The landlord's essential guide to garden maintenance

Garden maintenance can be a contentious area between landlords and tenants. This is often due to confusion over who is responsible for which areas of the garden they are expected to maintain and unclear tenancy agreements.

While the landlord is responsible for making sure that a rental property remains safe and well-maintained throughout the tenancy, tenants must take reasonable care of the property during their stay and ending a tenancy must be handled with care.

It’s vital for landlords, agents, and tenants to comply with the law and follow what is written in the agreement, including any additions or clauses, to avoid lengthy disputes. These can be costly and time-consuming for all parties.

If the garden is not referred to in the agreement, it is implied that a tenant is responsible for returning the garden, as well as the rest of the property, in the same condition as it was when they moved in, allowing for some seasonal growth.

Garden issues are common and account for between 12% and 15% of all end of tenancy disagreements which end up needing resolution services.  Find out more about the importance of tenancy agreements, and their clauses, in mydeposits guide for the NRLA, A landlord’s guide to tenancy agreements.

When it comes to the garden in a rental property, it’s easy for landlords and tenants to become confused as to what is expected of both parties. This lack of clarity is often the reason for end of tenancy negotiation and proposed costs by landlords.

This guide will cover: 

• Getting things right from the start
• Getting the paperwork right
• Common maintenance disputes and how to avoid them
• An example case study
• Advice to share with tenants
• Summary

When people are looking to buy a home, a garden is often high on the list of must-haves, with properties that have a larger garden selling more quickly.

Since the pandemic, outdoor space has become a priority for many renters but most tend to look for smaller and easier to manage gardens as the larger gardens can be expensive and time consuming to maintain, unless they plan to be there for several years. Any (approved) investment into a garden, with things like plants or improvements may be a waste of money and effort.

For landlords, a garden can be a double-edged sword. Outdoor space can be a selling point and attract families who tend to be longer-term tenants, but they also need to be well looked after. This can be a contentious issue, sometimes resulting in a neglected garden that not only ruins a property’s ‘kerb appeal’ but can also be time-consuming and expensive to rectify.

As a landlord if you do have a garden, you might consider:

Your choice of tenants: If your property has a garden you may decide to focus on longer-term tenants who are more likely to take care of the garden.

A low maintenance garden: Aim for a garden that will attract tenants without breaking the bank or needing too much effort to maintain. Slow growing, drought tolerant flowering shrubs and perennials combined with hard landscaping is as near to maintenance-free as you can get with a garden. You could even consider Astroturf instead of laying grass.

Outsourcing the garden maintenance: If you have a few properties with gardens, it may be cost-effective to take responsibility for the gardening yourself by employing a gardener to take care of them and by including a reasonable cost for gardening in the rent.

Gardening equipment: As a landlord, there is no legal responsibility on you to provide gardening tools. This is a decision for individual landlords to make, especially when supplying any electrical equipment. Obviously providing the right tools encourages tenants to maintain the garden. Any equipment you supply should be:

• in a good state of repair and stored in a locked outbuilding/shed. 
• compliant with current health and safety standards (this applies to all power tools such as lawnmowers and hedge trimmers).

If you don’t have a Residual Current Device (RCD) built into your fuse box, you should use a plug-in RCD – any socket that may be used to plug in a lawnmower, hedge trimmer or other power tool should have RCD protection.

As a landlord, one of the most important things to do is get your paperwork in order. From the starting tenancy agreement to the inventory and check-in reports and later on, the check-out reports, these documents set out the contractual responsibilities, confirmation of what’s included in the property and how the property has been left.

All of these make the expectations clear for all parties. The key documents and best practice are:

Make sure that the tenancy agreement includes the garden and that it is clear whether the tenant is responsible for maintaining any of it. ‘Private garden’ and ‘shared garden’ is mentioned in Section C: Tenant’s responsibilities of the Government’s model agreement but it is recommended that a specific clause is included.

The tenant: Unless otherwise stated, the tenant is usually responsible for the basic maintenance of the garden. This includes keeping on top of weeding, pruning shrubs in borders, keeping patios and paths weed free, mowing the lawn and watering plants (and the lawn during a dry spell).

The landlord: Landlords are usually responsible for the maintenance of trees and climbing plants, making sure they are safe. Generally, they are also responsible for maintaining large shrubs and hedges and removing the cuttings, but this is sometimes a grey area. To avoid doubt, if a landlord needs the tenant to do any specific, basic garden maintenance tasks it is best practice to list these in the tenancy agreement and discuss them with the tenant. Landlord and tenant expectations can be very different so, as always, it’s best to communicate and make it clear to the tenant. 

Tenancy agreements are often unclear on what is expected when it comes to the finer details of garden maintenance, and this can increase the likelihood of a problem when the tenancy ends.

A good tenancy agreement garden maintenance clause will:

• define that the garden should be left, at the end of the tenancy, in the same condition as at the start (allowing for seasonal changes)
• specify exactly which areas should be maintained by the tenant (such as the borders, lawn and paved areas (front and rear)
• make it clear that the tenant must make no alterations to the garden, or remove any plants without the landlord’s consent

If you as a landlord have additional specific conditions or expectations, which are reasonable, these can be individually negotiated, written as a special clause, and initialled by both parties.

If negotiation on costs are unsuccessful when the tenancy ends, and formal resolution is needed, an adjudicator will review the evidence, starting with the inventory and check-in and check-out reports, which should be detailed, allowing for a good comparison. For more guidance, read ‘Inventories – the complete guide’, which combines mydeposits’ expertise in deposit protection with No Letting Go’s top tier inventory management services.

Remember to:

• take a detailed inventory at the start of the tenancy which provides the exact condition of each area. Include clear colour photographs of the garden, referenced to the front, rear and side of your property. Some reports even time and date stamp the photos, however the date of the report will be taken as the date they were taken
• make sure that the tenant is present at check-in and check-out inspections, where possible, or be able to show that they received the reports as near to moving in and moving out as possible, and had the opportunity to comment
• As a landlord you should not expect to end up in a better position than at the start of the tenancy so be sure to consider ‘seasonal growth’ when assessing the condition and differences in the garden when the tenancy ends. For more information on ‘seasonal order’ see mydeposits garden maintenance article.

Even if you have a great tenant, routine inspections can help prevent problems from escalating at a later stage. Inspections also indicate to your tenant that you care about the property and expect it to be returned in good condition, yet research shows that during periodic inspections, only about 80% of landlords inspect the outdoor areas. Ideally, your tenant should be present during inspections so that they become aware of any issues straight away, and in turn, they have the opportunity to raise any concerns with you. Please remember that you must give at least 24 hours’ notice before carrying out an inspection.

Each year, garden maintenance is a common cause of end of tenancy issues between landlords and their tenants with around 4,500 formal decisions including a garden maintenance issue. This is often due to confusion over who is responsible for the upkeep, or down to poor communication between the two parties relating to deterioration, damage or changes tenants would like to make. Making it clear where tenant responsibility starts and stops is key when it comes to general garden maintenance and avoiding any end of tenancy problems.

Next, we look at the three most common garden-related end of tenancy claims and how to reduce the likelihood of these and similar issues happening in the first place.

It’s reasonable for landlords to expect tenants to regularly mow the lawn, water plants where necessary and keep shrubs and borders tidy, as well as keep pathways and patio areas free of moss and weeds.

Many tenants will enjoy having a garden and want to make sure it’s kept in good order, but others may have busy schedules or not consider their outside space particularly important. Confusion over what the tenant is responsible for is often the main cause of issues, which can be surprisingly complicated. For instance, what a tenant sees as ‘seasonal growth’ can differ greatly from their landlord’s view.

A landlord must also remember that plants are perishable. If there’s been a heatwave or flooding, plants can die. Sometimes plants die due to old age but where a tenant has moved a shrub or pruned it back too hard, they may be responsible for reasonable costs.

Solution: A clear garden clause in the tenancy agreement is essential and will make it easier to negotiate with the tenant if needed. Make sure the tenant knows exactly what they are responsible for and know what you are responsible for, to avoid any doubt. Keep expectations reasonable and only ask tenants to take on work that is safe.

Make sure a detailed description of the garden is included in any inventories, with good quality photos so you can negotiate with them at any point at the end of the tenancy.

Tip: Any photographs taken must be comparable from the start and end of the tenancy and should be taken from the same angle each time.

Damage to garden structures like fencing and greenhouses is consistent. While some issues are simple to solve, others like the recent claim below, can be harder to work out where the tenant responsibility starts and ends.

Situation: At the end of the tenancy, several windows in the greenhouse were found smashed, but the tenant denied all knowledge claiming that the greenhouse was never used. The smashed windows were on the side that faced an alley so there was an element of doubt as to who may have caused the damage. There had also been recent extreme weather which might have explained the damage. The broken glass was mostly inside the greenhouse.

While damage like this can be frustrating for landlords, it’s important to give tenants the benefit of the doubt and consider every eventuality, to help maintain a good relationship and avoid unnecessary or unfair cost proposals when discussing the damage.

Solution: Landlords must remember they are running a business by letting out their property to a tenant, and manage their own as well as the tenant’s expectations.

The key to keeping the relationship with your tenants good is to encourage them to report any problems, as and when they happen, rather than leaving them to potentially get worse, if left, and avoid any confusion over responsibility when the tenancy ends.

Keeping the lines of communication open will encourage both parties to discuss and negotiate any potential costs for deterioration and damage, rather than taking it through the prolonged formal resolution process.

By law, tenants must ask the landlord for permission to make any changes to the rental property’s garden. If permission is not asked for or has been refused, and the tenant still does the work, the landlord will be able to charge the tenant costs for returning the garden to its original state.

Solution: It’s important to highlight the tenancy agreement clause to your tenants which makes it clear that they should not alter the property without notifying and receiving their landlord’s permission. It is important that tenants understand that this clause applies to the garden as well as the inside of the property.

Let your tenant know that they can always discuss things with you. Be open-minded to suggested changes that may benefit you too, as a landlord, and allow improvements to your property that both you and your tenants can enjoy. For example, landscaping your garden, planting some new shrubs or refreshing a tired lawn.

The following case study shows the importance of having a garden clause in the tenancy agreement with good photography, keeping quotes, and making allowances for seasonal growth, as well as showing how adjudicators think:

Deposit amount: £875

Amount disputed: £319

The tenant said:

• they accepted that some garden maintenance to the back garden was needed, but claimed that there are always changes to a garden as plants grow
• the front garden was left in the same condition as when they moved in
• the landlord has been allowed to withhold £100 from the deposit for the necessary garden work but the quotes and amount being claimed were unrealistic

The agent's response was that: 

• the front and rear gardens were left in an overgrown state, footpaths were left with crayon markings and weeds
• overall, the gardens were not well maintained
• the tenant is responsible for garden maintenance in line with the tenancy agreement clause and should have returned it to its original condition, allowing for some seasonal growth
• the landlord is claiming the full cost of putting the garden back to its original condition

What evidence was given? 

• Tenancy agreement, emails, independent check-in and check-out reports and quotes

What was decided and why? 

• The check-in report records the front and rear gardens as being in ‘good seasonal order’
• The photographs embedded in the report showed slight overgrowth on the front garden’s hedge and the rear lawn with a few weeds growing in the borders and footpath at the back
• By comparison, the written detail and photographs in the check-out report show that both front and rear garden were ‘overgrown’ with ‘weeds, patchy lawn and an unclean patio that had crayon marks present’
• The adjudicator decided that the tenant was responsible for additional work to the garden at the end of the tenancy, which would return it to the same condition/seasonal order it was in at the start of the tenancy
• The £290 quote for garden maintenance included trimming hedges, mowing lawns, tidying borders and removing all weeds and crayon markings
• The tenancy started in the autumn and ended in the summer, so some allowance was made for seasonal differences and the overgrowth recorded in the check-in report, as these are not the tenant’s responsibilities, so the landlord was awarded 70% of the amount proposed
• As the tenant had already agreed to £100 towards this claim, the landlord was entitled to the difference

Learning points: 

• The tenant is only responsible for returning the gardens to the same seasonal order/condition as when they moved into the property
• Check-in reports should always give clear descriptions and be supported by good quality photographs which will be the basis for any future discussions
• Check-out descriptions should be detailed, and photographs should be taken from the same angle as check-in, so a clear comparison can be made
• Consider seasonal times of year and when tenancies start and end, as conditions of gardens will differ because of this, and deterioration may not just be due to neglect or lack of maintenance by the tenant
• Make sure all quotes and invoices detail the exact work the contractor will be doing or has done, so that it can be matched to the work needed at the end of the tenancy. This will help with negotiating costs at the end of the tenancy, and if necessary, help an adjudicator make a fair and reasonable decision

For more relevant examples, see this resolution case study on garden care and rubbish removal and this resolution case study related to a landlord claiming costs for replacing the grass under a trampoline.

Tip: Read more about dispute insights and what questions the adjudicators will ask when reviewing garden dispute evidence in mydeposits guide, How to claim for garden maintenance.

With good, well-vetted tenants in place and all your paperwork fit for purpose, you are already well set before the tenancy starts. Now, make sure you carry out regular inspections and remind your tenant to let you know about any issues that arise so they can be dealt with promptly. You can read more about inspections in mydeposits’ NRLA article, The landlord’s essential guide to periodic property inspections.

To help with the smooth running of your tenancies when it comes to the garden, you can also share the following ‘top tips with your tenants:

Be present at check-in and check-out if you can, and in all circumstances make sure that you check and agree with the content of the report at the start of the tenancy or highlight any differences in writing as soon as possible and check the report at the end of the tenancy so you understand the differences and why there may be proposals for costs.

Read the tenancy agreement carefully and make sure that you understand any maintenance instructions. If in doubt, ask the landlord to explain any points.

Get your landlord’s permission (in writing) before carrying out any garden alterations. If the landlord has not been asked or refused permission, you may be responsible for paying to return it to its previous condition.

If you have any concerns about the garden, bring them to your landlord’s attention rather than trying to rectify them yourself. Do this as soon as there is an issue.

Be open to regular inspections by the landlord, who should give at least 24 hours' notice before conducting any inspection. They are an opportunity for you to raise any concerns about the garden with your landlord before they escalate.

A top tip is to get into the habit of carrying out regular maintenance to avoid problems arising or getting worse. Mow the lawn once a fortnight during summer, water any plants and weed little and often.

Garden maintenance is a common cause of disagreement between landlord and tenant because many tenancy agreements are not specific enough about each parties’ responsibilities, and some make no mention of the garden at all.

It should be best practice for any agreement to include a standard gardening clause spelling out exactly which maintenance tasks are the tenant’s responsibility, which are the landlord’s and that, allowing for seasonal change, the expectation is for the garden to be returned in the same condition as it was at the beginning. Following these tips should reduce the potential for problems and make any negotiation more agreeable. For more guidance see NRLA insurance partner, Total Landlord’s ultimate guide to garden maintenance.

NRLA members get a 30% discount on the deposit protection fee when you protect a deposit online with mydeposits insurance- in England and Wales. This also includes a free alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service, which can avoid going through a formal court process.