I have a question about a certain situation. My current tenants are moving out of the house. They had tons of posters/crap on their walls.

Would you charge for excessive thumb pin holes in the wall (upwards of 30 in the bedroom)?

What would you require them to do or charge if they removed items that were taped/puttied to the wall and when they removed them, they stripped all of the paint off of the wall?

Keep in mind this wall is 3 years old and was previously flawless.

[Edited on June 5, 2008 at 10:32 PM. Reason : ]

6/5/2008 10:30:49 PM

i know that when tenants move out of my parent's rental houses they require the room to be in the same condition as it was when the tenant moved it. so those pin holes would need to be spackled over and painted, either by the previous tenant or labor/materials paid for by the previous tenant

6/5/2008 10:35:00 PM

what does the lease say? do you have a security deposit?

6/5/2008 10:39:15 PM

weird. are you my landlord? lol

I just moved out of my old place, and there were a few holes from thumbtacks (not 30 though for sure more like 5)


and one of my first roommates built shelves in his room and when he moved out he pulled the shelves out and took some of the paint with them

the paint was 2 years old though not 3.


I spackled up the holes, sanded them, but did not paint them because I didn't have the exact paint for the room to match the holes, and I didn't want to repaint the entire bedroom b/c it was unnecessary (it was just a few spots on one wall). I spoke with my landlord and he said he'd look for the matching paint, but he never got around to it I guess cause he never called me back. I'm still waiting on my deposit ($1300) I hope he doesn't charge me too much for it. I'll go over and paint it myself, I just didn't want to go spend $25 on a can of paint for a few spots it's overkill

6/5/2008 10:47:39 PM

Pin holes don't need to be spackled before painting. I'd never charge for pinholes regardless of whether there were 10 or 100 in a room.

Are these friends living with you or people renting a house where you are not a resident?

A gallon of quality paint is less than $30. You should just count on having to do that every few years anyway if you have renters. If it's just paint and these are your friends I'd write it off considering the thousands of dollars per year each tenant pays.

If it's a true rental house you might want to keep a part of the deposit to have the walls touched up where the paint was stripped off, but if they were good tenants I'd just paint it myself and let it slide.

6/5/2008 11:02:01 PM

this would be considered normal wear and tear

6/5/2008 11:03:25 PM

^

Also, what color are the walls? It's best to stick with some variation of white in all the rooms I think.

6/5/2008 11:38:51 PM

Pin holes are considered normal wear and tear.

If they stripped of sections of paint or pulled any of the drywall paper up then you can charge a fee or tell them they need to fix it.

Generally, if the tenant spackles/ putties, then I touch up paint to make it look new again as part of regular maintenance.

6/5/2008 11:44:07 PM

I just keep a few gallons of the same wall paint in storage and tell them not to do any nails in the wall over a certain size.

6/5/2008 11:56:41 PM

"same condition as it was when moved in" less normal wear and tear

6/6/2008 1:27:11 AM

i think push pins can be normal wear and tear, but putting up 15 baseball cards on the wall with putty and making 12 marks where you pulled the paint off isn't.

6/6/2008 8:11:55 AM

No offense, but you kinda sound like a Douche Bag.

You should probably paint every three years anyway, and be glad they didn't punch holes in the walls.

6/6/2008 8:57:25 AM

Quote :

"but putting up 15 baseball cards on the wall with putty and making 12 marks where you pulled the paint off isn't."

i would probably agree that this is more than normal wear and tear but it wouldnt be worth it to me to worry about it

i had just read the push pins part when i first posted

[Edited on June 6, 2008 at 10:11 AM. Reason : 

6/6/2008 10:02:57 AM

I am slowly painting my whole townhouse the same cream color wal-mart brand paint to avoid this in the future. Light color paint is the best for a rental house because you can touch it up without it showing too bad if you just paint one spot.

6/6/2008 12:32:36 PM

^ do realize that the same "color" of paint can vary between batches, so unless you're stocking up now, that beige may be more of an opaque and creamy tan a few years down the road

6/6/2008 1:02:19 PM

a few pin holes is nothing to worry about.

i had the same renters for several years, and when they moved out:

• their cats had scratched the shit out of the wallpaper (it was that textured wallpaper from the 80's, so it needed to come down anyway)


• there were a few fist-sized holes in the walls


• the garbage disposal was missing (i am assuming the old one broke, they took the liberty of replacing it, and took their's when they left - because it was just gone with the drain left unconnected )


• a stained, solid wood door with a busted panel and door frame


• the basement (finished) had apparently been getting too much moisture and had quite a bit of mildew in a closet. they never said anything about it so i had to have that professionally treated for a mere $1400


• the ceilings had a nice thick coat of cigarette smoke - painting ceilings is the shittiest thing to do


• and finally, the heat exchanger had a hole in it, so it was leaking carbon monoxide. (not their fault, it was old and had run it's course, but still, -$2400 for me).

6/6/2008 1:06:44 PM

^^ The differences will be very subtle and only a very small portion of the population would ever notice it on their own. A lot of people probably couldn't see the difference if you mentioned it to them. For a rental it will be perfectly fine.

6/7/2008 10:38:06 PM

my lease says its cool as long as the holes are no bigger than the size of a dime

6/8/2008 5:40:44 PM

tenants are allowed normal wear and tear.


hanging pictures, smudging walls, etc. is normal wear and tear.

6/8/2008 6:41:38 PM

What kind of a douche would put 30 pin holes in a single room? I hung up 0 things in my first apt, and maybe 5 pics in the entire apartment after that.

6/9/2008 11:31:15 AM

OK - so push pins and some posters are normal wear and tear.

how about if they put up 6 pieces of double sided tape that isn't removed and can't be w/o ripping off the wall paper?

6/9/2008 1:49:46 PM

Damn. Did they epoxy those baseball cards to the wall?

6/9/2008 1:52:54 PM

^^not normal wear and tear. People shouldn't be that dumb.

6/9/2008 2:05:06 PM

charge them. Did they devalue your property by doing this? There is a difference between normal and excessive wear and tear.

Take it out of their deposit. Explain to them why you kept the money and bid them farewell. There is really nothing they can do except take you to court to try and get it back!

6/9/2008 4:17:59 PM

If it is not in there already, I would suggest putting in your lease that they need to spackle and paint over any holes they put in the walls. Whether it be nail holes, push pin holes, etc etc. Either they can do it themselves, or you can do it and take the cost from the safety deposit.

That being said, i have never been charged for any place I have rented due to nail holes. Most landlords paint after their tennants move out anyway, and paint alone is usually good enough to cover the tiny holes left by nails/pins.

6/9/2008 5:43:21 PM

One of my landlords took $150 from my deposit to re-paint & spackle my room after I left. I had made a total of MAYBE 4-5 nail holes in the room Crazy bitch. I would have done it myself if I had known she were going to charge me for it. You couldn't even tell the holes were there.

6/9/2008 11:39:07 PM

Landlords prepare to be fucked by the city.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3059115/

6/17/2008 10:02:59 PM

^ I think the city council really needs to come down a notch.

6/17/2008 11:33:25 PM

If you have a security deposit, just tell them they have the option of fixing it or having it subtracted from the deposit. However I am kind of guessing you don't have one so I would call them and ask them politely to fix it or at least pay for the paint to repaint. Honestly, for two years you are getting off pretty good, so even if they don't pay I wouldn't worry about it.

6/18/2008 12:09:50 AM