Rented property - reasonable wear and tear

[mnkiboy]

Hi all,

We recently moved out of a rented property, and have been asked for £350 to replace the mantlepiece, due to a burn mark which was caused by my girlfriend placing a small candle on it with nothing underneath. The burn is circular and slightly larger than a £2 coin.

Understandably i'm not happy with having to purchase a brand new fire surround to replace the current one, due to what I perceive to be a minor cosmetic mark. I would class it as wear and tear, and would be happy to make a £50 contribution towards it.
Apparently it is a one-piece fire surround so the whole thing has to be replaced.

Any suggestions? Also our deposit isn't protected under any scheme, as the house was rented from family (which makes the whole situation twice as stressfull!)

[mnkiboy]

Yes you're rght it's damage rather than wear and tear.
I'm still unhappy about paying full price for a fire surround that wasn't even new when we moved in. We are in effect replacing their old (but admittedly in good condition) fire surround for a new one.

We have looked at repairing it, but even if you can sand down the mark, there's no way we could re-create the same paint finish.

[mnkiboy]

Liszt said:

Why not just repaint it?

It's a marble effect fire surround, we'd never get it to the original standard. I'm sure painting the whole thing wouldn't go down too well either.

If it were up to me, i'd just put something on top of the mark. It's a small mark, which doesn't effect the function of the fire surround, and certainly doesn't look like £350 worth of damage.

[mnkiboy]

Slagathore said:

Renting is a minefield anyway, then you went and rented from family! You're a brave man!

No, i'm a stupid man.

To draw a line under it, i'm agreeing to the £350 deduction from the deposit. It's more hassle than it's worth and the GF is getting stressed about it (we rented from her family).

They can pay for their own teabags, sugar and milk when they come round though. And electricity. And washing up costs.

[mnkiboy]

As it happens we feel we were paying market rates, certainly no significant discount compared to other properties in the area.

Certainly won't be getting involved with them financially again.