Landlord Question and Answer Forum

I am renting out a house in california. The house was totally repainted before the tenants moved in. The tenants have been there 2.5 years and have repainted 3 bedrooms (from ecru to bright pink, bright purple and blue) without asking first. I also have proof via videos that they posted online of their family repainting the rooms. Questions: 1) do I need to acknowledge during a random inspection that they have painted the rooms? IF so what do I do? 2) I know I can't charge them when they move out for repainting, but in this case, this is not a normal wear and tear, this is a situation where they didn't ask for approval and used colors I do not want in the house, forcing me into repainting the 3 rooms. Note: I do have extensive pictures and videos of the house prior to them renting, so it is easy to prove that they are the ones who painted and that it was not due to a bad paint job/bad colors/old paint, etc. Thanks for your advice! Elise

If you were to have to take extra measure to cover the paint then you could actually charge that cost to the tenant.

Posted by Denise S, PA on Wednesday, April 28, 2010

In my lease to my tenants, I state that any and all alterations to the property must be in a written request and I will grant permission in a written approval or denial. This way you have a paper trail for court. If it states in your lease about alterations, and they made them without permission, I would charge back their security deposit at move out time for cleanup fees. I have done this before. best of luck to you!

Posted by Beth T, FL on Friday, April 30, 2010