We recently renovated our bathroom and our bedroom and are now decorating our stairs and landing before Christmas. I love decorating, I love how just a quick coat of paint can make a room feel so much more fresh and homely. We currently live in a rental property and have a good relationship with our landlord, who lets us do what we like within reason. Ultimately, we are making improvements to our home and we get the benefit of living in a nice environment.
There is a common belief that many people share, and that is that you are unable to make any improvements to a rental property. Obviously, nobody wants damage or poor workmanship to their house, and to counter this issue most landlords take out policies from specialist insurers like HomeLet to protect their investment.
Whenever we have asked one of our landlords if we can decorate or renovate, they have always been pleased that we are looking after their house. In fact, many let agreements actually stipulate that the tenant is responsible for the decoration of the rental property. Unfortunately, some landlords are not interested in the upkeep of their buildings at all. There are so many television programmes on nowadays about rogue landlords and the shocking states that they allow their properties to be rented out in. Tenants are forced to either put up with the damp and mould or move out. There is always help available though. Many legal specialists like AWH Solicitors can offer legal advice and explain your best course of action.
We are quite fortunate in that both Craig and I are quite handy at DIY and are able to complete most tasks between us without the need for hiring in contractors. If you are not so confident though, you could always ask friends and family to lend a hand before shelling out on decorators.
Everybody has different tastes, hence there being hundreds of different shades of paint on the colour charts nowadays, but just because you live in a rental property, doesn’t mean that you have to tolerate the horrible purple that the spare room is painted in or that 1970’s olive green carpet in the bathroom! It may not be your property, but it is your home!
*This is a collaborative post*
