Who Looks After The Garden In A Rented Home?
You've got a garden with the rental, which is lovely until you realise nobody told you whose job it is. Do you have to mow it? Who prunes the enormous tree? What happens if you let it go for a summer?
The general rule is straightforward, and then there are three or four things that catch people out at check-out.
The short version
- Routine upkeep is usually yours, if the agreement says so. Mowing, weeding, keeping it tidy.
- Structural things are usually the landlord's. Fences, walls, paths, sheds, drainage, and large trees.
- You're expected to return it as you found it, not to improve it, and not to let it become a wilderness.
- Never cut down or heavily prune a tree without asking. This is the single most expensive mistake tenants make outdoors.
Start with the agreement
Gardens sit almost entirely in what your tenancy agreement says, rather than in statute. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 puts the structure and exterior of the property on the landlord, but a lawn is not the exterior of a house.
So look for a clause about the garden. Typical wording asks you to keep it "in a neat and tidy condition" or "in the same condition as at the start of the tenancy, fair wear and tear excepted".
Three things worth checking:
- Is there a garden clause at all? If not, your obligations are limited, though you still can't actively damage it.
- Are tools provided? A clause requiring you to mow a large lawn is much easier to meet if there's a mower in the shed. If not, ask who's buying one.
- Does it mention the landlord maintaining anything? Some agreements have the landlord doing hedges or trees, or sending a gardener quarterly.
Photograph the garden thoroughly when you move in, in every season if you can. That's your proof of what "as you found it" actually looked like. Documenting the condition of your rental covers how.
What's normally yours
- Mowing the lawn and keeping edges under control
- Weeding beds and paths
- Watering, within reason, and keeping plants alive that were there when you arrived
- Clearing your own rubbish and garden waste
- Sweeping leaves off paths where they're a slip hazard
- Keeping drains and gullies clear of leaves
- Trimming small shrubs and hedges you can reach safely
The standard is "reasonable", not "immaculate". Nobody expects a show garden, and a lawn that's a bit long in July is not a deposit matter.
What's normally the landlord's
- Fences, gates and boundary walls. These are structural. A panel blown down in a storm is theirs to replace, not yours.
- Paths, patios and steps, particularly where they've become a trip hazard.
- Sheds, garages and outbuildings, where they came with the property.
- Drainage. A garden that floods is a property defect.
- Large trees and major hedge work. Anything needing a ladder, a chainsaw or a professional.
- Pests and infestations in most cases, particularly rats, wasp nests in the structure, or Japanese knotweed.
Report any of these in writing when you spot them, and keep the reply. A fence you reported in November is the landlord's problem. The same fence discovered at check-out can become an argument. Our guide on what landlords are responsible for maintaining covers the wider picture.
Trees, and the expensive mistake
This deserves its own warning, because it's where tenants lose the most money.
Never cut down, top or heavily prune a tree without written permission. Even if it blocks your light. Even if it drops leaves everywhere. Even if it looks half dead.
Reasons:
- The tree is the landlord's property, and removing it is destroying something worth a lot.
- It may have a Tree Preservation Order, or be in a conservation area. Works on a protected tree without consent are a criminal offence and fines can be substantial. You can check with the council for free.
- Bird nesting season runs roughly March to August, and it's an offence to damage an active nest.
If a tree is genuinely dangerous, or overhanging dangerously, report it in writing as an urgent repair and let the landlord deal with it. If it's a neighbour's tree causing the problem, our guide on a neighbour's tree blocking light covers where you stand.
Changing things
Planting annuals, herbs, pots and vegetables is normally fine and nobody minds. Anything more permanent needs asking about:
- Removing established plants, shrubs or turf
- Laying decking, gravel or artificial grass
- Putting up sheds, greenhouses or fixed structures
- Digging out beds, or building raised ones
- Anything involving concrete
Ask in writing and keep the answer, including whether you have to reinstate it at the end. What you're allowed to change in a rental covers the same principle indoors.
Artificial grass is the one that surprises people. It looks like an improvement and it's a permanent alteration involving removal of turf, so it needs permission.
If you let it go
Gardens are one of the more common deposit deductions, and one of the more defensible ones, because the difference between a maintained garden and a neglected one after a year is very visible.
What a landlord can reasonably claim is the cost of bringing it back to its condition at check-in, allowing for fair wear and tear. What they can't do is charge you to improve it beyond that, or bill for a full landscaping job because the lawn needed a cut.
Adjudicators want to see check-in and check-out evidence. Which is, again, why the move-in photographs matter so much. Your deposit rights and getting your deposit back cover what a fair deduction looks like.
If you're leaving in winter, take photographs anyway. A dormant garden in January looks worse than it is, and you'll want to be able to show what it looked like when you arrived at the same time of year.
Practical things that help
- Agree who cuts what, in writing, at the start. Especially in a shared house, where "someone else will do it" is the default.
- Ask about tools before you move in. A mower, shears and a rake being provided changes what's reasonable to expect of you.
- Do a couple of hours in autumn. Clearing leaves out of gullies and gutters prevents the damp problems that cause much bigger arguments.
- Photograph seasonally. Four photos a year takes minutes and settles most disputes.
- Report structural issues immediately, even minor ones. A leaning fence in spring is a repair. In February it's a claim.
Shared gardens and flats
If you're in a flat with a communal garden, it's almost always the landlord's or the management company's responsibility, funded through service charges or the rent. You're not expected to mow it.
Where a garden is shared between flats, check what your agreement says about access and use, because "shared" sometimes means "the ground floor flat's, and you may look at it".
The honest summary
Routine upkeep is yours, structure is theirs, and trees are nobody's business but the landlord's until you've asked.
Keep it reasonably tidy, report anything structural in writing, photograph it when you arrive, and ask before you change anything permanent.
And if you inherited a jungle and were then charged to clear it, that's exactly the sort of thing the next tenant would want to know. Reviewing your landlord and agent on Marks Out Of Tenancy is how they find out.
This guide covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. General information rather than legal advice, and your own tenancy agreement governs what you agreed to maintain. Sources: GOV.UK, tree preservation orders, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 11.