I've been in a rented bungalow for four years eight months.
The landlady claims that she wants the house to be "returned in the exact state it was when I moved in" as "she won't be able to rent it out like this". She has detailed various areas in need of decoration. All of the issues with the decoration are (apparently) due to condensation from inadequate ventilation.
The identified issues are:
- Cracked paint on a bedroom ceiling. The paint has cracked/peeled in perfectly straight lines where the ceiling "boards" are. None of the other rooms exhibit this. The flat roof was replaced around two years ago. I'm no builder but I wonder if these cracks might have been caused by people walking on the roof when replacing it.
- Flaked paint in the same bedroom. I maintain that this was like this when I moved in. Perhaps due to the paint not being applied properly. It might have got slightly worse in almost five years.
- Peeled paint on small bathroom window. I accept that this may have been better when I moved in, but I have no idea how old the paint was when I moved in!
- Damp wall in kitchen. Possibly caused by water leaking through wall from the bath. She was made aware of this on several occasions (and in person on at least three six monthly inspections) but chose to take no further action. She did send an incompetent repair man twice who refitted the bathroom tiles but this made very little difference.
I accept it is my responsibility to inform her of any defects and did so, and she witnessed the situation three times in person. Perhaps I could have been more persistent in getting her to investigate it, but like I say, she did witness it three times in the past 18 months.
She claims that all of the above falls outside of fair wear and tear, particularly the bedroom ceiling.
I'm not an unreasonable person and want to be fair and move on (to the much nicer house I have now bought and never see this cold bungalow again!) - but I'd appreciate any unbiased views on whether her expectations are reasonable, or not - whatever agreement I may come to with regard to the damage deposit.
The landlady claims that she wants the house to be "returned in the exact state it was when I moved in" as "she won't be able to rent it out like this". She has detailed various areas in need of decoration. All of the issues with the decoration are (apparently) due to condensation from inadequate ventilation.
The identified issues are:
- Cracked paint on a bedroom ceiling. The paint has cracked/peeled in perfectly straight lines where the ceiling "boards" are. None of the other rooms exhibit this. The flat roof was replaced around two years ago. I'm no builder but I wonder if these cracks might have been caused by people walking on the roof when replacing it.
- Flaked paint in the same bedroom. I maintain that this was like this when I moved in. Perhaps due to the paint not being applied properly. It might have got slightly worse in almost five years.
- Peeled paint on small bathroom window. I accept that this may have been better when I moved in, but I have no idea how old the paint was when I moved in!
- Damp wall in kitchen. Possibly caused by water leaking through wall from the bath. She was made aware of this on several occasions (and in person on at least three six monthly inspections) but chose to take no further action. She did send an incompetent repair man twice who refitted the bathroom tiles but this made very little difference.
I accept it is my responsibility to inform her of any defects and did so, and she witnessed the situation three times in person. Perhaps I could have been more persistent in getting her to investigate it, but like I say, she did witness it three times in the past 18 months.
She claims that all of the above falls outside of fair wear and tear, particularly the bedroom ceiling.
I'm not an unreasonable person and want to be fair and move on (to the much nicer house I have now bought and never see this cold bungalow again!) - but I'd appreciate any unbiased views on whether her expectations are reasonable, or not - whatever agreement I may come to with regard to the damage deposit.