Having rented for most of my adult life, rental inspections come with the territory.
For the most part I don’t mind them. They give me an excuse to get the house cleaned up – a deadline to get it to someone elses standards. Not just my families.
Sometimes they’ve felt like an assessment of my housekeeping ability. Our last agent told us we were the worst tenants she’d ever had. I found that difficult to believe, but it’s that judgement on your ability to keep the house to their standard that really gets up my nose.
Our current agent, and the one before last, were understanding of life with children. If there weren’t holes in walls, or drawings on carpets, things were pretty much ok. Our current agent, unlike most we’ve ever had, actually HAS children, and understands the nightmare of keeping a clean house with children, let alone working full time (as an aside, I’ve never figured out what was harder: keeping a clean house when home full time with children, or keeping a clean house when everyone’s out all day, and you have no time at home….).
Our last inspection she wrote two things:
*toilet seat in ensuite cracked
*weed
No comment on the fact there were still unpacked boxes 3 months after moving in. No comment on drawings my children leave in the bathtub with their bath crayons. No comment on the fact the back patio could do with a hose off.
My focus these holidays has been to get the house up to scratch. So it’s kind of a relief to find an inspection note for next Thursday. My house is already a million times better than when holidays started. A quick vacuum, mop and clear some flat surfaces and it should pass most standards.
There’s certainly no holes in walls, and the toilet seat has been fixed. This weekend I might even weed the garden….
We have the crappest owners…..and old neighbours that have luckily moved out so dont dob on us to the neighbours. Our real estate agent has her moments….we got 2 notices because the gardens werent done to her standards…that annoyed me!