Every bathroom eventually gets tired. Crunk gets into the shower head, paint peels after too many steamy sessions and taps take a turn for the worse.

But if you live in a rented property, how do you remedy the problem by giving it an upgrade? Do you need permission from the landlord, should you force them to give it refresh, and who pays?

After all, people renting in the private sector pay a lot for their homes, particularly in London and the South East where it can gobble up 40% of your income.

And yet some landlords don’t allow their tenants to treat the property as if it was their own home, despite paying so much.

Rental contracts can include clauses that prevent tenants using Blu-tack or nails to hang pictures, and most landlords are reluctant to allow tenants to do redecorate their ‘home sweet homes’ beyond a lick of paint.

For some people, this feels unfair – millions of us live in a rented home on average for nearly two years, so why can’t we do what we like inside it, within reason?

Not every landlord is against making changes. Many will give the go ahead to repaint a bathroom, change a loo seat, install a more fashionable toothbrush cupboard or upgrade the lighting.

Permission to pay

But you’ll need to ask their permission first, and most likely pay for it yourself.

And, depending on how long you eventually stay in the property, your landlord may ask you to return the property to original state before you move out.

But there’s a new type of landlord who does allow tenants to make changes; build-to-rent developers.

Build to rent

They are a new breed of home builder which has been busy constructing hundreds of apartment complexes across the UK that are specifically for private rentals; there have already been 30,000 flats built this way.

And many have claimed to be ripping up the rental rulebook. This includes not charging tenants a rental deposit or any fees, and allowing them to make changes to their home without having to constantly seek permission.

One company, Get Living, enables tenants to redecorate their bathrooms (or any other room of their home) including new wallpaper, but not the ceilings and any woodwork.

Like other build-to-rent firm, it asks that tenants return the apartment to its original state unless they live in it for more than three years.

But you won't be able to make any changes to the electricity or lighting in the bathroom, or replace any of the sanitary-ware within it – such as the basin, bath, loo, shower or taps.

Picture perfect

Many landlords including build-to-rent operators allow tenants to put up as many pictures or posters as they like ‘within reason’ but only if they use proper picture hooks – so not using nails, glue, sticky tape, Blu-tack or similar fixings.

This is because many new-build developments, unlike older houses with more solid walls, are likely to feature electrical wiring and plumving running in betwen cavity walls. Banking in nails is likely to be a bad idea.

But the big debate is whether, if a bathroom is looking tired, a landlord should upgrade it if the tenant makes the request.

The answer is, no. The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Housing Act 2004 both require landlords to look after a property’s structure, keep its interior in 'good repair' and maintain its exterior.

Clean sweep

But the law doesn’t cover redecoration. If the taps don’t drip, the loo flushes and the shower doesn’t leak then other than threatening to move out, it’s hard to persuade a reluctant landlord to redecorate or upgrade the bathroom.

But there is some leeway. Read the chatter on social media between landlords, and it’s clear most of them redecorate their properties in between tenancies (rather than during), and that most are happy for tenants to carry out light refurbishments during the tenancy, particularly if they are living there for three to five years or more.

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If you want to improve your credit position by reporting your rent payments, CreditLadder is the only way to improve your credit score and position across all four of the main Credit Reference Agencies in the UK, namely Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Crediva. Building up a high credit score has a lot of benefits, including helping you access finance at better rates - this can also help save you money.

CreditLadder also runs a free mortgage application service in partnership with Tembo which will tell you how much you could borrow.

Remember the information provided in this article is for information purposes only and should not be considered as advice.