Tenant damaged walls

alienhead

right, i've a tennant, who's moving out soon. we've got on grand, no real problems.... until now.

i just noticed yesterday, while viewing the room, that there's alot of nails hammered into the wall...... which is wallpapered, which makes it worse.

this is somthing i would never have done, when i was renting, and somthing i really didn't think would happen.

anyway, where do i stand here.... obviously this goes beyond general ware and tear, i'm thinking i should deduct some money from the deposit.

can anyone tell me if i'm within my rights to do this? and if so, what's a fair price? €20 €40 €60.

i'm not trying to rip them off, but this is knowing destruction of property.

any advice appriciated

danindublin

alienhead wrote:

right, i've a tennant, who's moving out soon. we've got on grand, no real problems.... until now.

i just noticed yesterday, while viewing the room, that there's alot of nails hammered into the wall...... which is wallpapered, which makes it worse.

this is somthing i would never have done, when i was renting, and somthing i really didn't think would happen.

anyway, where do i stand here.... obviously this goes beyond general ware and tear, i'm thinking i should deduct some money from the deposit.

can anyone tell me if i'm within my rights to do this? and if so, what's a fair price? €20 €40 €60.

i'm not trying to rip them off, but this is knowing destruction of property.

any advice appriciated

Hi Alienhead,

If its mate who will willingly give you the money then be reasonable.

However if you are charging someone alot, then they are entitled to an invoice for any deductions made to their deposit. U should probably list the cost of the materials and fix time and charge him a reasoble amount based on that. Most people prefer to pay for damages than have it deduced from the deposit which they are probably using for their next place.

D

professore

It seems to me to be perfectly reasonable to put a few nails in the wall to hang up a few pictures, esp with the exorbitant rents in this country. It's no problem in other more civilised European countries where I rented on a 3 year contract with rents pegged below general inflation.

I would go so far as to say that tenants should be allowed alter the wallpaper and make the place a home as, lets face it, a lot of people are going to be renting for life.

I bought a house in 1998 since I couldn't believe how few rights tenants have in this country - one big reason for our current property bubble.

If he put large holes in the wall that's another story of course.

danindublin

Anybody living in a house will obviously do some damamge but the line is where its 'beyond reasonale wear and tear'

alienhead

professore wrote:

It seems to me to be perfectly reasonable to put a few nails in the wall to hang up a few pictures, esp with the exorbitant rents in this country. It's no problem in other more civilised European countries where I rented on a 3 year contract with rents pegged below general inflation.
if they were those small nails for hanging pictures, then yes, i'd agree, but these are propper builder's nails. as far as the rent is concerned, it's a perfectly fair rent, but even if the rent was high, it doesn't justify damaging property...... i rented for years myself, and would never have done this.

I bought a house in 1998 since I couldn't believe how few rights tenants have in this country - one big reason for our current property bubble.

If he put large holes in the wall that's another story of course.

.............

alienhead

danindublin wrote:

Hi Alienhead,

If its mate who will willingly give you the money then be reasonable.

we get on ok, and i've no intention in getting into an argument. i do think that it's out of order, driving nails into wallpaper...... we're talking like 24 big nails here, not 2 or 3 small nails.

However if you are charging someone alot, then they are entitled to an invoice for any deductions made to their deposit. U should probably list the cost of the materials and fix time and charge him a reasoble amount based on that. Most people prefer to pay for damages than have it deduced from the deposit which they are probably using for their next place.

D

i'm unsure what can be done to repair this, basicly the wall's gonna be left with alot of unsightly holes in it.......

............

alienhead

professore wrote:

It seems to me to be perfectly reasonable to put a few nails in the wall to hang up a few pictures, esp with the exorbitant rents in this country. It's no problem in other more civilised European countries where I rented on a 3 year contract with rents pegged below general inflation.

I would go so far as to say that tenants should be allowed alter the wallpaper and make the place a home as, lets face it, a lot of people are going to be renting for life.
tennents only been with us for 6 months, it would be more understandable for this kind of dammage after a couple of years

I bought a house in 1998 since I couldn't believe how few rights tenants have in this country - one big reason for our current property bubble.

If he put large holes in the wall that's another story of course.

.....

Zambia

Big builders nials in the wall !!!

Not really acceptable if there where picture hangings nails fair enough.

The fairest soloution here is to , withhold deposit use it to fix the wall (if the wallpaper is discontuinued then this may be pricey to cover).

If the damage is not severe neither will the cost be. Go to the DIY forum and ask how to fix it. I would suggest some polyfilla and a new sheet of wallpaper should do the job for very little money.

Once again I would not be off the opinion that this is acceptable , if one of my tenents did this I would prefer they asked , I would have even supplied the correct nails.

delop

I own a house too...

and like a previous poster bought a house 7-8 yrs ago because of being treated like **** by landlords....

Therefore I tried to be as reasonable as I could be with rent bills, free month rent at christmas etc...

I learned a hard lession there... I found if you are sound people will walk all over you... Having friends renting from me was the worst mistake I ever made...

Things that happened...

Holes put in hall walls by bikes, which i asked not to be placed there, and when I Expressed displeasure a couple of times the final month rent wasnt paid because he knew I would garnish the deposit, and of couse bills werent paid either

with other tennants I tried to keep the deposit untill the bills were paid but to no avail.. whinge, whinge I need the deposit for my next house, I promise to come back and pay the bills, of course a large % never do....

Some refuse to contribute to TV License ( a bit hazy agreed)

Refuse payement arguments

Im seriously thinking of renting myself somewhere else and give the house to a property management company...

My advice is bite the bullet and let him go, And do up a contract for the next tennant

If we got into a system where every tennant required a reference to move in I think it would help everyone concerned...

alienhead

delop wrote:

I own a house too...

and like a previous poster bought a house 7-8 yrs ago because of being treated like **** by landlords....

Therefore I tried to be as reasonable as I could be with rent bills, free month rent at christmas etc...

well, i bought with a mate, and we're very fair, anyone who comes to look at rooms for rent says the house is alot nicer and the rent's cheaper than most places they've seen. after being a tenant for 5 years myself, i dont wanna take the pi55 with the rent. also, we take care of the tv licence and the bin charges.

I learned a hard lession there... I found if you are sound people will walk all over you... Having friends renting from me was the worst mistake I ever made...

Things that happened...

Holes put in hall walls by bikes, which i asked not to be placed there, and when I Expressed displeasure a couple of times the final month rent wasnt paid because he knew I would garnish the deposit, and of couse bills werent paid either

with other tennants I tried to keep the deposit untill the bills were paid but to no avail.. whinge, whinge I need the deposit for my next house, I promise to come back and pay the bills, of course a large % never do....

Some refuse to contribute to TV License ( a bit hazy agreed)

Refuse payement arguments

Im seriously thinking of renting myself somewhere else and give the house to a property management company...

My advice is bite the bullet and let him go, And do up a contract for the next tennant

If we got into a system where every tennant required a reference to move in I think it would help everyone concerned...

i think with the next tenants we'll just ask them not to dammage our walls etc... you'd think it's common sence not to drive 14 masonary nails into wallpaper.

Zambia

Never assume common sense , I would still garnish the deposit by 100 euro Or ask him to perform the repair himself.

tabatha

i say get a life. for god sake, a few nails in the wall and you want to deduct 20 quid. are u that hard up?

Sponge Bob

an ignorance premium is in order for this lad, 14 masonry nails FFS

alienhead

tabatha wrote:

i say get a life. for god sake, a few nails in the wall and you want to deduct 20 quid. are u that hard up?

ye, i'm on the bread line. what a wind fall! €20,

too bad they didn't cover the ceiling in nails, could have got more cash!!

alienhead

Zambia232 wrote:

Never assume common sense , I would still garnish the deposit by 100 euro Or ask him to perform the repair himself.

we'd be a bit worried she'd fcuk up the wall more if left to sort this herself.

if it wasn't wallpaper, then a bit of pollyfilla and paint would do the trick.

Zambia

alienhead wrote:

we'd be a bit worried she'd fcuk up the wall more if left to sort this herself.

if it wasn't wallpaper, then a bit of pollyfilla and paint would do the trick.

Very true , In short every sheet of wallpaper damaged has to be replaced.

Oh and tabatha catch yourself on. If the OP Hammered 14 masonary nails into your front door bet you would want the cash.

chump

To be fair.

Tell the lad after your inspection you noticed A B and C. Tell him/her can they repair A B or C. If not, discuss what would be fair terms. A hundred quid or so I'd imagine.

Silverfish

I think you have to give the tenant the right to try and repair any damage they have caused before you can just take it from their deposit.

I lost a 400 quid deposit once over a 'stain' on a carpet, had I known about the stain I would have sorted it out as it certainly would not have cost me 400 quid, plus the stain was directly underneath my bed which had been in the same place for my entire stay in the room, so it definitely preceeded me

When I checked it out legally ( much later), it turned out that I was entitled to try and make good any damages to the property, and if repaired I could request my deposit back in full.

So give him the chance to try and repair his diy jobs on your walls, but if its not possible ( and I doubt it is with wallpaper) then I'd start talking money.

Victor

Why were the nails put in the wall?

alienhead

that's the weird part, she put up these alumium rectangular plates, 3 of em, and she must have had photo's blue tacked on to these.

really dumb and inconsiderate, why not just blue tack em on to the wall?

Victor wrote:

Why were the nails put in the wall?

Calina

Some people blow fuses over blue tac as well. Particularly with wallpaper.

alienhead

i don't thin blue tac would have ruined the wallpaper/wall, well not as much as masonary nails.

Calina wrote:

Some people blow fuses over blue tac as well. Particularly with wallpaper.

hanorac

I rent out a property and the lease says that no shelves or anything are to go on the wall without permission.
As already said, nails on painted wall are easy to fix, but you should be charging them for wallpaper plus the cost of someone hanging it.
If they want to have a go themselves or find someone to make it right, fair enough otherwise charge them properly for it, you are running a business not a charity.

mickoneill30

professore wrote:

It seems to me to be perfectly reasonable to put a few nails in the wall to hang up a few pictures, esp with the exorbitant rents in this country. It's no problem in other more civilised European countries where I rented on a 3 year contract with rents pegged below general inflation.

Why do people constantly say "in this country" as if it happens nowhere else. I've rented in Australia for 5 years in 3 different apartments and the rule was ALWAYS to give the apartment back in exactly the same condition I got it (excluding wear and tear of course), and the rent wasn't cheap there either. No matter how clean we got the place when moving out the landlord was always able to find something to get us with. Never anything big but if it wasn't marked on the snag list when we moved in then we had to pay to get it back to snag list condition when we were moving out.

professore wrote:

I would go so far as to say that tenants should be allowed alter the wallpaper and make the place a home as, lets face it, a lot of people are going to be renting for life.

I totally agree. As long as they get the landlords permission or if not then when they're moving out they put the house back in the condition they got it in. I'm sure nobody has a problem with that.

alienhead

mickoneill30 wrote:

Why do people constantly say "in this country" as if it happens nowhere else. I've rented in Australia for 5 years in 3 different apartments and the rule was ALWAYS to give the apartment back in exactly the same condition I got it (excluding wear and tear of course), and the rent wasn't cheap there either.

why, i think alot of people have a chip on their shoulder that they have to actualy pay rent and probably feel that disregard for the property is warrented.

unless you're born into alot of money, chances are you're gonna have to rent for a couple of years, myself for 5, and i never took the pi55 like this.

in this case, i think it's just ignorance.

if you rented a car for a week, and brought it back with a couple of nails in it, that wouldn't be on...... it's funny how some people think it's ok to damage a rented property or defend such damage.