Decorating a Rental House

Renting an apartment or house can present some challenges when it comes to decorating. Even though you may not be allowed to make permanent changes to the place, you can still make it your own. A few creative ideas and smart planning can make your temporary space feel like a home.

Those who prefer to rent a house as opposed to a flat may still be held to certain limitations regarding the type of decorating which may be done on the property. These limitations perhaps stricter or easier than those usually enforced when a tenant is renting a flat property. This will largely depend on the preferences of the householders. Householders who don’t wish to see major modifications done to the property may place strict limitations while those who wish to see the property improved may allow the tenant a great deal of freedom in their decorating options.

How Much is Too Much?

This may be a difficult question to answer when used in reference to how much decorating is permitted in a rental house. Several tenants prefer for a situation where they’re renting a house as opposed to a flat strictly as they’re searching more freedom in their decorating alternatives. However, the tenant may find this desired freedom isn’t available to them.

A few householders may allow the tenant to make minor decorating changes such as painting the walls, hanging up pictures or installing decorative shelving. However, more extensive decorating items such as new flooring, knocking down walls or putting in windows might not be considered acceptable by a few householders while others may allow the tenant to perform such actions. Still others may require this type of work to be done but may place limitations which specify all improvement work shall be done by a qualified professional.

Check with the householder

When considering doing a few decorating in a rental house, the renter should first carefully review all of their contract documents. This is important as the contract may clearly prohibit certain items. In this case the tenant would know for sure that they’re not allowed to perform these actions. However, the tenant shouldn’t count on the contract documents to spell out every possible scenario. So if a tenant is considering making modifications to the rental house they should consult the owner before performing any work. They should also ask the householder to provide a written statement expressing their approval of the work to be completed.

The householder is the tenants best resource of these types of questions because the householder has the best understanding of their intentions when they wrote the rental contract. They might have specified that no tenant may alter the appearance of the flat without the consent of the householder but they may have meant for this statement to only apply to certain situations. In these cases, seeking clarification and written approval can be very beneficial to the renter.

When in Doubt; Leave it Out

If tenants are in doubt about whether or not to perform a particular decorating action and are unable to reach the householder for clarification, they should opt not to make the changes. This may save the tenant a great deal of time and money in the long-term by preventing them from incurring excess charges for repair of the flat and wasting a great deal of time making an improvement which the householder may ask to have reversed in a short time period. This is why tenants should assume an action is prohibited unless they’ve concrete proof otherwise.