Replacing flooring at end of tenancy

Tenant Discussion
1

Hi all,

I am a tenant of 1 year, I moved out on the 1st November, my tenancy doesn’t end till the 1st December.

The vinyl flooring was not stuck down with adhesive in our priority and therefor was damaged (torn) due to us moving the washing machine in. I really believe that if the flooring was stuck down, this would not have happened as it would not have caught and pulled on any vinyl.

I was told by the landlord to replace the floor, so I did, but the correct flooring was not available for delivery as the b&q website was down. I travelled an hour away to buy the vinyl roll myself, to find it wasn’t big enough.

With only 2 days left, I have no choice but to search local flooring stores for an adequate replacement. I found one which is exactly the same colours, just a slightly different pattern, same if not better quality and cut from the roll, then installed professionally and properly My landlord dis saying this isn’t the right flooring, and it has marks on (these marks are the pattern) I have explained the situation but no avail. I just want some advice on what to do, am I liable still even though I really did my best to replace this? Was it my responsibility to replace in the first place? The flooring now may not be to her personal taste but it is serviceable and the colour and quality are exactly the same, if not better quality.

Our landlord has not been the most helpful, we reported problems such as black mould in the bedroom but she just gave us a dehumidifier but it wasn’t enough to fully cover the extent of the problem, also a broken blind in the bathroom she said she would replace at the beginning of the tenancy but never did.

She is also trying to make us pay for a toilet seat which broke and we replaced with a white wooden one, we had replaced it ourselves because her help with the mould and blind etc showed us she was not a very attentive landlord, the original toilet seat was plastic. She stated I replace it with an ‘ideal standard resin’ like for like one. But this isn’t in the inventory that this is the make and material. I have replaced again with a white plastic toilet seat but she is saying this is not the right one. It is serviceable.

When I first moved in the flooring wasn’t installed properly and I have photos of where the lino was gathering up together due to not being stuck down with adhesive. Please help!!

Thank you in advance!

2

Hi.
Interesting question.
Like to think we are reasonable landlords and if you have replaced the Lino and toilet seat I would say she is being very unreasonable on the face of things but I am not the most experienced landlord on here. I would think myself very lucky to have any damage repaired.

On the subject of whether it was your responsibility in the beginning, I guess you took the property knowing about the bunched up vinyl.Did you tell her in any correspondence it may cause you problems? Or ask her to flatten it? Vinyl is so easily torn. Personally I would consider how old the vinyl was, what it had cost me in the beginning and how long the tenant had been in occupation. In the greater scheme of things one year isn’t that long but cheap vinyl isn’t that expensive and if she didn’t do other repairs personally think I may well have replaced it myself but
would be interested to hear of more seasoned landlords opinion on the second part.

3

Moving washing machines are the bane of my life. I always tell tenants to carefully walk the machine in and not push it in place