Renting blog: What home improvements mean for tenants

Most tenants get quite excited when their landlord decides to do some improvements to the property, as we were when we were notified that our windows were going to be replaced. Aside from the worry that our rent would go up, we were happy to say goodbye to rattling panes, a drafty toilet and an ad hoc latching system. 

Week one, we hear that the contractors are going to arrive on Tuesday. They pitch up on Friday, remove all the frames and windows and replace them with double glazed ones and we spend the weekend with no curtains.

Week two, the contractors now have to plaster the gaping holes, which they do rather well until we notice that plaster not only has gone on the walls but on the carpet, patio and stairs. We spend another weekend living a in a fishbowl.

Week three, no sign of the contractors, nor of our downstairs toilet seat, which has mysteriously disappeared. I have given up on rearranging my room to be builder-friendly and hope the neighbours have enjoyed my strip shows. In between my housemate has to use the plunger to unblock a drain clogged with old paint and plaster.

We get our letting agent on the case who assures us he’ll get it sorted by the end of the week. And so now with two days to go, we’re waiting with bated breath for the reappearance of the vanishing contractors (and our toilet seat), hoping that all this ‘improvement’ will be worth it in the end. I’ll let you know when they turn up…

Tags: estate agent, home improvement, Jeannie's blog, Renting, Tenant