State of Property on Tenant Leaving

K

Kiernp

Registered User
Messages
12
Hi,
Would be interested to know how other landlords find the state of their properties when the tenant leaves.

I have been letting a property for 5 years and every tenant has left it in a mess. I don't mean just untidy I mean ranging from dirty to squalid, this includes a room littered with animal waste, carcass bones, rooms never having been hoovered during the tenancy, lots of personal stuff including rubbish left behind.

The last tenant followed the same pattern and was indignant when I withheld 100 euro of her deposit. I think I'm being too soft. I'm prompted to write this because a second property I let to a professional couple with a child has been damaged by a fire requiring me to visit. The walls in every room have been scribbled on by the kid, full scale drawings several feet square in every room! The house was freshly painted when they took occupancy.

I have spoken to an agent about this and I was told "Irish people don't respect other people's property".
 
I was a tenant for a time and I must say all in all I left the rental in a better state in which i found it which was usually run down

A friend of mine who works for a letting agent says that generally if a house is in good condition at the start and the landlord is fair and accommodating then the property is respected better .

And if you rent to a family do expect writing on the walls I mean kids are kids ....

the only think I did see once was where one of the tenants painted the apartment in dark red .....it was really bad took weeks to remove!!
 
Hi,

Don't personally agree with Zardebt. I rented my fair share of properties over the years. I always left the place in excellant condition because i wanted my full deposit back.
I don't see why anyone who's renting shouldn't treat the property with the same care as they would if they owned it. After all its far more pleasant for them while they live in it. Its right to expect a fair amount of wear and tear and with a young child I can understand a bit of scribbling - that happens but every room is a bit extreme. Would the parents really allow the child to scribble on the walls if they owned the house. Also what sort of a message is that giving the child - certainly not respect for other people's property.
 
Thrifty said:
Hi,

Don't personally agree with Zardebt. I rented my fair share of properties over the years. I always left the place in excellant condition because i wanted my full deposit back.
property.
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You are spot on there always tried to make sure the place was clean to get the deposit back although they used to put me on the long finger "I have it for you next week" .... until I mentioned rent relief .... that usually made them return my deposit.....

Thrifty said:
Its right to expect a fair amount of wear and tear and with a young child I can understand a bit of scribbling - that happens but every room is a bit extreme.
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ya I used to be that child who used to scribbling all over the place ....
and it was my mums house ... ya she used to give out ...but I could never really decided was it over the mess on the wall or the fact that I used to draw my mum with this rather evil head
 
Comiserate with you kiernp. Been a landlord on and off since 1991 and I would say that 80% of my tenants showed absolutely no respect whatsoever for the properties.

I know a family who rented for years and then got enough together to get a house of their own.

In the rental property, anything went - the kids came in with mucky shoes, dirty bikes were parked in the hall damaging the wallpaper and the actual plaster with the handlebars, cleaning was haphazzard, the garden was a mess, etc.

When they moved to their own house, my son was asked to remove his shoes on the way in, the bikes were put in the shed, the place was spotless, the garden manicured, etc.

The lack of respect is sickening and the number of tenants using the deposit as the last month's rent defeats the purpose of the deposit system, leaving the landlord with no recourse should the property be damaged or left dirty.

We got a house back once and had to hire 2 skips to remove the rubbish left behind, the carpets all had to be replaced, there was food debris on the kitchen, hall and dining room walls which had soaked into the wallpaper - so that all had to be stripped and the walls painted, we had to scrape the grease off the kitchen floor with a metal spatula, dining chairs had been smashed, cigarette burns in the leather suite, etc.

Begining to wonder if it's worth the hassle!
 
when I was nipper I'd get a clip across the ear for drawing on a wall. now it seems to be the done thing to let kids do what they like, and use the walls as a drawing board.

is it just me or is the world going mad.

Old Jack Frost......
 
I agree with you regarding disipline. I was in the landlord position until recently and from experience I refused to accept children in my small house.

I settled for less rent and had either couples or one person leasing it, and I have to say my last tenants were perfect.

Have sold the property since and I am sad to say that I did'nt want children in the property but my children were made to respect and appreciate people and the enviorment and why should I accept less from someone elses children?
 
[font=&quot]ah now not to take from the thread but a child scribble .... what can more than a lick of paint would solve .....

If that’s all a landlord has to complain about well its got it good .. oh ya .

A lick of paint doesn't hurt the profit margins too much

Landlords wake up smell the coffee want do ye want
the tenants from heaven, the mortgage paid for and house appreciation ah my heart goes out to ye .....when ye find that a child paints yer wall

Zar-debt
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Isn't the landlord or agency entitled to enter every couple of months and photograph the property ?

This can protect the renter from Landlords feigning shock at the end of the lease and withholding a big chunks of their deposit and also protect the Landlord by giving advance warning of deteriorating conditions in their property.
 
[font=&quot] A lick of paint doesn't hurt the profit margins too much
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Well tenant's like Delgirl's experience (above) would certainly wipe out any profit. This thread seems to more than just about a child's scribble.

(It's hard to get ink off of walls. Paint over it, and it soaks through the paint. Dulux won't cover this in one 'lick'.)
[/font]
 
Landlords wake up smell the coffee want do ye want
the tenants from heaven, the mortgage paid for and house appreciation ah my heart goes out to ye .....when ye find that a child paints yer wall
Click to expand...
You've obviously never been a landlord and for your information, we're not all wealthy and your comments smack of envy!

Some of us have worked and saved very hard for what we have and only ask that tenants show some basic respect, in accordance with the terms of the lease they sign when they agree to rent the property, in return for providing them with a home that they otherwise couldn't afford.

Would like to see how you would react if your nice shiny new car was parked outside your house and a child decided to do a 'Citroen Picasso' all over it - ah, sure it'd be okay, you'd only need a new coat of paint!
 
umop3p!sdn said:
Well tenant's like Delgirl's experience (above) would certainly wipe out any profit. This thread seems to more than just about a child's scribble.

(It's hard to get ink off of walls. Paint over it, and it soaks through the paint. Dulux won't cover this in one 'lick'.)
[/font]
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Sorry umop3p!sdn not trying to pick on landlords profit margins but

1. Can they not deduct maintenance expense against taxes (I might be making the
assumption that the landlord is declaring taxes oops )

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=5996

2. when you decorate a place for renting you decorate in way that is netural
and easily repaired / cleaned .

can you outline to me how any experience would wipe out a growth rate of 30%

no this I need to see to believe sorry !!

can you outline to me what overall profit on a rental is and how this can be wiped out by a solvent remover and a few tins of paints...

thanks,
Zar-debt
 

1. Can they not deduct maintenance expense against taxes (I might be making the
assumption that the landlord is declaring taxes oops )

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=5996

They can deduct maintenance expense against taxes.

To be frank, your use of 'oops' is offensive. Should I insinuate you evade tax also, with no evidence to back up my claim?

2. when you decorate a place for renting you decorate in way that is netural
and easily repaired / cleaned .

Carpets and paint still costs money. I don't understand your point.

can you outline to me how any experience would wipe out a growth rate of 30%

A growth rate of 30%? Where do you get that figure?

can you outline to me what overall profit on a rental is and how this can be wiped out by a solvent remover and a few tins of paints...

Carpets, paint, solvent remover, time, unoccupied premises, furniture, (skips!) etc... costs €€€€s. These expenses will wipe out profit. It's a pretty basic concept: Money in < money out.

Are you currently renting out property to tenants?
 
hi umop3p!sdn

Sorry if I was offensive I didn't even know you were a land lord and I wasn't trying to insult you or suggest that you are evading tax ...its just my experience from renting was the only way I could ever get my deposit back was to ask the landlord if he could me his/hers PPS number ....

In respect of you I will answer your last question once you have accepted my sincere
sorry and you are aware that any of my comment are not a direct insult at you

Sorry,
Zar-debt
 
Hi,

Just to clarify. I'm not talking about a scribble here and there I'm talking about the child using the walls as drawing paper i.e. multi coloured marks in pen, crayon and paint several feet square. The whole house will need to be repainted. A cost of about 2000 euro unless I do it myself. The tenant's deposit would not come close to covering it.

I used this disregard as my experience of the treatment of rented property by the tenants that I've had. I could mention lawnmower left out in the rain, paint spilled on leather suite, mould in fridge, filthy cookers, remains of the fire thrown in garden outside the back door but I won't bore you.

Re inspections as I was a tenant for years and I did'nt like to be disturbed by the landlord, I have tried to treat tenants as I liked to be treated.

The thing is to let the property it needs to be and has been spotless.

One final point: I lived abroad for years and one very noticeable thing on my return is the amount of litter in public places. Even in beauty spots its not unusual for people to leave rubbish behind. I think we have a problem in general in our attitudes to environments that we do not own.
 
Zardebt - thanks for the apology (It was only a bit offensive! :-D)

I have been both a landlord and a tenant. I've left a property spotless and lost my deposit over a burn on the countertop in the kitchen (which I didn't burn).

As a landlord, I've also had furniture busted and walls drawn on. Although, unlike the above contributors, the walls were drawn on by adults! They drew pornographic pictures behind mirrors etc.
 
delgirl said:
Some of us have worked and saved very hard for what we have and only ask that tenants show some basic respect, in accordance with the terms of the lease they sign when they agree to rent the property, in return for providing them with a home that they otherwise couldn't afford.
I think that this comment is really insulting to tenants. You make it sound as if you are doing the tenants a favour by leasing a property to them. You might want to consider that they also work hard and probably save too in order to provide you with monthly rent and deposit.

In relation to the deposit being used as the last months rent - I have never experienced a landlord who accepted this before.
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umop3p!sdn said:
Zardebt - thanks for the apology (It was only a bit offensive! :-D)

I have been both a landlord and a tenant. I've left a property spotless and lost my deposit over a burn on the countertop in the kitchen (which I didn't burn).

As a landlord, I've also had furniture busted and walls drawn on. Although, unlike the above contributors, the walls were drawn on by adults! They drew pornographic pictures behind mirrors etc.
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Was I a landlord at any stage ...

- Yes there was a time when I bought a house for 127000euros it was around the change of the euro ...and I got the tenant from hell the toilet was bad and what I found in the room well I don't think I really want to share....

but saying that I decided to sell a year later as renting in the area was getting difficult and the house was gone up to 185k ....

the house cost 800 euros to do up

a new garden , tiles new floor and a lick of paint the house was as new
but it cost me four long weekends ..but I am a big DIY fan so all wasn't too bad


how can I complain about being a landlord when I walk away with a 46k profit ?

hmmmmmm
 
I think that this comment is really insulting to tenants. You make it sound as if you are doing the tenants a favour by leasing a property to them. You might want to consider that they also work hard and probably save too in order to provide you with monthly rent and deposit.
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My comment was not meant to be insulting to tenants - I have been a tenant myself quite a few times in the past. I'm merely making the point that it works both ways - I agree to provide you with a nice, clean, functional home and you agree to look after it! That's what it says in the lease and I don't think that's too much to ask.
In relation to the deposit being used as the last months rent - I have never experienced a landlord who accepted this before.
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This has happened to me a few times and it's not a question of acceptance. What do you do when the tenant tells you to use his deposit when the last month's rent is due? It's a lenghty process to get a court order to evict him and short of going over there and throwing him out, which is incidentally against the law, there's absolutely nothing you can do.
 
delgirl said:
You've obviously never been a landlord and for your information, we're not all wealthy and your comments smack of envy!

Some of us have worked and saved very hard for what we have and only ask that tenants show some basic respect, in accordance with the terms of the lease they sign when they agree to rent the property, in return for providing them with a home that they otherwise couldn't afford.

Would like to see how you would react if your nice shiny new car was parked outside your house and a child decided to do a 'Citroen Picasso' all over it - ah, sure it'd be okay, you'd only need a new coat of paint!
Click to expand...

Hi Delgirl - I was a landlord once eney not really just if I had to feel sorry for someone
I think I would be more in the side of the tenants ...

You know maybe I had it easy with my 43k profit in one year but I sure I am not the only one ?

About the car .... well you cheer me up with the suggestion of a child doing a Citroen Picasso on my car - it could only make it better at the moment - not really into expensive cars

and if I was in the BUSiness of renting cars and if I got a car back with a Citroen Picasso on it well if the cost of repainting the car left me with no profit then I am in the wrong BUSINESS !!

time to move on to a more profitable one ...
 
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