I agreed to renovate my Landlord’s property for low rent but I can’t afford it

[aeveasdaky1074]

Last year I was struggling to find somewhere to rent and was offered a place with cheap rent with the clause that I had to completely renovate it. The place was completely unliveable at first so I spent a grand I had in savings on fixing the central heating and renovating the lounge and master bedroom so I could actually live there. I’ve been working away at the rest of the house but at the moment money is tight and my landlord is pressing for the work to get done as he intends to sell the house. I currently can’t make any more progress until I can buy more resources and I don’t want to get evicted early for not following up on my promise to him. What can I do?

 

[kevinrobbins]

@aeveasdaky1074 What's your tenancy agreement say? Did you agree how much you would spend for discounted rent? e.g if you are saving £200 a month on rent have you spent 5 months on rennovations? It seems to me like you're getting a bad deal because are you really saving anything if you're rennovating a place you're going to get kicked out of as soon as its done.

 

[mb60867]

@kevinrobbins Also if you're living in a shithole building site the whole time while doing unpaid work, the amount of rent that would be chargeable/is being saved is pretty debateable.

 

[rexreid7777]

@mb60867 I was going to say that at the minimum wage of £11.44, painting the house would work out in labour quite a lot without the materials

 

[melchizedek]

@rexreid7777 My husband is a painter and decorator, he won't even touch a job for under £30 an hour, that's his absolute lowest price.

 

[shelbyalvarez]

@melchizedek £30 an hour for a painter...(assume that excludes paints) wow prices have gone up soo much since I did a full refurbishment. So around £250 a day minimum? Where abouts in the country are you?

 

[sunny7day]

@shelbyalvarez Most tradesmen around my area are charging around £250-300 a day.

 

[mb60867]

@rexreid7777 Sure but I mean the theory is that any discount will eventually add up over time to be equal to or greater than a fair payment for the job. I'm questioning whether the concept of the "discount" is even valid, because it's a barely liveable building site that likely could not be rented out at any price for most of the time during the reno.

 

[zarmos]

@rexreid7777 OP isn't employed though