Tenant wants to repaint and some problem in garden

F

Frank

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Tenant has been in the house 2 years

Letting agent rang me they want to do some painting, apparently there is an issue in the garden too don't know yet.

Agent suggested I buy the paint and normally the tenant will look after the painting and suggested a meeting with them.

What is the norm in these cases, Fore armed and all that.
 
Be delighted your tenant has a desire to upkeep their home (your property), and a pride for the place. If I were in a rented home I would expect the landlord to maintain their property, and in no way would I paint it myself.

If you tenant has been good to you in the last two years and always came through on rent, I would be bending over backward for them.
 
It depends what you agree.
Are the tennants tryng for a rent reduction if they paint?

They may not be painting to a professional standard firstly (ie you will need to fix the painting problems afterwards..Like emulsion paint in the wrong place, for example, disaster), and secondly, beware any 'odd' or dark colours..It can be quite hard to repaint afterwards.

You could perhaps have a clause that they will have to paint back to white (or whatever) before they leave, if it is an 'odd' colour.

Nicola
PS I, as a tennant, many years ago as a student, painted a bathroom shocking pink and purple, as well as painting the tiles.
I ended up being friends withg the landlord, who has subsequently told me what a mess it was to sort out. Bless him, he never complained at the time, and never took money off my deposit, even though it would possibly have been within his rights to do so.
But I would say, beware.
 

Absolutely agree with Davy. By painting the house the tenant is expressing an interest in the up keep of the house and therefore intends to stay on. Buy him the paint I say!
 
I'd buy the paint, that way you have the choice over colour and quality of paint, you can still deduct the cost of the paint against your tax bill.
 
Does it actually need painting? If it does, can the tenant guarantee an acceptable standard? I would be wary personally of letting the tenant have free rein to paint your house. They may start out enthusiastic, but could possibly get bored and consequently messy. You will have to pay for their botch job. Worse case scenario i know, but worth weighing up i think.
 
Speaking as a landlord myself I'd buy them the paint so long as you get to veto it.
 
Any tenant willing to paint should be supplied the paint, means good quality paint and you control the colour. If they want you to pay for it to be painted after just 2 years and it was perfect when they first rented I'd have a problem with that. But you have to think 2 year tenants is a good thing and they look like they will be staying. Go and have a chat with them.
 
I would buy them the paint and let them do it themselves. If the tenants have offered to do so, then it is very likely that they will do a good job, they will have to live with it. Buy them brushes and some protective gear to cover floors too, to ensure they have all the necessary tools to do a good job. Do discuss the colour in advance of course.

If you are very concerned about getting a professional finish, then hire professionals to do it.
 
Thanks for all the replies I will arrange a meeting over the weekend and see what they say.
 
Just on an aside. Don't agree to any wallpapering or paper borders if you don't want to be dealing with it after they leave. In fairness, you would probably be doing a repaint job between tenants which is work itself. Getting paper off a wall is something else entirely and you'd probably have to keep re-papering after that.
 
S.L.F said:
Funny, that's what I have in my rented flat and every month when I collect my rent I always think it looks fine.
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I'm sure it does! - it's just that it is the landlord's staple. Every flat I have rented has only ever been painted magnolia.
 
Caveat said:
I'm sure it does! - it's just that it is the landlord's staple. Every flat I have rented has only ever been painted magnolia.
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I have a bit of a variation, magnolia on the walls and white on the ceilings and woodwork. If you call into any builders, suppliers/DIY shhop in Ireland you'll notice that the largest buckets of paint with the cheapest prices are for magnolia and white. I thought it was because they were everyone's favourite colours
 
Caveat said:
I'm sure it does! - it's just that it is the landlord's staple. Every flat I have rented has only ever been painted magnolia.
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Of course!

It's easy to get, always looks great (especially when I'm collecting my rent), I always leave whistling.

But as Bronte said a bit of variation is good too I also have white on the ceilings and woodwork.

The bathroom was painted by a previous tenant (without my permission) who painted it a dark slum green and then moved out 3 weeks later:mad:
 
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