How to design your rental property

Unfortunately in Australia – especially when you are in your younger years, renting a property is everyday reality. In a freak kind of way these are your years you are most bursting with creative energies inside and wanting to add some great ideas to your home.

Now, in some states such as Victoria the Government recently made some changes to rental laws and the rights of tenants, such as keeping a pet in a rental property and the right of decorating your home and we can only hope that South Australia will follow suit.

In the meantime, before you can make some major changes the following rules need to be followed:

Contact your landlord or property manager Adelaide and discuss your ideas. Make sure you have good reasons for your request.
The owner does not have to agree to every request you make. However, they may look more favourably on requests that have future benefits and add value to your property. For example, painting, recarpeting or landscaping may improve the appeal and worth of the house to some degree.
If they do agree, make sure you get the details in writing, noting what changes are to be made, who is to pay, what portion each person will pay, and what will happen when you leave.
At the end of your tenancy, what will generally happen is that any changes made to the property by you as the tenant will remain.
You can remove fixtures you have affixed, with the owner’s consent, unless the removal of the fixture would cause irreparable damage.

So what can we do then….?

For the detailed explanation always check the official “Tenants Rights Manual” in your respected state, likewise in our case South Australia. We have it handy HERE

And you can also check HERE

Because South Australia’s Landlord obligation rules are a bit outdated and loose, always make sure to check the property cleanliness and overall condition before you move in. Also noted here, if you find that the chosen home would be suitable otherwise but it needs a fresh coat of paint or new carpet it’s worth to ask from the Landlord but if she or he refuses you might be well off to look for another property than to move in for a longer time and be disappointed.

If you think it’s still reasonable we can show you what you CAN do without breaking the law:

1. Focus your energies to the interior

REFRESH THE WINDOWS

If you don’t like the old plastic vertical blinds in your apartment, consider replacing them with new venetians, cordless blinds or curtains. Don’t chuck out the old blinds as you’ll need to reinstall them when you go to leave and of course make sure you don’t make any new holes in the wall when installing your new window treatment.

If you have your heart set on shutters, it may be worth approaching your agent and asking whether the landlord would be prepared to go halves with you to install the shutters. You get to enjoy them while you are there and they get to keep them when you leave. This is an excellent win/win situation.

2. Add some green living

Plants and flowers give an instant lift to any space so add them to your kitchen and living room. It’s clichéd to say they bring life to a room but it’s true, plus they have the bonus of helping to clean the air and remove toxins. Cleaning the air and making it your own is a nice feeling especially if loads of other people have lived in there before you.

Don’t just limit your plants to the living room, add them to your bathroom too. Many plants, like cacti, love the climate of a warm room and thrive in bathroom spaces.

3. Decorate the walls

Peel and stick vinyl stickers, called decals, which are super popular at the moment can be found it loads of interior stores and online. They come in all different colours and designs and are relatively inexpensive. They can easily be added and removed and a great way to add detail to your wall without damaging the paint underneath.

Another trick is to use removable wallpaper and to create a feature wall. Made out of self-adhesive wall sticker fabric – it looks and feels like traditional wallpaper but you can easily DIY it as it requires no glue, no water and no tradesperson. Then when it is time to move, the removable wallpaper will peel off without leaving any residue or damaging the surface – making it a landlord friendly option.