I have been living in a privately rented property since October 2010, signing a six month lease to begin with and a yearly one since April 2011.

Long story short I am about to move out as I take my family back to my hometown and finally escaping the city but I am not sure what responsibilities I have when moving out.

I have been living in the house with my wife and three kids so obviously there has been general wear and tear to the property (hard to avoid with kids aged 11,8 and 2) but nothing that I would deem extreme (for want of a better word).

During the time that we have lived here the landlord has fitted a new bathroom and added an extension to the back to give us a kitchen diner so he has put some money into the property but the new kitchen is at least 2 years old now and there are some signs of wear on the walls (dirty marks etc). As for the living room we painted a couple of the walls red (they were all beige when we moved in) and my youngest has ripped the net curtains in a couple of places.

Is it down to me to repaint the house back to the colours that were in place before we moved in or is that up to the landlord to sort out? I have filled in a couple of small holes in the wall that I made when putting up pictures (DIY is not my strong suit) but there are sizeable holes that were made by the sky engineer when he was fitting our multi room so agin is it my job to fill those or not?

Upstairs there is an unpainted wall in my baby sons room which the landlord had replastered to try and fix a damp issue that we have throughout the upper floor of the house but he never came back to get it painted and I was so hacked off with his inability to sort the damp issue properly that I refused to paint it myself.

On the wall going up the stairs there are small patches of damp which I try my best to keep clean but keep coming back and in my bedroom there is alot of damp coming through around where the landlord had new plaster boards fitted to the celings as his solution to the problem (I dread to think what it might actually be like under the new boards he fitted). Oh and in my daughters bedroom there is a hole in the wall where the builder who fitted the new bathroom drilled right through from the bathroom when fitting the sink to the wall.

Finally there are stains on the carpet (which has not been changed since we moved in) though again I would argue that these are not necessarily anything out of the general wear and tear that occurs with kids over time.

I guess what I'm asking is, how much work am I expected to put in when it comes to leaving the property and handing it back to the landlord? Do I have to repaint the whole place and are things like carpets my responsibilty? Also do I have to fill holes made by other people and is it up to me to replace the net curtain or can I just take it down?

Oh and whilst I think about it the landlord fitted a sheet of lino on the floor in the new kitchen but it has never been completely flat and therefore it has sustained small tears in certain places meaning the whole sheet will likely have to come up, is this down to me or him?

My wife says she does not intend to replace or pay for anything as his false fixes for the damp and other things like fitting a heat detecting alarm directly above the oven meaning it constantly goes off have annoyed her to the point that she doesn't see why she should have to. Speaking of the oven it has not worked properly since the new kitchen was fitted as evrytime you turn on the switch to be able to use the ovens ignition button it trips the circuit for the entire room and stops everything from working. Rather than agreeing to fix the problem which would have involved having to sort out the electrics by taking tiles and so on off the walls his solution was that we should light the oven with matches which involves having to squeeze a match into one of the slits in the bottom of the oven and turning on the gas whilst hopefully not burning yourself We have been doing this the entire time the new kitchen has been there.

So is she right in thinking there are issues with the house so on the grounds of fairness we should not have to repaint walls etc or do we not have a leg to stand on?

It depends on the nature of the landlord/agent. Unfortunately there is no quid pro quo in law. But by all means point out that you've had to deal with shortcomings in the property, and any shortcomings in cleanliness or repair are minimal compared.

If it were my house I would say your main responsibilities are:

- to repair holes from picture hooks and the Sky engineer (assuming you commissioned the Sky system). As an aside, my friend's Sky multiroom is a real bodge job too! Ermm you say DIY is not your strong suit - filling holes takes care - fill proud of the hole, sand down with fine sand paper, and then paint. They might show up if the paint doesn't match!

- repaint the red walls back to their original neutral colours.

- clean the carpets, and clean the marks off the walls as best you can.

You might argue that the net curtains were beyond their life.

With the lino you can argue that you haven't deliberately or carelessly damaged it. He might argue that you could have reported the issue to him? Not sure.

You are required return Property in similar decorative condition to start of T (less FW&T), so what does move in Inventory state?

LL can charge you for a prof decorator to return your red wall to orig colour and cost of repairing holes caused by your Contactors. Stained carpets are not nec due to FW&T.

Did you ask LL permission to undertake any work?

Smoke alarms are reqd by Law and are your resp to maintain. Heat& smoke detectors are placed in a kitchen for a reason, but only an idiot would place one above the cooker

All work was undertaken by the landlord using his own builder so thinks like cracks on the plaster and the home on the bedroom wall where they fitted the sink next door is all on him.

Have to agree on the alarm situation as it's great it's theyre but right over the oven is a ridiculous place to have fitted it.

In regards to the red walls etc, could I argue that I'm not responsible for repainting due to other issues I've had to live with such as his refusal to sort out the oven electrics etc?

'In regards to the red walls etc, could I argue that I'm not responsible for repainting due to other issues I've had to live with such as his refusal to sort out the oven electrics etc?'

No. esp if you did not ask LL permission beforehand.

All you can do is wait for LL estimate for all repairs and challenge via SCC or ADR