Landlord making us pay for blinds/curtains

[QueenGeek]

Hi All,

I have recently moved into a new flat. When we looked around the flat we were told that the net curtains were staying. However when we moved into the property we discovered there was only two net curtains left hanging (one in the kitchen and one in the living room) but there were 4 blinds sat in tubes in the hall.

In fact the inventory to our property states:

4 blinds waiting to be hung.

When we contacted our landlord to ask when they were being hung his response was :

With regards to the blinds, there was never any installed as the one originally brought for the property did not
fit the windows, however it was agreed that nets would be put up instead, if you do choose to install blinds
it would be at your cost

I have a few questions

1) He says that net curtains would be put up but we only have them on 2 out of 6 windows. Is it reasonable to ask him to put the on the other four if he has already suggested this is what was meant to happen.

2) I am assuming the 4 in the hallway are the ones that do not fit- I have not had a chance to look as I only received the landlords email today and I am still at work.
Would it be reasonable to expect the landlord to replace these blinds if they are in the inventory but are the wrong fit. After all if it said double bed in the inventory but it was a single one in the property you would expect the landlors to give you the correct size?

3) This is a new build and therefore does not have any rails in the property already. If we wanted to put blinds/curtains in we would have to buy the fixtures in order to do so and make the necessary holes in the wall.
I would assume that if we pay for the rails then we can take them with us at the end of the tenancy as we paid for them. Would it be fair however for them to try to charge us for any necessary (as i see it) holes that would be present in the walls where the rails were?

4) Can the landlord legally force us not to put curtains up if we want to put these up and not blinds?

Just for more information-
My flat is on the ground floor and I share with my boyfirend. Our living room windows face where people walk back and forth from the communal flat door to the carpark and the bedroom window over looks the communal front door for the flats to the right of our building.

At the moment I feel a lack of privacy living in my home and don't think i can go without curtains/blinds. Also it is a security risk as anyone can see what possessions we have in our property.

Sorry for the long email!

[callumsgran]

Hi i would say it is your landlords obligation to at least provide you with curtain poles or wood strips so that you could hang curtains of some description for privacy.

If you were to put them up yourself and then removed them at the end of your tenancy the landlord could then charge you for damaging the property (ive seen it happen) so get him to do it or send someone who can do it

As for the blinds if they're on the inventory and it states that they will be put up then he should do it at his own cost.
HTH

[QueenGeek]

Thanks Callumsgran.

I also agree that I think he should put them up at his own cost as I don't want to run the risk of doing it wrong and having to pay for my mistake!

Quuen Geek