Advice - Landlord Inspection Today!

I'm just after a quick bit of advice really.

We privately rent a flat, and our landlord is coming over to inspect it today. We have a dog (which the landlord knows about and is happy with) and over the past 12 months, he's marked the kitchen floor with his claws. The kitchen has oak flooring with a laminate coating.

When I say he's marked the floor, it's literally just shallow claw marks from where he's been walking around and sliding about. There is no 'damage' to the laminate coating as such (ie. it hasn't scratched or gone through it at all).

I wondered if this was something which the landlord could class as damage, or whether it would just be classed as reasonable wear and tear? Apart from this issue, the rest of the flat is perfect.

Any advice would be appreciated

I would say wear and tear, but landlords are always looking for ways to keep your deposit

As long as it is good at end of tenancy, landlord should live and let live. You may want to wax it or something when you leave, but for an inspection, it shouldn't be an issue.

poweredbypies":3395kul6 said:

I would say wear and tear, but landlords are always looking for ways to keep your deposit

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Tell me about it. Our last landlord wanted to keep £100 back for a new shower head and for someone to fit it.. That was until I told the letting agent that an identical one could be bought from the local hardware store for £7.99 and it could be fitted in a matter of seconds.. :roll:

Our current landlord is a bit of a funny one. He's been very reasonable with us (no complaints at all from our side). However he wouldn't let us have Sky installed because he thought the dish was ugly (even though he rarely would have seen it), he won't let us touch up any black marks on the wall in our hallway (caused by bike tyres/shoes etc) even though we have the correct paint in the shed, and there are a few other odd things too. That's why I'm asking for a bit of advice about the kitchen floor..

Pyro Tim":38xexmxl said:

As long as it is good at end of tenancy, landlord should live and let live. You may want to wax it or something when you leave, but for an inspection, it shouldn't be an issue.

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Our tenancy agreement actually ends this month, but we're going to carry on renting it on a one month rolling basis. We're having the flat professionally cleaned when we move out, and I'll also suggest that we have the floor waxed and polished too.

Tyre marks should be washable, but if not, retouch without asking, but you may need to repaint the whole wall if the colour isn't exact match. If it looks good when you leave, he can't complain. This is speaking as a former landlord.

Pyro Tim":3re60jat said:

Tyre marks should be washable, but if not, retouch without asking, but you may need to repaint the whole wall if the colour isn't exact match. If it looks good when you leave, he can't complain. This is speaking as a former landlord.

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It's definitely the same colour - it's the remnants of the paint that they used to paint the hall in the first place. The landlord was just concerned that the brush marks could potentially show. Yes, he's that fussy :roll:

It was, the same colour, after a few years on a wall you will find the colour will have changed slightly and may mean the left over paint stands out like a sore thumb.

If he's that fussy he'll notice the marks on the floor and will probably want to keep back some deposit when you leave. Same thing happened to my gf when she stopped renting and moved in with me. Her cat had pulled up a bit of carpet by the bedroom floor and it was noticed. Her landlady didn't take the pee though so my gf was happy to settle up.

Just do it well. Jerky's right, it may not be exact, so be prepared to paint the entire wall to cover up the evidence.

When I was a landlord, I just wanted it back in good clean condition, so I could let it on again without having to do any work, except for fair wear and tear replacements, like carpet worn out etc. As a tenant, I always repainted damaged walls to make sure I got my deposit back