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Landlord, fixtures and fittings

17 replies

PurpleJellyDisc · 06/11/2013 19:10

Just moved in to a rented house. Big patio doors which are leeching lots of hear out of them. There isn't any means of putting curtains up at them at the moment, no pole or curtain track. Would I be unreasonable to ask my landlord to fit a curtain pole? He's said I can fit a pole but obviously this would be at my expense.

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Wibblypiglikesbananas · 06/11/2013 19:14

Hi, I'm a landlord and I'd be happy for you to put one up yourself. You presumably rented the property as seen and didn't ask for any changes before you signed the lease? In which case I'd expect you to pay for it yourself, I'm afraid.

Equally, we now rent overseas and we've had to put up curtain poles/buy curtains for every window here as everyone just tends to have blinds, which IMO makes it too light and cold. In the whole scheme of things, a curtain pole isn't worth souring relations with your landlord over.

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PurpleJellyDisc · 06/11/2013 19:18

There wasa curtain pole when we viewed, it was taken down when they redecorated between tenants, and nothing has been put back up.

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Wibblypiglikesbananas · 06/11/2013 19:26

That's slightly different then - maybe say you were expecting the pole to be there and were surprised to find it wasn't? Personally, I'd want a curtain up too. Or could you agree to buy the pole and the landlord/agent fit it?

Out of interest, are there curtains and poles at the other windows? I rent my property out inc. curtains - it wouldn't have occurred to me to do otherwise! The curtains were all made to measure for the property and wouldn't be much use elsewhere.

Again, I'd caution against causing a huge thing about this though - you want to call in favours with a landlord when the boiler breaks or something bigger happens. I've had tenants who never asked for anything, so if they ever contacted us, we knew it was serious, and others who complained and moaned about the slightest thing and after a while, we stopped taking them quite so seriously (one complained that the property was dark but hadn't replaced lightbulbs, for example, despite us leaving replacements for them!).

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pianodoodle · 06/11/2013 19:37

We rent from a lovely man for an amount that would be much higher had he gone through an agency. For that reason I hardly bother him at all even though he still has stuff in the garage that was meant to be cleared out a year ago!

I see it as a bit of give and take on both sides. If something big were to break down then yes but if he's said he's happy for you to put one up I'd go ahead with that yourself tbh.

I might be too meek though. You could possibly argue your right to the curtain pole that was there when you viewed the place but over something like that I'd tend to leave it.

There are probably loads of bits and pieces we've made a bit better or fixed ourselves round here without bothering the landlord, however when the utility room door came off its hinges he sent a man round the same day to fix it.

I find it works well to be a "low maintainance" type of tenant (within reason) as anything important that does come up tends to get sorted very quickly for us.

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RenterNomad · 06/11/2013 19:49

"- you want to call in favours with a landlord when the boiler breaks or something bigger happens"

WTAF?! A broken boiler is not exactly a will-I-won't-I favour matter!

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Mylovelyboy · 06/11/2013 19:50

I rent from a great landlord. When i moved into my property a year ago (listed building that has been refurbished) it had no curtain poles anywhere and the windows are really big. I phoned him up and he said 'absolutely yes' to me putting up curtain poles. I personally think that its down to the tenant to pay for their own curtain poles if they want them and they are not already there. You can get them really cheap if you hunt about. Do you know anyone that can put them up for you. Bloody horrible with no curtains up, especially now its dark early.

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Wibblypiglikesbananas · 07/11/2013 01:30

Renter - that's from my experience as a tenant, not a landlord. All I mean is save the hassle for something that really matters. Clearly I'm not going to leave a tenant without a functioning boiler!

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holidaysarenice · 07/11/2013 01:45

Regards the boiler of course the ll would fix it. The goodwill is more about - how quickly they get it done, how much they hassle the company to get it fixed today for you, or do they say aye tomorrow is fine etc.

Over a curtain pole no I wouldn't fight it. Your ll will whack up a ten pound one and ull hate it. Just agree u'll put one up that you'll take with you when u leave.

Its give and take that make the relatioship work.

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samandi · 07/11/2013 08:23

What does the inventory say?

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WooWooOwl · 07/11/2013 08:30

If you are planning on staying in this property long term, I'd get on and do it yourself. If there was a pole there when you viewed then really there should be one there now. Push it if you are only going to be staying until the end of this contract, but if you want to stay longer then you may as well get one you like, as you're the one that's going to be living with it. Otherwise you might end up with a cheap one that looks horrible.

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LessMissAbs · 07/11/2013 08:46

tbh I'd put one up myself, as long as you're not very young living in your first property and too inexperienced, or very elderly or something. I don't think moving into a property and nit picking about things like that creates a very good impression. I say this as a landlord who once had a tenant who began like that. She then went on to complain about everything, such as the noise of the brand new central heating system, the noise the brand new fridge made, the hoover was too heavy, broke the brand new sink tap twice then complained it was the fault of the tap and she is the only tenant I have ever served notice of eviction on. It can actually be cheaper to leave your property empty than deal with a tenant like that.

I assume you have checked your inventory? In which case if its listed, you probably can reasonably insist on one being put in, but good luck with the rest of your lease!

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ZaZazebra · 07/11/2013 08:48

Tbh as a landlord I would definitely put a pole up (and probably also some cheap curtains) if I had a good tenant who I wanted to keep happy.

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NandH · 07/11/2013 08:54

I know how you feel!!! When we viewed the house we rent there were curtain poles, when we moved in none of the rooms had poles or holes in the walls from the poles, the last tenants also dumped all there rubbish in the out building in the garden and the landlord hadn't bothered to remove it, I wrote to them and heard nothing back so we replaced all curtain poles, removed rubbish at our expense... I will taking all my poles with with me and will not bother to clean the house when we leave... forgot to mention to degree of dirt and grim that was left for us to deal with also was a joke!

Thinking about it now I should of sent the bills to the LL, can you do that?

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sharesinNivea · 07/11/2013 10:42

After months of crumbling chunks of masonry falling directly onto the pavement below my house (where children walk to school) due to a poorly maintained upper window sill, and a rotting window frame, the landlord finally put in one new double glazed unit. Two weeks ago.

The entire front wall had to be dug out and replastered inside because of the works. The plasterer hasn't returned to finish the work, so I'm left with a bare front room wall, no opportunity to put a pole up as the plaster isn't fit, amd have had newspaper stuck to my window inside for 2 weeks now. Oppressive inside and embarrassing too.

This is a cheap house privately rented on housing benefit. You don't complain in these circumstances. Last year over Christmas I had no hot water for nearly two months and that's with two young children too. Lots of swimming and using the pool showers! Fortunately the pool is at the end of my road. Finally they said they'd give me a hot water urn, but then they repaired the boiler.

Having googled the boiler make, it's by a company that doesn't normally make them, so parts are hard to source, hence the delay.

The masonry is still falling onto the pavement, in handful sized chunks. The letting agency doesn't seem concerned that if it damages someone's car (or head) that person can sue the ass orf them.

You'd think a house owner would want to maintain his property, it is an investment after all :/

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RenterNomad · 07/11/2013 12:34

It's depressing, though, that asking for basic services and structural integrity -my God, that falling masonry! - be maintained/ fixed creates antagonism. I think that, a lot of the time, the problem is that the LL-tenant relationship is just too personal, allowing bad LLs to be possessive of "their" property and amateurish about investment in something which is covered by contract; while bad tenants can focus resentment on a person, and not treat it like a legalrelationship, either! In all cases, there's a mis-alignment of interests in investment...

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Beastofburden · 07/11/2013 13:36

Strange. if they were there when you viewed the property, then it would be reasonable for the LL to supply them. Say you're happy to put them up, would he mind refunding the cost? that's a win-win as he gets cheap labour and you get to choose the poles.

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Beastofburden · 07/11/2013 13:38

shares your LL sounds dodgy and so does your boiler. Do you have the legal up to date gas safety certificate? Get a carbon monoxide alarm.

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