Unfinished bathroom wall painting

[curiouscat21]

My landlord changed a toilet unit and had to repair a part of bathroom wall due to the job back in February 2009. The landlord who is a self-employed interior decorator, fixed and put plasters on the wall himself and told me he would come back to paint the wall when the plasters got dried (dried a week later). In April he emailed me saying his self-employed job was very busy but would come to paint the wall when his job hit a slack period. I thought he could arrange another decorator to paint the wall if he could not do himself. He has had his over 2 weeks holiday in June. I have been paying full rent with the unfinished bathroom wall for 5 months. Would it be possible to claim rent reduction for these months? If so how much I should claim from �420 monthly rent? Could you please give me your advice. Thank you.

[Twenty20]

I'm not sure that having an unpainted wall is worth a rent reduction unless you are perhaps paying a premium for an upmarket property? It probably doesn't look 'finished' but it presumably doesn't stop you using the bathroom. If you had been without water or electricity etc then I would say that a rent reduction would be in order but an unpainted wall is probably not worth much financially.

Having said that, a landlord shouldn't let something like this drag on and on. You could of course negotiate with the landlord. You could offer to paint the wall yourself and knock a bit off the rent - the cost of materials plus something for your time.

[sn�gs]

As Twenty says, if the unpainted wall bothers you so much, ask your landlord to supply the materials and do it yourself... won't take long...

[mandimoo]

do you both go thru an agent? if you do you could probably air your views to them and they would give you some advice. im a landord (all be it a naive and inexperienced one) and if the agent told me my tennant was aggrieved because of this issue, i would sort it out. mind you, i have only had one tennant and they have been an absolute dream. if i was a bit more jaded i may not feel the same. does this help? probly not!