Tenant painted rental property

[welshgold]

If I had a property painted red or any other bright colour, I would gladly buy the Magnolia paint for the tenant to repaint.

[AndrewDod]

This article about the elderly Spanish woman who decided to restore an ancient prized fresco is apposite

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19349921

[Hippogriff]

Yeah, we can get a bit too serious on here sometimes.

[AndrewDod]

That made me guffaw out loud.

P.S. - and pretty well written too.

Glad you liked it. We need to up the entertainment value of the enterprise.

[Hippogriff]

Reversibility of paintwork is not a trivial matter...

That made me guffaw out loud.

The whole issue is a trivial matter.

A lot of thought went into this diatribe, so I only pointed-out the funniest bit... other bits were also hilarious. It was a great read.

P.S. - and pretty well written too.

[AndrewDod]

I'm going to stick to my guns here and elaborate on my desire to evict you:

I can think of three possible categories of reasons your landlord would be pissed with you.

a) He is simply a nasty git. He doesn't recognise the superb job that you have done, that you have chosen an appropriate type of paint,
that you are a skilled qualified professional painter and that your work is just great. He is entitled to be a git.

b) Your job really isn't as great or as reversible as you have led us to believe -- in the opinion of anyone, or
merely in the opinion of L. Reversibility of paintwork is not a trivial matter and is not down simply to the
restoration of mere appearance. If you decide to paint my bathroom with some third rate emulsion - restoration is not simply by topping the paint with something appropriate to a bathroom -- your L will end up with a restoration problem down the line, long after your deposit is refunded. Likewise, if you paint my exterior woodwork with some old brown paint, and then restore it with a decent coat of Sadolin -- it might look just great, but L is going to face a massive job down the line -- complete wood stripping and perhaps even a rebuild as the thing rots away.

c) Neither of the above -- but you have breached your agreement in a fundamental way. YOU signed an agreement that obliges you to respect the property in various ways and which obliges your L to respect you. YOU decided to do something that is not in accordance with that agreement. You could have telephoned the L to make a proposal -- but you did not. You could have accepted the Ls proposal that his professional painter do the job. But no -- you did what you liked. You did something that would make the L not trust you. If you agreed not to smoke indoors, but smoke regardless, that would be a similar breach of trust and contract -- the actual damage caused is a different matter entirely. If you agreed not to sublet, but you do anyway.... likewise.

Why is this really any different from your employment contract. You contract to work from 9am to 5pm for which you get paid. You then just decide that you feel like working from 8am to 4pm. The fact that this might (in your opinion) be cost neutral to your employer is irrelevant. Don't be surprised when you get fired.

Your landlord is running a business and is entitled to make decisions based on his own experience in the particular market. Your L might know that a T who is prepared to do what you have done is also prepared not to pay rent, or to omit the final rental payment, or to do countless other nasty things. You might not do those things -- but since this is not yet a fascist state, we are all entitled to assess the risk to ourselves however we choose. I suspect in some markets a tenant who is prepared to paint would be less likely to do other bad things. In other markets this is clearly not the case.

You have an agreement -- and if you are not prepared to stick with an agreement you have willingly signed as a conscious and intelligent adult, why would you be surprised when you receive a bad reaction -- and a nervousness that you cannot be trusted not to do other things that will do something to L's property that he does not desire. Of course it is possible that your agreement says you are allowed to decorate (I doubt it), in which case no problem. But if it doesn't -- why whine.

[Bramleyapple]

. This is a 'builder' who charges over £250,000 for a kitchen (just to put his 'skill level' into context!!)

.

"GULP! " 'Wow! --- I think you'll be fine after communicating with the LL . Im a first time one and I think we're likely to have a little wobble when the agent (rightly) flags up some rule has been breached , wrongly thinking in our inexperience that its a symptom of a future tenant from hell and immediate action must be taken to avoid the sky falling . Im sure he'll be reasonable now youve explained the position properly.

[mariner]

IME many Ts dislike magnolia, nondescript rental image. Had 1 T paint over magnolia with deep primary colours 'to make a feature'. No prior request, T charged for restitution.

#1 We are excellent and responsible tenants;

[Hippogriff]

Storm in a teacup.

Yes, you should have asked for permission to re-paint, you do admit this.

No, the Landlord should not go off the deep-end regarding this... especially so late in the day.

Leave it as it is, re-paint it back to red etc. at the end of the tenancy (or the current fixed term / break clause) and Landlord is, effectively, impotent until that time. Landlord can expect you to re-paint it before leaving (which you will do) but not before. And Landlord could try and make a deposit deduction if so minded, but difficult to get an objective person to agree with that if the re-paint is done to a high standard - so just dispute it if it ever happens.

Landlord sounds silly. I sense your desire to maintain positive relations... but sometimes you have to accept you're dealing with an idiot and it can't be achieved.

Rest easy. Sit back and appreciate your lovely magnolia wall.

[theartfullodger]

Agent may well have/probably has already pointed it out: However there is no law against being a daft landlord...

[Adamshouse]

Adam, I wonder if you could have an 'off the record' chat with the agent when you decide to leave:

Suggest he brings viewers to see the place with the magnolia walls, and see how many offer to rent, and then if they don't get any offers, you will happily repaint it red. Perhaps then, (hopefully) landlord will see the error of his ways.

I agree with this! I cannot imagine why the agent has not pointed this out to the LL already!!

[JK0]

Adam, I wonder if you could have an 'off the record' chat with the agent when you decide to leave:

Suggest he brings viewers to see the place with the magnolia walls, and see how many offer to rent, and then if they don't get any offers, you will happily repaint it red. Perhaps then, (hopefully) landlord will see the error of his ways.

[Adamshouse]

Maybe an over-reaction on part of LL, but OP is not the perfect tenant suggested - repainted in diff colour without prior LL permission. A builder is not a professional painter, nor resp to LL. What if original colour is not avail, will any red suffice?
IMO redecorating restrictions are not unfair contract terms.

To be entirely fair to us- we haven't claimed to be perfect tenants. We have said that we are entirely in the wrong on this point and will rectify. I have said that otherwise, we are excellent tenants. NO tenant is 100% perfect (unless they don't actually use the property that they are paying for).

My father in law IS a professional painter (the term builder is a term which encompasses his trade as a whole). He is, in addition, a master craftsman cabinet maker and makes super luxury kitchens, installs them and paints/ lays floor/ appliances, etc. To be honest, with his expert level of craft and skill, you would be unlikely to get a better finish from any other tradesperson. This is a 'builder' who charges over £250,000 for a kitchen (just to put his 'skill level' into context!!)

We have already bought the replacement paint (done at the time of repainting) to ensure we had the exact colour in case it was ever discontinued.

In terms of a non decorating clause being unfair; I agree, it is probably not unfair, and the LL has done nothing wrong. BUT, I would suggest it is UNWISE to have a property with a red downstairs if you want to ensure your property is always tenanted. There is a reason the LLs/ Ts like neutral colours-so any tenant an move in and their furniture will match (it is an unfurnished let). Remember that the property was untenanted or 5 months before we took it (the agent told us it was because of the colours).

[Lawcruncher]

What does the tenancy agreement say? What obligations and restrictions are placed on the tenant?

[Berlingogirl]

This is crazy! You can't expect a tenant to live in ahouse and not do some redecorating, especially if they're going to return it to the original colour - they've even bought the original paint. A red wall? come on, who can live with that?