Maintenance of garden

Has anybody included maintenance of garden in their contracts? If so, please can you share examples of the ‘small print’ included. I’m keen to understand to what extent one details “maintenance of garden”…pruning, de-weeding, regular watering and feeding etc.
Also to what extent is it binding in the contract and has anybody been able to take any action for a garden not being maintained?

your problem will be that not everone has the same idea of a tidy garden. You can look at the garden of their existing property if really keen. This is wide open to interpretation

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Is this any help? Copied from my AST agreement. I uploaded a screenshot of the section on gardening. Hope you can access it.

Everyone where I live, signed contracts to maintain their garden. But they don’t - ever!

You might be better to say you will inspect the garden quarterly and if its in a poor condition or hazardous in any way to the tenants, they you will engage a gardener to correct it and the tenant is liable for the cost. At least then they will have a go before your inspection at least.

I pay my gardener to look after my tenants garden and its tax deductible, its just easier.

The real thing to worry about is people leaving behind large belongings in the garden, such as motorbikes, cars, caravans or boats. I put in something to say the tenants could not use the garden for storing anything other than garden furniture or gardening equipment. That way you get a vehicle moved during the tenancy. Also state that if you have to remove the item, as the tenant has abandoned it, the tenant will be liable for the cost of removal, disposal and any storage conditions imposed by the law. For example you might have to ‘give the tenant the opportunity of collecting a car spanning months,’ so this could incur a storage cost.

The Tenant Fees Act would prohibit quarterly charges to the tenant for gardening regardless of whether they are neglecting it.

I’m sorry to hear that you have never experienced tenants looking after the garden. It is not true however that no tenants look after the garden. I rent and I always look after the garden, including repainting the shed in my current premises. I have a gardener to help me prune and weed and I’ve planted bulbs and shrubs. The garden looks hugely better than when I arrived.

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