A Tenant's Guide To Making Simple Home Improvements

As a tenant, there isn’t much you can do to improve the appearance of your home. Landlords often restrict what tenants can and cannot do to their properties. Some landlords will even charge fees for removing nails or screws embedded in walls to hold picture frames up!
Of course, life would be pretty miserable if you couldn’t do anything to make your home nice. In this blog post, I will give you some examples of the things landlords don’t mind you doing to their properties.

Under each section, I will tell you whether you need to seek their permission beforehand.

Painting

One of the most common things to do to any home is to paint the walls and ceilings. The thing is; landlords often paint the walls a brilliant white or magnolia color. They are neutral colors, and from their point of view cheap to buy.

There are millions of different color paints you can buy. A Salt Lake property management once told me that painting the walls in the same colors is fine. After all, it helps to keep the property looking fresh.

Permission needed by landlord: only if you painting the walls different colors.

Maintaining gardens

Most rental properties come with gardens that get used just by the tenants. As part of the tenancy agreement, landlords expect you to maintain the garden.

In other words, you need to cut the grass when it gets long, and remove any weeds before they get out of control. Landlords might not agree to you re-landscaping the entire garden, but planting a few small things by fences is usually OK.

Permission needed by landlord: not for maintaining the garden’s existing features.

Maintaining driveways

Many rental homes have their own driveways. They are great for keeping cars off the road. And they are useful for when groceries, furniture or other items need to get brought inside of the home.

Driveways come in all shapes and sizes. Many get made from concrete, whereas others could have an asphalt surface. But all driveways have one thing in common: they can get attacked by weed!

To ensure that your driveway looks pretty, you should tackle any weed problems as they occur. There are plenty of weed killer sprays on the market that you can use.

You can also use a pressure washer to remove any moss or algae that might grow in areas that are often wet. You might see such problems between pavers, or where you have a leaking gutter for instance.

Permission needed by landlord: no.

Removing mold

Mold is a common problem for most properties. Mold occurs as a result of condensation or surfaces that are moist a lot of the time. Rising damp, and bathrooms with poor ventilation are notorious for mold.

The best way to remove mold is to use a mixture of hot water and bleach, applied with a sponge. If you are worried about the toxic fumes from bleach, you can use vinegar instead.

In any event, make sure that all of your home’s doors and windows are open to ventilate the property.

Permission needed by landlord: no.

I hope you’ve found today’s ideas useful for your rental home!