Cora moved into a three-bedroom house in Leeds in November, with a neat lawn, trimmed hedges and tidy borders. By the following June the lawn was knee-high, the borders were thick with weeds, and her landlord wanted money from her deposit to put it right. Cora had mowed when she could, but the old lawnmower in the shed had stopped working halfway through the tenancy. Who was right? The answer depends on three things: what the tenancy agreement says, what the garden looked like on the day Cora moved in, and the difference between routine upkeep and structural repair.

Garden maintenance rented property rules are one of the most common causes of deposit disputes in England and Wales. It rarely starts as a big argument. It starts with a vague clause, a lawn nobody mowed in a wet June, and a check-out photograph taken on a bad day. This guide sets out what you must do as a tenant, what your landlord must do, who pays for a gardener, what happens with trees, fences and Japanese knotweed, and how deposit deductions for gardens are actually decided.

Quick Answer: In most tenancies in England and Wales, you handle routine garden upkeep — mowing, weeding, watering and keeping paths clear — if your tenancy agreement says so. Your landlord handles structural and specialist work: trees, large hedges, fences, walls, sheds and decking. No statute divides garden chores. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 covers the structure and exterior of the dwelling itself, not the lawn. Your tenancy agreement does almost all of the work, so read the garden clause before you sign. At check-out, return the garden in the condition recorded at check-in, allowing for fair wear and tear and the season — not in better condition than you found it.

Garden Maintenance Rented Property: Who Is Responsible?

There is no single law that says “the tenant mows the lawn” or “the landlord prunes the hedge”. In practice, almost every standard tenancy agreement in England and Wales follows the same split, and deposit adjudicators apply it every day. You are usually responsible for day-to-day care, and your landlord is usually responsible for the bigger, structural and specialist jobs.

Usually the tenant	Usually the landlord
Mowing the lawn regularly	Tree surgery and removing dangerous trees
Weeding borders, beds and paths	Cutting back large hedges and tall trees
Watering plants and keeping them alive	Repairing or replacing fences and garden walls
Clearing fallen leaves and litter	Repairing sheds, outbuildings, patios and decking
Sweeping patios and keeping paths clear	Treating invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed
Light pruning of small shrubs you can reach safely	Anything needing a ladder, chainsaw or specialist
Keeping the garden tidy and free of your rubbish	Returning the garden in a reasonable condition at the start

If your agreement says nothing about the garden, the position is less clear — and that is exactly when disputes start. In England and Wales you are generally expected to use the property in a “tenant-like manner”, which includes basic upkeep, but you cannot be held to a standard nobody wrote down. In Scotland, the model private residential tenancy agreement is clearer: if the property includes a garden solely for your use, you must maintain it in a reasonable manner.

The rule to remember: you maintain, your landlord repairs and replaces. If a job needs specialist skill, specialist tools or a ladder, it is almost certainly not yours.

What the Law Actually Says: Section 11 and the Tenancy Agreement

Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is the law most people reach for in a garden argument, and it is widely misunderstood. It implies a term into most tenancies granted for less than seven years that the landlord must keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling-house, including drains, gutters and external pipes, plus the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, space heating and hot water. It cannot be signed away by a clause in your agreement.

What section 11 does not do is divide up garden chores. It covers the dwelling itself — the walls, roof, windows, external doors and the pipes and drains attached to it. Lawns, flower beds, shrubs and the general tidiness of a garden sit outside it. The practical point is simple: section 11 protects you against a landlord who refuses to repair the fabric of the property, but it will not tell you who should have mowed the lawn in July.

What section 11 covers	What it does not cover
Structure and exterior of the dwelling	Mowing, weeding and watering
Drains, gutters and external pipes	Trimming small hedges and shrubs
Water, gas and electricity installations	General tidiness of lawns and borders
Sanitation, heating and hot water	Planting, or improving the garden
Repairs your landlord cannot pass to you by contract	Jobs your agreement assigns to you

Your tenancy agreement is therefore the document that decides garden duties. If it says you must keep the garden tidy and cut the grass regularly, that term is enforceable. If it says nothing, your landlord will struggle to deduct from your deposit for a garden you never agreed to maintain. And if it tries to make you responsible for something section 11 places on your landlord — such as repairing the structure of the property — that part of the clause is void.

Two other laws matter at the edges. The Tenant Fees Act 2019, in force since 1 June 2019, bans your landlord or agent from charging you a separate garden maintenance fee or from requiring you to pay for a professional gardener or a professional clean at the end of the tenancy. A landlord who wants a gardener must build the cost into the rent instead. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 makes it an offence to plant Japanese knotweed, or cause it to grow in the wild — which is why knotweed is always your landlord’s problem to manage, never a routine chore for you.

Your Routine Jobs as a Tenant

If your agreement follows the standard pattern, your routine duties are the ordinary jobs that keep a garden from sliding into neglect:

• Mow the lawn regularly in the growing season — roughly March to October in most of the UK. A fortnightly mow is a reasonable benchmark, though your agreement may say something more specific.
• Weed borders, beds and paths. Weeds are the most common garden complaint at check-out, because they spread fast and photograph badly.
• Water plants, pots and beds in dry weather. If healthy plants were alive when you moved in, they should still be alive when you move out.
• Clear fallen leaves, litter and your own rubbish. Leaves on paths become slippery and encourage moss.
• Sweep patios, decking and paths, keeping them clear of moss, algae and obstructions.
• Trim small shrubs and hedges you can reach safely from the ground. Anything above head height, or needing a ladder, is not routine.
• Report problems promptly in writing. A broken fence panel, a dying tree or a wasps’ nest reported in November is a repair. The same problem discovered at check-out is an argument.

You are not expected to improve the garden. If you moved into a garden that was already overgrown, you do not have to hand back a show garden. The standard is the condition recorded at check-in, allowing for fair wear and tear and the season. You are also not expected to buy specialist equipment. Your landlord is not obliged to provide a lawnmower — the mydeposits case study in this guide confirms that — but if there is no mower, no shed and nowhere to store one, your landlord will find it hard to argue that you failed to mow.

Cora emailed her landlord when the mower stopped working, and that email became part of her evidence. She still had to pay for the grass cutting, because the agreement made the garden her job. But her email, and the check-in report showing the garden’s starting condition, limited what could be claimed from her.

A garden looks different in every season, and adjudicators know it. The calendar below is a reasonable benchmark for an ordinary garden in England and Wales. Your agreement may say something different, and if it does, your agreement wins.

Season	Your routine jobs	Watch out for
Spring (March to May)	First mows, weeding as growth starts, clearing winter debris	Hedge growth accelerates; check for nesting birds before cutting
Summer (June to August)	Fortnightly mowing, watering in dry spells, weeding	Lawns brown in drought — that is weather, not neglect
Autumn (September to November)	Leaf clearing, final mows, cutting back dead growth	Leaves on paths become slippery; clear gutters of leaves
Winter (December to February)	Keep paths clear and safe, remove rubbish, check fences after storms	Gardens look bare — that is the season, not you

Worked example — Wilfred’s seasonal mowing (illustrative): Wilfred’s agreement says he must cut the lawn at least once a fortnight between March and October — about 35 weeks. At one cut a fortnight, that is 35 ÷ 2 = 17.5, so roughly 17 or 18 mows in the season. In winter he owes no mowing at all. If his landlord claims he failed to mow, the question is not whether the grass is long in December — it is whether those 17 or 18 cuts happened between March and October.

What Stays With Your Landlord

Some garden jobs stay with your landlord no matter what your agreement says, because they are structural, dangerous or specialist:

• Trees. Pruning, lopping, removing a dangerous tree and dealing with a tree damaging the property are your landlord’s jobs. Never cut down, top or heavily prune a tree without written permission: it is your landlord’s property, it may be protected by a Tree Preservation Order, and work without consent can be a criminal offence.
• Large hedges and tall trees. Hedges over about two metres, and anything needing a ladder or a chainsaw, belong to your landlord.
• Fences, garden walls and gates. Repairing and replacing these is structural work. A fence panel blown down in a storm is your landlord’s to replace — but report it straight away.
• Sheds, garages and outbuildings. If they came with the property, their structure is your landlord’s. You must leave them in reasonable condition, not repair them.
• Patios, paths, steps and decking. Rotten decking, broken paving and unsafe steps are your landlord’s to repair. Moss and algae on the surface are yours to sweep and clear.
• Drainage and flooding. Blocked garden drains and standing water that threaten the property are structural matters.
• Invasive plants. Japanese knotweed and similar species need specialist treatment and are your landlord’s responsibility.
• Pests from the property itself. A wasps’ nest in a shed or rats nesting in an outbuilding will usually be your landlord’s to deal with, although the split depends on the cause. Our guide to who pays for pest control in a rented property explains the detail.

Your behaviour still matters with fences and structures. A fence panel blown down in a storm is your landlord’s to replace. A fence panel you broke by reversing into it is yours to pay for. A garden wall that has crumbled with age is structural; one you damaged by piling soil against it until it bowed is damage you caused. Photograph a broken fence the day you notice it, email your landlord the same day, and keep the email. If you wait until check-out, your landlord can reasonably argue that the damage happened during your tenancy and that you failed to report it.

Decking is both expensive and easy to damage. Do not jet-wash it unless your landlord has agreed, do not drag heavy furniture across it, and report soft or rotten boards straight away. If your landlord provides a gardener, that does not remove all of your duties — you should still keep the garden tidy between visits.

What Your Tenancy Agreement Garden Clause Should Say

A vague garden clause helps nobody. “Keep the garden tidy” sounds clear until two people disagree about what tidy means in August. The strongest protection for both sides is a clause that names the jobs, names who does them, and ties the standard to the check-in report.

Weak clause	Stronger clause
“The tenant will keep the garden tidy.”	“The tenant will cut the lawn at least once a fortnight between March and October, keep beds and borders clear of weeds, and keep paths free of moss and obstruction.”
“The tenant will maintain the garden.”	“The tenant will maintain the garden in the condition recorded in the check-in inventory, fair wear and tear excepted. The tenant is not responsible for tree work, hedges over 2 metres, structural repairs or invasive species.”
“No alterations to the garden.”	“The tenant will not remove plants or trees, lay hard surfacing, install a pond, or erect structures without the landlord’s prior written consent.”
Nothing about equipment	“The landlord provides a lawnmower, listed on the inventory. The tenant will keep it clean and report faults promptly.”

Before you sign, check the clause. Does it say who mows, who weeds and who prunes? Does it say who pays if a gardener is used? Does it say whether you may plant anything or put in a vegetable patch? Does it mention the check-in photographs? If the garden is large, does it say the landlord will arrange professional help? If any answer is no, ask for the clause to be clarified in writing before you sign. A ten-minute conversation at the start saves a deposit dispute at the end.

Your landlord cannot use the garden clause to make you pay for repairs that section 11 places on them, and cannot charge you a separate gardening fee under the Tenant Fees Act 2019. If a clause looks unfair — for example, requiring you to pay for a professional gardener of the landlord’s choosing — get advice from Citizens Advice or Shelter before you agree to it.

Who Pays for a Gardener?

There are three common arrangements, and which one applies depends on your agreement.

You pay for your own gardener. If the garden is your responsibility and you choose to hire help, you pay. Your landlord cannot dictate which gardener you use unless the agreement says so.

Your landlord provides a gardener and includes the cost in the rent. This is the cleanest arrangement for a large or complex garden. The cost is built into the rent, the gardener is arranged by the landlord, and your remaining duties are limited to keeping things tidy between visits. The agreement should say so explicitly.

Your landlord hires a gardener and tries to charge you separately. This is not allowed. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, a standalone garden maintenance charge is a prohibited payment. Your landlord cannot require you to pay for a professional gardener during the tenancy or at the end of it. If your agreement contains such a term, it is unenforceable, and you can report it to your local council’s trading standards team.

Do not pay a separate gardening fee. Rent, a capped deposit, a capped holding deposit and a small list of permitted payments are all a landlord may charge. A gardening fee is not on that list.

Stanley, a tenant in Bristol, was asked to pay £40 a month on top of his rent for a gardener his landlord had hired without asking him. He refused, pointed to the Tenant Fees Act, and the charge was dropped. His landlord then included gardening in the rent when the tenancy was renewed — the lawful way to do it. A gardener is either your choice, at your cost, or your landlord’s arrangement, inside the rent. It is never a separate bill.

Trees, Hedges and Overhanging Branches

Trees and hedges cause more neighbour disputes than almost any other garden issue, and the rules are more specific than most tenants realise.

Your own garden’s trees. If a tree in your garden is dead, dying or dangerous, report it to your landlord in writing immediately and do not try to deal with it yourself. If a branch falls and damages a neighbour’s property after you reported the risk and your landlord did nothing, the liability is likely to sit with the landlord. If you never reported it, the argument gets harder.

Overhanging branches from a neighbour’s tree. You have a common-law right to cut back branches and roots that cross into your property, but only up to the boundary line. You must not enter your neighbour’s land without permission, and the cuttings remain your neighbour’s property — offer them back. If the tree is protected by a Tree Preservation Order or stands in a conservation area, you need your council’s written consent before you cut anything.

High hedges. If a neighbour’s evergreen hedge is over 2 metres tall, is made up of a line of two or more evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs, and is blocking light or your enjoyment of your home or garden, you can complain to your council under Part 8 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003. You must first try to settle the matter informally. The council can require the hedge to be reduced, but it cannot require it to be removed or reduced below 2 metres. Councils charge a fee to consider a complaint, and the fee varies by council, so check your council’s website before you apply.

Nesting birds. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is an offence to intentionally damage or destroy the nest of a wild bird while it is in use or being built. The main nesting season runs roughly from March to August, which is exactly when hedges look their most unruly. Plan major hedge work outside that window, and check for nests first.

Situation	Who acts	What to do first
Dangerous tree in your garden	Landlord	Report in writing, with photographs
Neighbour’s branch overhangs your garden	You, up to the boundary only	Cut back to the boundary; offer cuttings back
Neighbour’s evergreen hedge over 2 metres	Council, after informal attempts	Try to agree with the neighbour, then complain to the council
Tree with a Tree Preservation Order	Council consent required	Check with the council before any work
Hedge work in nesting season (March to August)	Check for nests first	Delay major cutting if a nest is in use

Wilfred, who rents a house in York with a large leylandii hedge on the boundary, spoke to his neighbour first, then wrote a polite letter, and only then contacted the council. The neighbour agreed to reduce the hedge rather than face a formal complaint, and Wilfred avoided the council fee altogether. The informal step is not just polite — the council will usually refuse a complaint if you have not tried it.

Japanese Knotweed and Other Invasive Plants

Japanese knotweed is the invasive plant tenants hear about most, and the rules around it are clear — but widely misunderstood.

It is not illegal to have Japanese knotweed growing on your land. It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to plant it, or cause it to grow in the wild, and you must stop it spreading off your property. You must not put knotweed in your green garden waste bin, your household bin or a compost heap, and you must not take it to a recycling centre. It is controlled waste and must go to a permitted site with a registered waste carrier.

If you find knotweed in your rented garden, do not try to deal with it yourself. Do not mow it, strim it or dig it up — cutting it spreads it, because a new plant can grow from a piece of root as small as 1 cm. Report it to your landlord in writing immediately, with photographs. Treatment is a specialist job: GOV.UK guidance says it usually takes at least 3 years to treat, and herbicide spraying must only use approved herbicides, applied by someone holding a certificate of competence or working under the direct supervision of a certificate holder.

Your landlord is responsible for arranging treatment, because knotweed is a landowner’s problem and a specialist matter. You cannot be charged for it, and you cannot be expected to treat it as part of routine weeding. The same applies to giant hogweed, which is hazardous to touch — report it, do not handle it, and let your landlord arrange a specialist. Ordinary invaders such as ivy, brambles and bindweed are routine maintenance if they are at ground level and you can deal with them safely. But if ivy has grown into the brickwork or under the roof, report it — that is structural, and pulling it out yourself can cause more damage than leaving it.

Garden Damage vs Fair Wear and Tear

This is the distinction that decides most garden deposit claims. Fair wear and tear is the natural deterioration of a property from normal, everyday use: a lawn thinned where children played, a border less full after a dry summer, a hedge fuller between spring and autumn, grass that is long in August. Your landlord cannot charge you for any of it.

Damage is deterioration caused by something you did, or failed to do, beyond normal use: a lawn turned to scrub because you never mowed it for two years, a border smothered in weeds because you never weeded, a patio stained by an oil leak from your barbecue, a tree you cut down without permission, a vegetable patch you dug without consent.

Fair wear and tear — no charge	Damage — a charge may be fair
Hedge fuller after spring and summer growth	Hedge dead because you never watered it in a drought
Lawn thin where children played	Lawn turned to scrub after two years without mowing
Some weeds already present at check-in	Borders smothered after no weeding all tenancy
Faded garden furniture left by the landlord	Garden furniture you broke or left to rot
Seasonal leaf fall and natural die-back	Rubbish, tyres or unwanted furniture dumped in the garden
A tree that has grown naturally	A tree you topped or removed without permission

The check-in report is what makes this distinction provable. If the garden was described as “in good order, lawn freshly cut, hedges well maintained, some weeds already present in the borders” on the day you moved in, then only deterioration beyond that starting point can be charged. If there was no check-in report, or no photographs of the garden, your landlord’s claim is weak from the start. Take your own dated photographs on the day you move in, in every season you live there, and on the day you move out. They cost nothing and they decide disputes.

The Check-Out Garden Standard and Deposit Deductions

At the end of your tenancy you must return the garden in the condition recorded at check-in, allowing for fair wear and tear and the season. That is the whole standard. Not better than you found it. Not a landscaped ideal. Not the photograph from the letting advert, taken in June.

Your deposit is protected by law. Your landlord must protect it in a government-authorised scheme within 30 calendar days of receiving it, and must give you the prescribed information. If your landlord wants to deduct money for the garden, they must give you an itemised breakdown with evidence: the tenancy agreement clause, the check-in report, dated check-out photographs and an itemised contractor invoice. A single round figure with no breakdown will not survive adjudication.

The best illustration of how adjudicators decide garden claims is a real mydeposits case study. The deposit was £1,325 and the landlord claimed £260 for garden work. The tenancy had run from November to late June. The check-in report described the garden as in good order, with the lawn freshly cut, hedges well maintained and some weeds already present in the borders. The tenant said they had maintained the garden as much as possible, but the lawnmower had stopped working halfway through the tenancy. Dated check-out photographs showed an overgrown lawn and more weeds in the borders, with hedges fuller but still well maintained.

Worked example — Cora’s adjudication maths (real mydeposits case, figures verified): the contractor’s invoice itemised the work as £70 for mowing and strimming the lawn, £70 for removing weeds from the borders and £120 for trimming the hedges — a total of £260. The adjudicator awarded the full £70 for cutting the grass, plus 75% of the de-weeding cost (£70 × 0.75 = £52.50), recognising that some weeds were already present at check-in and that awarding the full amount would have given the landlord betterment.

No award was made for the £120 hedge trimming, because the hedges’ increased growth was consistent with the time of year and normal seasonal growth. Total awarded: £70 + £52.50 = £122.50 of the £260 claimed. The tenant kept the remaining £137.50 of the disputed amount.

Three lessons follow. First, itemised invoices win: the adjudicator could assess each job separately because each had its own price. Second, betterment loses: a landlord cannot use your deposit to return a garden to a better state than it was in at check-in. Third, seasonal growth is not neglect: hedges fuller in June than in November are not evidence of anything, and an adjudicator will say so.

Worked example — Stanley’s deposit cap (illustrative figures): Stanley pays £1,200 a month in rent. His annual rent is £1,200 × 12 = £14,400. Because that is below £50,000 a year, his deposit is capped at 5 weeks’ rent under the Tenant Fees Act 2019. One week’s rent is £14,400 ÷ 52 = £276.92. Five weeks is £276.92 × 5 = £1,384.62. His landlord cannot lawfully ask for a deposit above that figure. If your annual rent is £50,000 or more, the cap is 6 weeks instead.

If you disagree with a garden deduction, raise a dispute through your deposit scheme’s free dispute resolution service. You do not need a lawyer, and the adjudicator’s decision is based on the evidence both sides provide. If your deposit was never protected, you can claim compensation of one to three times the deposit in the county court. For the full deposit picture, read our guides to tenancy deposit protection, fair wear and tear and ending your tenancy.

Flats, Balconies and Communal Gardens

If you rent a flat, the garden rules change, because the garden is rarely yours alone.

Communal gardens in a block of flats are almost always your landlord’s or the management company’s responsibility, paid for through the service charge or the rent. You are not expected to mow a communal lawn, and you cannot be charged for its upkeep separately. Check your agreement for what it says about access: “shared” occasionally means “the ground floor flat’s garden”, and that is a misunderstanding worth clearing up before you move in.

Private balconies and terraces are yours to keep clean and tidy, but not to alter. Sweep them, clear leaves from the drains, and do not store rubbish there. Do not install decking, artificial grass or planters fixed to the structure without written permission, and check whether your agreement or the building’s rules ban drying laundry outside — some do.

Ground-floor flats with a private garden follow the same rules as a house: the garden is yours to maintain if your agreement says so, and your landlord handles the structural work. Your neighbours are closer, so keep hedge work to reasonable hours and warn neighbours before anything noisy.

Service charges. If you pay a service charge, ask for a breakdown showing what garden and grounds maintenance it covers. You are entitled to a summary of how the charge is worked out and what it is spent on. Our guide to service charges when renting explains your rights in detail.

Garden Rules in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Garden duties are not the same in every nation of the UK, and the differences are practical, not theoretical.

Nation	The garden rule in brief	What to check
England and Wales	Your agreement decides; section 11 covers the dwelling’s structure and exterior, not the lawn; Tenant Fees Act 2019 bans separate gardening fees	The garden clause in your assured shorthold tenancy
Scotland	Model private residential tenancy: if the garden is solely for your use, you must maintain it in a reasonable manner; landlord may pay for maintenance and include it in the rent	Clause 30 (Private Garden) of the model agreement; your landlord can recover costs if you fail, with receipts
Wales	Occupation contracts under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016; garden duties depend on the contract terms; the landlord must keep the dwelling fit for human habitation	Your occupation contract and the fitness standard
Northern Ireland	No Tenant Fees Act 2019 in the same form; garden duties depend on the tenancy agreement; deposit must be protected in an approved scheme	Your tenancy agreement and the deposit protection scheme

In Scotland, the position is unusually clear. The Scottish Government’s model private residential tenancy agreement says that if the let property includes a garden solely for your use, you must maintain it in a reasonable manner. Your landlord might pay for garden maintenance and charge it as a service included in your monthly rent — but that must be stated in the agreement, and if you fail to maintain the garden your landlord can do the work and ask you to pay the costs back, supplying copies of the receipts. The Scottish Association of Landlords adds that tenants are only responsible for routine maintenance, not non-routine tasks such as cutting back an overgrown tree.

In Wales, your occupation contract is the key document. The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 replaced assured shorthold tenancies with occupation contracts, and your garden duties will be in the contract terms. Your landlord must keep the dwelling fit for human habitation, which covers the structure and the installations, but routine garden upkeep is a matter for the contract.

In Northern Ireland, there is no occupation contract system and no Tenant Fees Act 2019. Your tenancy agreement decides garden duties, and your deposit must be protected in a government-approved tenancy deposit scheme. If you rent in Northern Ireland, read your agreement and check the scheme, and do not assume the England and Wales rules in this guide apply unchanged.

Wherever you live, one rule holds in all four nations: never cut down a tree, remove a hedge or lay hard surfacing without written permission, and never treat invasive plants yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

Garden maintenance in a rented home comes down to three habits. Read the garden clause before you sign, and get it clarified if it is vague. Photograph the garden when you move in, in every season, and when you move out. And report problems in writing the day you find them.

Do those three things and most garden disputes never start. You will know what you owe, your landlord will know what they owe, and if a deduction is ever claimed, the evidence will speak for itself — just as it did in the mydeposits case, where an itemised invoice and a check-in report turned a £260 claim into a £122.50 award.

If you are weighing up what your home really costs you each month, use our rent affordability calculator to check whether your rent still fits your income, and read our guides to landlord repairs, tenancy deposit protection and your tenancy agreement before your next move. A garden is a small part of a tenancy, but it is the part most likely to cost you deposit money — and the part easiest to get right.

Further Reading

• GOV.UK — Private renting: repairs: https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/repairs
• Shelter England — Can landlords charge for cleaning and gardening?: https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/tenancy_deposits/what_can_your_landlord_deduct_from_your_deposit/cleaning_gardening_decorating
• GOV.UK — How to stop Japanese knotweed from spreading: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/prevent-japanese-knotweed-from-spreading