More than wear and tear

[Advice seeker]

Hi all

I have a tenant moving out soon. Had a quick look around before inventory is done and I spotted the odd chip here and there. I also spotted more and more chips on door frames, then realising the tenants little baby/toddler has been round tearing off bits of wallpaper, mostly around sockets.

How would you handle this? I cannot easily patch this up so would seem the whole walls may need papering, then wouldn't match the room.

Any thoughts on a fair deduction from deposit?

Many thanks

[nukecad]

You can't claim for 'betterment', only for damage/wear and tear above what would normally be expected.

And TBH most people would expect that young kids will rip wallpaper, draw on it, etc.
Yes I know 'kids these days'. But us old buggers have been saying that since mammoths were about and the kids were drawing on the cave walls.

So if you let to someone with toddlers (or a young couple where new babies can often happen) expect to have to redecorate when they move out, and add a bit to the rent for that.
If they are there long term you will win out, the longer they are there the more you'll be taking each rent towards redecoration.

How long is it since the room was decorated?

If it was going to need redecorating before you relet anyway then any tearing/drawing of the current wallpaper is irrelevant.

If you would have been happy to relet without redecorating then you may have a case, but only for the loss of the expected lifetime of the wall paper. You can't claim the cost of a full redecoration that would be betterment.

The DPS dispute resolution teams have tables of how long things are expected to last before replacement, and adjust any claims against how much life something has left.