My house was fully refurbished , kitchen, bathroom , flooring, carpet, tiles , fully painted , new blinds in the kitchen and bathroom, rented out first of October 2023 until 30/06/2024 will leaving, I went to check the house ,if okay to advertise it for next Tennent, but after I seen the house I shocked , I am as a new landlord have no experience what should I do , can you advise please?
The damaged all the walls, pen marks, drawing on the walls ,paint damaged,fridge freezer drawers damaged , kitchen blinds damaged, living room blinds 2 slates missing , 2x curtain rail pole hunger broken .
Before they moved into my house , they promised me to look after the house, as previous landlord very happy , Thanks for help
It is not good, although it could have been a lot worse. Fortunately for you they are leaving. Hopefully, you had a good inventory done at the start of the tenancy. The damage is pretty conclusive so you should be able to successfully claim on their deposit to rectify the damage.
As they havn’t yet moved out, now is the time to explain to them what you need them to resolve before they move out.
Did you do a photograph backed inventory when they moved in, that they signed? If, so send them a copy of it and highlight the term of your rental agreement where they agreed to return the house in a ‘similar’ condition as when they move in.
If they do not resolve, and leave the mess, then make a claim from their deposit, but this is best done by agreement with them, and far more complicated if they object & you have to go through adjudication via the deposit holding scheme.
Then it’s highly likely that their kids will have no idea (because the parents have no idea) of the expectations LLs have for the way they are supposed to treat a rental property.
When tenants give notice, you should immediately do an inspection with the tenant and flag any issues that might result in a deduction from the deposit. That gives them a chance to rectify them to your satisfaction before they leave thus potentially minimising a void period and giving you an idea of whether you’re going to have resistance on deposit deductions. You’ve left this very late so you’re simply going to have to let them know the deductions you’ll make from the deposit to rectify all this. I would also give them strong advice that this is typically unacceptable treatment of a rental property and they should bear that in mind for future rentals.
but, you should have spotted these issues loooooong before now. Always do an inspection at most 3 months after check in. If it’s someone from overseas, do it a month after check in. These early checks help you get issues nipped in the bud and allow you to reinforce expectations of how they should treat the property and the consequences of not doing so. Then inspect every 3 months after that and always flag any issues as soon as you spot them.
Hi mate, thanks for your help, unfortunately I haven’t done inventory , but I have money pictures ,
When I told them about walls damaged and need filling , sanding and fully paint , they told me nothing wrong with it , also they told me still have to paint it for new tenants.
Thank you for your help and advice, about my tenant, they don’t think they have done any damaged to the house, they thinking nothing wrong with it, and I could advertise it for a new tenant right away.
The first 2 months after they moved to the house, they damaged my kitchen doors cabinets, she told me will going to fix it , by glue and masking tape , I told her can’t tape it, this needs a new one, or second hand doors.
Not conducting an inventory is very much a rookie error which you will no doubt learn from. You state that you have many pictures however, I am not sure that they can be used as evidence for a claim on the tenants deposit.
Pictures taken for an inventory should be time and date stamped. The tenant then signs the inventory at the start of the tenancy to say that the pictures are a true representation of the conditions within the property. The aim of the Inventory is to capture every detail within a room. All the surfaces including light fittings, light switches, power sockets, radiators, the insides of cupboards, and kitchen appliances etc.
As Tatemono has stated the inventory is followed up by frequent inspections. I recommend 4 - 6 weeks after moving in just to check on how they are settling in. Then every 3 months. When you are satisfied that they are looking after your property in the correct way you can relax the frequency of inspections to once or twice a year. It’s about building trust.
I conduct my own DIY inventory using an app called smarter inventories.com (other apps may be available) for around £5.00 and a couple hours of my time. It’s so easy to use, cost effective and looks professional.
If Images have been taken with an iPhone you can go to the album and save as print screen which is time and date stamped
On the i at the bottom of the screen you can also add location / caption
I have just used those successfully in adjudication
Hi Christopher, thanks for the time you spent it to look to my pictures and also all your advice, I am definitely going to download the app , it’s very useful,let me ask you please , how much should I take from the deposit, they damaged all walls, paint, kitchen blinds, living room blinds 2 slates missing , fridge freezer drawers, 2x curtain rail pole hunger broken and can’t secure the pole anymore .
Regarding to the pictures , all the pictures dated , I have many pictures.anyway thanks for help I am much appreciate it .
Wow… it is much worse than I originally thought. The deposit scheme you use will give clear guidance on how to make a claim. I imagine you will need to provide a quote from a decorator or get the work done and give them the receipt. Don’t think of doing it yourself as they don’t compensate landlords for their time. I have just had some work done myself. A ball park figure for painting a room (walls and ceilings only) is £300.00, curtain poles £20.00 from The Range.
What I will say is not all tenants are like yours. There are some decent ones out there. Put this experience behind you and move on. Just take care in vetting future tenants and conduct an inventory along with regular inspections.
Yeh that sucks. I would say tho… if the cupboard fronts had delaminated like that it’s hard to say if that was the tenants or a manufacturing fault… or a little of both. I personally would have asked the supplier for replacements as that generally shouldn’t happen to that degree even if bashed around a bit.
Also you mentioned a couple of slates… what were they doing on the roof?
Hard to comprehend they could look at the drawings and damage on the walls and say ‘nothing wrong with that’.
A rubber doorstop on the skirting where the handle has bashed the wall would make a lot of sense or you’ll only see that again.
It might not be much of a consolation but most of it is pretty minor to fix in the grand scheme of things.
Richard79
I too couldn’t understand how the laminate seemed to separate from the cupboard doors. Anyway, I think the OP was referring to missing slats from the Venetian blinds.
You are saying you refurbished before they mooved in. Maybe you have a builder to confirm this? Maybe you have images from the time you advertised… inventory would be good to confirm thete were no demages before they moved in… well, Put on the list everything that needs replacing and repair, one by one, getquotes how much will it be toreplace and repair. Create a document and hold the amount against the deposit … hopefully deposit is bigger than the final demage amout. Be persistent! In absence of inventory your word is againt theirs so you might settle for 50%… their deposit will not be releised if there is a despute, so it is in their interest to collaborate. Good luck and let us know how all ended!
Hi Richard, sorry mate I meant 2 slats missing from living room blinds , regarding to the kitchen cabinets doors, they told me was loose and the kids they ripped it off , so I told them why didn’t tell me I could just glue it when was loose .
About the door handle damaged the wall, I already fitted door stopper, but the spring was bent down.anyway they moved now, they bought new house build .
Usually you should give them a list of what was spotted (telling them it is not exhaustive) and tell them they need to make it all good, and that any issues remaining will be deducted from the deposit.
The aim is to get them to do as much of it as possible, because at present the entire deposit is not going to cover everything needed.
It may be a bit different if you don’t trust them to fix anything without making it worse,
I have successfully claimed the full deposit both times I’ve needed to, after tenants redecorated badly without permission and their animals ruined carpets.
