Should we lose our deposit? Wallpaper

[ThisPlumHiker]

We moved into a rental house 5 years ago. When we rented it, the agent was very clear we were renting it “as seen”.

It was a bit grubby. But the biggest issue is that the living room had wallpaper with a huge missing area/rip in it. It was a patterned wallpaper.

We asked if we could replace it with some new patterned wallpaper. The agent said sure but if we did it would need to be recovered with plain wallpaper before we left.

We didn’t want plain wallpaper so replaced it with some really nice quality wallpaper. Now that we are leaving, the agent has reminded us we need to re wallpaper in plain paper.

I know we agreed - but why should we improve the landlord’s property? We obviously wouldn’t expect the landlord to pay us for the nice (inoffensive) patterned wallpaper we put up (professionally).

I am half a mind to find the same paper was up before (90s flowers) and rip a huge chunk off.

Just ask for the landlord to take a look at what you've done there first?
They might agree it's fine.

Do you have photographs of the original wallpaper and rips? They cannot make you replace something that wasn't there originally as this would be classed as 'betterment'.

Do you have it in writing that you need to replace it with a plain wallpaper? Also which is cheoaer - the deposit or the new wallpaper ?

What do they mean by plain wallpaper? Isn’t all wallpaper patterned in some way? Unless it’s lining paper or one of those murals.

You can send photos and ask if its ok to leave the new wallpaper but you were told that you had to reinstate plain wallpaper and presumably you agreed.
Seems daft I know but if thats what you agreed to then you could be charged for not doing it

Just paint over it with a nondescript coloured paint

Its not betterment to request a colour or pattern to be returned to neutral on leaving - the fact the old paper was patterned and damaged doesn't really matter - the agent made a very standard clause, that being the decoration the Tennant wanted to do be removed when they leave.

If I was the OP I would simply ask the LL if they are happy for their decoration to remain without penalty.

I think it’s ridiculous when landlords expect a tenant not to make the house they’re paying to live in actually a home. You replaced ripped wallpaper, you did them a bloody favour. If it really means losing a deposit over though I’d just paint over it.

...the agent has reminded us we need to re wallpaper in plain paper.
I know we agreed - but..

They're is no but. If you didn't want to re-paper it plain, you shouldn't have agreed too.

If you hadn’t wanted to spend money improving your landlord’s property you shouldn’t have changed the wallpaper in the first place.
You were advised at the time that you’d have to re do it when you left??

So they should’ve just lived with grubby ripped wallpaper in the home they’re paying to live in? 🙄

They chose to do it, knowing they’d be paying for it twice 🤷🏻‍♀️

If the wallpaper wasn’t dirty and ripped they wouldn’t have needed to. Why should they pay twice to fix what should’ve been the landlords responsibility initially?

They should have insisted he do it.
They didn’t; they opted to take on the cost themselves.

Ok 😂 are you a money grabbing landlord too by any chance?

Don’t be daft.

What does the tenancy agreement say? Were there any written variations to it? It doesn't really matter what the agent said or didn't say, you go by what's in the contract.

I wouldn’t fix it and I would challenge it if they tried to take it out of my deposit. The worst that will happen is the deposit scheme take it out, but I’m not sure that’s likely. We also agreed to paint a room white again (from the neutral colour we painted it) and successfully challenged a deposit grab. We had before and after photos.

Yep. Despite what I posted earlier, this is what matters. And if the wallpaper isn't loud and in your face, I'd probably ask the landlord if it can remain as is, anyway.

But if it's in the contract you signed, you knew it was there but you signed anyway, I don't think you can really complain.