A rented house. Do you decorate?

fiveub

fiveub

fiveub

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A brief question really.

If you are living in a house you are rented, do you decorate? Do you have the attitude of living there and want to make it your own house? In your contract are you not allowed? Or do you choose not to?

I am in a rented house, and have chosen not to decorate, mainly because I believe I will not be living in this house much longer as it is isn't in the nicest of areas. And it seems pointless for me to spend money on doing up and making it look nice if I am deciding to move out.

So what is your status?
 
I don't rent myself but I agree with you. Having decorated my own house a few times I know it isnt cheap and if in your shoes I'd be putting the spare cash into a fund for a future mortgage.
 
Standard rented place decor?
Beige walls, biscuit carpet, matching white goods/fitted kitchen?

Wouldn't bother.
Horrendously decorated place I may be tempted to whitewash it all :p

In my own place now so many plans, so little time :(
It's all the big things at once too, kitchen, Bathroom heating, double glazing.
Blargh
 
My current tenant has decorated the whole place to a high standard, she asked and her other half did it, tasteful and good quality, before it was just mag and white beech kitchen cupboards black worktops white bathroom suite, pretty standard rental camo.
 
bedroom+livingroom+toilet/bathroom all get painted or It doesn't feel clean to me

wilkinsons own make paint is usually 10quid for 5 litres so its not that expensive to paint a few rooms. (don't get the uber cheap one the paint smells funky for days after you have painted)

I wouldnt do any serious work though
 
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Where I rented last had no problems with moderate decoration - they had their own people in to do any major work i.e. redoing the bathroom/kitchen. We did simpler stuff like touching up paintwork, etc. I wouldn't go nuts and do a proper redecoration spending loads on expensive carpets, etc. for someone elses property tho.
 
Took my council flat back to bare concrete after getting sick to death of woodchip wallpaper and painted concrete. Skimmed all the walls, new carpets and door fixtures, chased 70m of trunking into the walls, adding a gigabit network, replacing bathroom and all light fittings with modern steel and glass and led lights and generally made it my own.
After raiding Ikea and B&Q, its £8k I'll never see again, but what was once an obviously temporary place has now become a comfortable, tidy and well-designed home. I actually enjoy shutting my front door to the world and relaxing. My wife often comments that she can't believe what we've managed to achieve in such a small space.
Typically, as soon as we put our feet up after all the work, we now need to move to a bigger place (rassafassa bloody kids needing more room!)

I don't regret spending the money or doing all the work, just begrudge the fact that I'm going to have to do it all again and most likely some dole-scum donkeys will end up with my lovely flat, only to rip out the fixtures and trade them for junk...

Hopefully, whoever does move in here next, will appreciate the efforts I've made...
 
It's all about timescale. Rented or mortgaged doesn't really come into it as you can do up a house you personally own, only to relocate due to work in a years time anyway, vice verse, you can decide against doing up a rented flat because you don't own the place, but live in the ****hole for ten years. I wouldn't be comfortable putting proper dosh into doing up any place unless I thought I'd be living there at least 3 years (from personal experience (uni) I know I can put up with a real dump for 3 years).
 
i'd not bother..

but if i was in a house 20 year and the paint started to look a bit faded i'd have to paint it as the house would have to be in the same standard i'd moved in with..

i just hope any landlord with tenants spending 8k on fixing the place up appreciate it at-least because most wouldn't even go halfers.
 
I rent and the landlord (great bloke) told me any sort of decorating, give him the receipts and he will reimburse. I am painting through this year, never been done in the 6 years I have been here (well, white doors and skirting boards ave, but not the walls) so I am going to go nuts with a roller and 3/4 tins of paint. I have no issue in doing it, but I would not spend silly money on private rented.
 
I'd never decorate a rented house unless I was planning on living there for a LONG time, but even then, there is no gaurantee as to how long that period may be as landlords may sell up etc.

I've never bothered doing anything with my previous rental properties (stayed in each about 1-2 years) so I'm not going to dig into my own pocket for the gain of somebody already on the housing ladder.
 
I've always struggled with this. It's one of those things... it'd feel more like home, but it's not your own.

Yet, if you don't do it, it never really feels like home
 
assalino said:
I've always struggled with this. It's one of those things... it'd feel more like home, but it's not your own.

Yet, if you don't do it, it never really feels like home
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I recently moved out of my family home following a mutual split from the wife ages ago.

I got a one bed flat with a fairly big living room and a decent size freshly fitted kitchen.
no carpets anywhere but it only cost £365 to get some decent carpet fitted from a local shop and after about £50 spent on paint the place feels so much nicer and like my own rather than the previous tenants.

It definitely does wonders for your mental well being and imo its money well spent.
You don't need to spend a fortune to feel a lot happier about your living environment.

I will get some nice expensive doors and handles soon but keep the old ones so I can put them back whenever I move :D
 
Mickie said:
but if i was in a house 20 year and the paint started to look a bit faded i'd have to paint it as the house would have to be in the same standard i'd moved in with..
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No it doesn't, reasonable wear and tear is expected. You're a tenant, you aren't able to stop the laws of physics taking hold.
 
We've slapped a bit of paint around places we've rented before but that's as far as we'd go, there's no way I'd ever consider ploughing 8k :eek: into someone else's property.
 
A council flat is different in the fact that it's mine for as long as we want to live here. Although we're waiting to move somewhere larger, ground floor with wheelchair access, we could be waiting some time, so decorating the kids room means we can move our 12 month boy out of ours and temporarily gives us a little more space (and more importantly, keeps my wife happy!)
 
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