Btl, bonds, carpets, costs etc

[rufusgti]

I know there's a few landlords on the forum so was hoping to pick brains on the situation we have with tenants moving out.
Tenants have rented a property from us for 4 years, they are moving out at the end of the month. We have a water tight tenancy agreement. The bond is protected and we have a decent relationships with tenants.

Unfortunately the carpets which were new are filthy and have been picked at by the cats in various places leaving them in poor condition. Also in the bedrooms there's some staining from makeup or perhaps suncream. The general state of the property is ok, but if needs decorating and most of the carpets replaceing. One bedroom carpet could potentially be cleaned professionally.

What is a reasonable step forward regarding the bond. I don't accept new carpets lasting 4 years as wear and tear unfortunately, so require a contribution from the bond. But I also wouldn't expect the carpets to look brand new either.

If I were to say I expect carpets to last X amount of years, the tenancy has been 4 years, therefore you have lost me Y years of use at a cost of £Z... Would this be a reasonable way of dealing with the matter?

What is X? How long is realistic for carpets to last in a rental?
Y is an unknown as I have not had a quote for replacements, therefore i cant work Z out yet. But I'm just trying to workout something tangible that i can put to the tenants without just banging them with the cost of replacement carpets. Do the bond holders have a similar system or do they just go by the quotes you suggest.

Interested to hear how others deal with what must be a common issue.

[SOL111]

Difficult one. If they've been really good tenants then personally I'd be looking at a minimal amount. Rental carpets aren't earth shatteringly expensive so would absorb a lot of the cost myself. Likelihood is you've done well out of them so fair's fair although I'm sure not all would agree.

Have you decorated at all over the last 4 years? If not I'd expect to pay for this myself.

Personally I'd get some quotes and then discuss with the tenant. Hopefully they'll be reasonable about it.

Best of luck.

ETA. Have you put the rent up in the last 4 years? If not I'd use this as rationale for your making a reasonable claim.

Edited by SOL111 on Monday 18th March 20:11

[wheelerc]

https://www.tenancydepositscheme.com/resources/fil...

Carpets
Low quality – two to four years
Medium quality – five to eight years
Top quality – eight to fifteen years

[caiss4]

wheelerc said:

https://www.tenancydepositscheme.com/resources/fil...

Carpets
Low quality – two to four years
Medium quality – five to eight years
Top quality – eight to fifteen years

I'd go with that. What did you pay for the new carpets at the beginning of the tenancy? Anything under £10 psm is landlord's favourite and 4 years would be good.

I've just re-carpeted one of my places for £1100 with a new tenant going in. The previous carpets were in the medium quality range and were at least 8 years old.

If I can keep the new tenant for 4 years I'll be happy.

As for redecoration I've been pretty lucky. My other property was redecorated throughout 4 years ago. If the current tenants move out it will definitely need to be redone but at my cost as it would be difficult to claim anything other than fair wear and tear (if I'd lived there it would last twice as long but you can't always apply your own standards)

[rufusgti]

SOL111 said:

Difficult one. If they've been really good tenants then personally I'd be looking at a minimal amount. Rental carpets aren't earth shatteringly expensive so would absorb a lot of the cost myself. Likelihood is you've done well out of them so fair's fair although I'm sure not all would agree.

Have you decorated at all over the last 4 years? If not I'd expect to pay for this myself.

Personally I'd get some quotes and then discuss with the tenant. Hopefully they'll be reasonable about it.

Best of luck.

ETA. Have you put the rent up in the last 4 years? If not I'd use this as rationale for your making a reasonable claim.

Edited by SOL111 on Monday 18th March 20:11

Thanks for all replies. To answer a few questions. I haven't decorated in the 4 years so am more than happy to cover that myself. Things like bathroom blinds are past it but again, 4 years is good enough for me so I will replace those. Carpets were new when I bought the property so I'm not sure how much they cost, I'd say they were mid quality. So maybe they can't be expected to last much longer anyway. I think I'll get a quote on replacement and go from there.
Haven't put rent up in 4 years.

Edited by rufusgti on Monday 18th March 22:28

[bristolbaron]

Normally I’d say at 4 years you’ve had a good run, replace with cheap carpet and take it on the chin.. but adding damage from pets it’s not unreasonable to expect a contribution. They should be expecting to pay cost of cleaning as a minimum - £30 per room/£200 for a three bed.

[SOL111]

rufusgti said:

Thanks for all replies. To answer a few questions. I haven't decorated in the 4 years so am more than happy to cover that myself. Things like bathroom blinds are past it but again, 4 years is good enough for me so I will replace those. Carpets were new when I bought the property so I'm not sure how much they cost, I'd say they were mid quality. So maybe they can't be expected to last much longer anyway. I think I'll get a quote on replacement and go from there.
Haven't put rent up in 4 years.

Edited by rufusgti on Monday 18th March 22:28

Personally I'd see how much the carpet costs so you can pop round with the quote.

Asking for money is always going to be hard with decent tenants and I'd stress that to them. I'm sure it's the reason you've not followed the majority of landlords by putting the rent up every year. They should realise this and that you're one of the good guys.

Did they acknowledge the decline of the carpet when you visited? I guess that'll give you a sign of how they might react.

[So]

rufusgti said:

I know there's a few landlords on the forum so was hoping to pick brains on the situation we have with tenants moving out.
Tenants have rented a property from us for 4 years, they are moving out at the end of the month. We have a water tight tenancy agreement. The bond is protected and we have a decent relationships with tenants.

Unfortunately the carpets which were new are filthy and have been picked at by the cats in various places leaving them in poor condition. Also in the bedrooms there's some staining from makeup or perhaps suncream. The general state of the property is ok, but if needs decorating and most of the carpets replaceing. One bedroom carpet could potentially be cleaned professionally.

What is a reasonable step forward regarding the bond. I don't accept new carpets lasting 4 years as wear and tear unfortunately, so require a contribution from the bond. But I also wouldn't expect the carpets to look brand new either.

If I were to say I expect carpets to last X amount of years, the tenancy has been 4 years, therefore you have lost me Y years of use at a cost of £Z... Would this be a reasonable way of dealing with the matter?

What is X? How long is realistic for carpets to last in a rental?
Y is an unknown as I have not had a quote for replacements, therefore i cant work Z out yet. But I'm just trying to workout something tangible that i can put to the tenants without just banging them with the cost of replacement carpets. Do the bond holders have a similar system or do they just go by the quotes you suggest.

Interested to hear how others deal with what must be a common issue.

Have you spoken to them? A dialogue along the lines of "the carpets were new, they've been trashed due to your cat and lifestyle, can we agree a way forward here that is equitable?" Some people are quite reasonable and the matter may conclude without fuss.

On the subject of pets though, as you've discovered you need to be careful. Cats (and to a lesser extent dogs) can do far more damage than pull some carpets. In the past we had to seal every surface in a flat AND replace the carpets to get rid of the smell of cat urine. The cost was well into 4 figures and the outgoing tenant tried to argue that there was no problem.

If you take deposits and engage with the DPS anyway you might want to start taking pet deposits of at least the same size as the main tenancy deposit.

[Slagathore]

I've a sneaky feeling you can't deduct from a deposit based on a quote - you can only make deductions for work you've actually done, and then subject to it being actual damage etc.

Has it been rented again yet?

As others have said, your best bet is simply speaking to them first. Reasonable people will accept that their cat has caused damage and should agree to some deductions, but blindsiding them with a deduction is usually the first way to piss them off. You should have a pet clause in your contract, so what does that say? Usually with pets, there's a stipulation they have the carpets cleaned.

I've seen proper carpet cleans provide pretty impressive results, so if there's just a bit of fraying here and there, I would just get it cleaned and rent it as is.

[98elise]

At 4 years I would be inclined give the entire place a fresh coat of paint, and put new carpets down at my cost anyway. That way I can get a decent tenant in again.

My places are typical 3 bed terraces and cost just over 1k to do the whole house.

[So]

98elise said:

At 4 years I would be inclined give the entire place a fresh coat of paint, and put new carpets down at my cost anyway. That way I can get a decent tenant in again.

My places are typical 3 bed terraces and cost just over 1k to do the whole house.

3-bed terrace, a grand for paint and carpets? Really?

[selmahoose]

lo-grade cord, crap paint and painter from the pub/DiY

But what we learn is that proper highly durable floorcoverings, quality paint and real decorator costs twice as much and lasts 3 or 4 times as long.

[98elise]

So said:

98elise said:

At 4 years I would be inclined give the entire place a fresh coat of paint, and put new carpets down at my cost anyway. That way I can get a decent tenant in again.

My places are typical 3 bed terraces and cost just over 1k to do the whole house.

3-bed terrace, a grand for paint and carpets? Really?

I meant the carpets. Last time I had to do one (about 4 years ago) it was living room, stairs and 3 bedrooms and it came to just over a grand. Thats carperts only as it had good underlay and gripper in place.

I do the painting myself as it's just a fresh top coat with the same colour.

[SOL111]

Personally I've gone for hard flooring for the entire downstairs for longevity.

Carpet only on stairs/upstairs.

[superlightr]

do you have a detailed inventory? if you do refer to that. after 5 years a property is viewed as needing to be redecorated, carpets as others have said 5-10 years depending. if you don't have an inventory then you would not win any claim if it went to dispute.
(its a deposit not a bond btw