Renters, Do you ever improve your home?

[FlyMeToDunoon]

I am moving from home owning to renting.
The house we are moving to has a tatty bathroom and for instance I am tempted to replace the loo seat and possibly the lino.
Is this mad or should I ask the landlord to do it or what?

Well you need to talk to the landlord before you do anything obviously. I doubt he'd do it himself, the house is as rented presumably. But a good landlord usually has little problem with improvements ime.

We have changed an all gravel exterior to only gravel on the driveway and put in lawn, a flowerbed and a veg patch. Have also done stuff inside, put shelves up, painted etc. We have a very easy going landlord. Next door have the same landlord and have put in a wood burning stove, a new kitchen floor (tiled) and new bath.

Just talk to your landlord.

Thanks. And were you happy to spend the money on a property that might not be your home in a few years?

We're currently renting - soon to be buying the house (hopefully). We changed the loo seats and have made some minor improvements - changed curtains, made garden easier to maintain but not done a lot else tbh.

You could always ask about the lino - may be able to come to a compromise about cost with landlord?

Just makes it a bit more bearable having to live in someone elses house!

Exactly minty.

We're happy to do the improvements here and there. This is still our home. We want to enjoy it and settle here. We'll never afford our own home, but we make a home of wherever we are.

I am reassured that I can spend money on 'my home' then and that landlords are often amenable.
Thanks

We rent from the MoD, and can put pictures up, have our own curtains and put up shelving, but can't do anything else. We also have to make good any holes in walls from shelving, pictures etc when we leave.

I rent out my house in the UK, and pay for most things the tenants want if I deem it reasonable, and if I want to live with it when I return. I wasn't prepared to pay for an electric cooker and the installation thereof when they moved in as there is a perfectly good oil fired range to cook on. They knew that when they signed the contract, so no dice.

We are quite relaxed with our tenants and let them do what they like within reason as long as they ask first.

If the lino was damaged or really dirty, i would expect to replace it for you. If it was just a matter of taste I would let you do it at your own cost.

We have had tenants redecorate, refloor, change the garden, add decking etc. with no issues.

we rent a furnished flat and have made it our home. we put our pictures up (used the holes that where already there), use our cutlery and dishes, replaced the shower curtain. The loo seat we replaced, as the old one was broken and did not want to bother the LL for 10 Pounds...

I've rented my whole adult life, mostly from the smae landlord, and he is very cool! If I am doing improvements to his property, he reduces the rent by how much it will cost me. It's win, win!

We rent and we have made alot of changes to the property. We advise the landlord of the changes and he has no problem with it (we pay to improve his place so he gains).

We have put up a shed in the back garden, painted, changed curtains to blinds, ripped out and re-did an entire bathroom, changed really bad lino in the kitchen and bathroom to tiles, planted flowers in the beds, and put in external lights.

Most rental properties we've had you have to ask permission and make it pretty neutral. But there's an expectation that the landlord will have decorated it nice in the first place etc.

This house however, we can do anything except artex, but had to get the place totally decorated and carpeted ourselves when we moved in.
It's very cheap though, so a good trade off, and no worrying about DS crayoning on someone else's wall, as it's my paintwork he's ruining.

We rent, and since we moved in 18 months ago, we've put up curtain poles (there weren't any), painted the shed and all of the garden furniture, planted all sorts of things in the garden, repainted old chipping paintwork on the exterior doors and windows, and turned the shower which rested on the bath taps into a proper wall shower with mountings and a curtain.

We've had permission for the shower and the curtain poles, but have just cracked on with the other things which are largely maintenance (albeit big maintenance jobs that I think go beyond the tenants' usual responsibilities). We also bought a vax to keep the landlord's cream carpets as we wanted them, so I think he's pretty pleased to have us. We're hoping that the CGT position will mean that we can be here for a good while longer, as he won't have an incentive to sell.