houses the day we moved her out, date stamped, and used them as evidence in TDS disputes as required. Always got the full deposit back (and in some cases disproved landlord’s lies with photo evidence). Do you have photos?

the contract is irrelevant
what does the check in inventory describe as the condition of the garden?

• no mention - then LL has no chance
• "neat and tidy" - then your kid has no chance
• "unkempt" - whoopy do, LL has no chance

When i was student we trimmed the hedge with scissors prior to moving out.

No, do they need to provide cleaning materials if they expect you to maintain inside?

the garden should be in the same condition that it was in when they moved in. If they have ignored the grass for a whole year it is probably a bit of a state. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request to be honest. They might be an awful landlord for other reasons, but maintaining the garden is basic stuff. When I was at uni we all put in some money and paid a local handyman to whizz round the garden with a mower once a fortnight. We wanted a garden when we chose accommodation, but understood that meant being responsible for it.

I have no doubt that legally the LL is in the right as Wot23 describes, but I still think it’s a good way of differentiating between reasonable and unreasonable LLs

Presumably you mean 6 adults....and they could get a gardener to do it, regularly if they wanted or (more likely) at the end of tenancy. A bit like an end of tenancy clean, but for the garden.

id leave it tbh

its £250 between how many ?

Six kids ? Get a grip OP

they could have paid a gardener but that could have been close to £150

6 adults choosing to rent a home.

They are there for all of 10 months

Agreed. It is not a legal requirement, unless the contract categorically says so.

that is what is meant by "behaving in a tenant like manner". There is an assumption in rental contract law that means it is to be presumed you will do things that it is reasonable to expect a decent person would do, even if those things are not set out in writing in the contract.

For example:

• clean the table and kitchen after eating.
• clean the bedroom and common areas (or employ their own cleaner, their choice)
• buy and change a light bulb