Moving out - landlord demands yard work

[Katie1]

Expanding the Beds seems LL is taking advantage of you. Maintaining them to the Original size IS your responsibility. Do you have Photos of the beds when you 1st moved in? Do they?

[Patsnation34]

Originally Posted by Spottednikes

If your lease stated you were to maintain the yard, then you should have maintained it....weeding, mowing, trimming shrubs and covering plants during freezes.
Seems renters want grass and a pretty yard, but then dont want to take care of it. I've put in numerous lawns with sprinkler systems only to have renters not water, keep it maintained.
I'd be charging you for landscaping too, if your contract said you were responsible for maintaining the yard.

It sounds like the OP let the yard go, but lawn and shrub maintenance is a far cry from weeding, edging, mulching, etc.

My guess is a judge isn’t going to hand over hundreds if not thousands of dollars for landscaping when the contract said lawn and shrubs

[JONOV]

Originally Posted by RoamingTX

And when the tenant allows the plants to die and the grass to overtake the flower beds?

It is reasonable to expect the tenant to maintain the property in like kind and condition.

Plants have been known to die on their own. My wife manages to kill half of what she gets her hands on.

The grass is one thing, but in any case, a bag of mulch and some weed killer can take care of that.

The lease said mow the lawn, trim the shrubs. That's it.

[petsandgardens]

I'm picturing them cunning con artists taking deductions to "visit their assets" when their real goal is visiting family for a special event or checking out the bay or beach. And you happen to be moving out. So they want to "oversee" your move. Hand them a few things to put in the moving truck.

Renting anything one is emotionally attached to and having real expectations that it will remain as one remembers it in years past is crazy. A ridiculous risk. So I'm adding on that this is part of the con. Who is that emotionally attached to things that need to be cared for in a particular way that they leave it for 3 years without any special expert care? (I do know people who have special plants they leave at a greenhouse for special care while they are away and, as unusual as that sounds, that is actually a reasonable thing to do since they really enjoy those plants.)

So....the rental agreement. If it was truly lawn and shrubs they shouldn't use you for more of a con...free labor for them.

[Sassybluesy]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

In one aspect in defense of the OP (if her name is accurate for location) this past winter was punctuated by little snow and extended periods of below freezing weather not typical for Maryland.

Many people, myself included, lost long established garden plants that were outright killed by the cold or severely damaged by the cold (in my case it was some perennial flowers killed and hydrangeas damaged).

I live in Missouri...so, further west, but pretty much on the same parallel. We had a looooonnnnnnnnng winter, punctuated with thaws and refreezes. I didn't stop wearing my winter coat until April.


Lost 1 rose bush to the weather, another one was damaged, and my hydrangeas were puny this year. It was a rough winter for my garden.