Okay to ask future landlord to paint the walls white?

July 12, 2024 8:12 PM

I am moving into a new apartment in a few weeks. The apartment is owned by a real estate company, and I know that they allot a few days or a week to fixing up the apartment and making minor repairs between tenants. Do you think this includes painting the walls?

I don't remember when I viewed the apartment myself, but I see in the pictures from the ad (which I still have) that the walls used to be a pale yellow color, which I don't like.

I would prefer all of the walls in the apartment to be white. Do you think it would be okay to email them to ask that they paint the walls white? How could I phrase this in a polite and non-presumptious way? I am not sure whether painting is a standard process for them or not. And I am not sure whether are already white.. Or maybe this is an unreasonable ask on my part?

posted by justsomebody to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

Nothing wrong with asking. In my experience most real estate companies prefer to reset the walls to white between tenants anyway
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:18 PM on July 12 [8 favorites]

I own a rental property. Completely reasonable to ask, and something most places will do for a good tenant prospect.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 10:56 PM on July 12 [1 favorite]

If you can get in touch with the previous tenants, ask if painting was deducted from their deposit.
posted by rhizome at 1:22 AM on July 13

Best answer: Don't overthink it.

Hi [landlord], will you be repainting the unit during the tenant changeover process? If so I'd prefer to have the walls reset to white. Thanks!
posted by phunniemee at 4:42 AM on July 13 [20 favorites]

Don't ask previous tenants, just ask the landlord/property managers if they paint. I've never had a landlord repaint the walls before I moved in, although I'm sure some of them charged previous tenants for it. Landlords are almost always looking to cut every corner possible in my 20 years of experience as a renter, so I wouldn't expect much, but it can't hurt to ask.
posted by twelve cent archie at 5:16 AM on July 13 [2 favorites]

If this is a landlord with more than one property then yellow is pretty unlikely to be their "standard" wall color. A lot of landlords have standard paint colors to make repainting and touch-up simpler. They might be planning to repaint it anyway, although it's possible they would put that off for now if the paint is in good condition. Standard colors tend to be white (most often), sometimes grey or greige (if they're trying to be fancy).

As for whether painting between tenants is a standard process: It depends on the condition the paint is in and how shitty the landlord is.

I don't think it can hurt to ask, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they said no or if they said they'd only do it for a charge. Either way, I would do this communication in writing if possible (since you have their email), and make sure you're on the same page re: whether you're paying or not. I would not offer to pay in the first email because a shitty landlord would of course be HAPPY to take extra money from you even if they were planning to paint it anyway. I would ask if they plan to repaint it and go from there.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 7:18 AM on July 13 [2 favorites]