My experience with rental paint jobs is that the landlord pays for a bottom of the barrel paint job. I bought a rental property that had been painted top to bottom with ceiling paint, trim and all, over dirt, candlewax and even a couple of pieces of spaghetti that were stuck to the baseboard.

I've seen similar in other rental properties. I think landlords for the most part don't want to spend money for a quality job. There are exceptions, of course.

I feel so sorry for your sister.

Reminds me of the awful paint job on our house when we brought it. I'm sure that is why they had to lower the price. Everything was a horrible peasoup green - the two BR, the bath, kitchen, and basement. The doors have brass knob plates and glass knobs - they painted over the brass plates. I had a hard time getting the paint off. We painted the whole house before we moved in. (Of course, we have painted it again since then.)

The landlord only owns this one house. Him and his wife are fantastic people, but older. IMO they are being blindsided/bullied by this painter.

They do not skimp on anything for that house. It is on a quiet cul-de-sac in a very good part of town. You would never know that it is a rental. They just put on a cedar deck, BN garburator and spent $700 to clean the ducts and furnace without any hesitation. What she asks for they do b/c she really is a good tenant. She keeps the house in immaculate condition at all times.

I think this fly by night painter views it as a rental and therefore does not take the job seriously or to the standard that he would if it was owned. Shame on him!

I feel so bad for her cause she was so excited about finally having everything look so good, but instead got this.

I am not at all surprised. But, I am very sorry your sister is going through this ordeal. I do wish we could trust our instincts more often...we have all been through this kind of thing.

Spaghetti, palimpsest....wow, that's a new low!

DH and I are an older couple who own one rental house. While we don't want to go broke maintaining the house, we are interested in doing quality maintainance so that we can get quality tenants who will pay a fair rental for the place.

If we had hired a painter who did what you say this one is doing at your sister's place, we as landlords would want to know about it immediately.

My advice is to call the landlord and tell him, nicely and factually, what is happening at his property. To undo what these jokers are doing may cost him a lot of money and aggravation down the line.

As someone who had 5 rent houses for 20 years, I'm chiming in here to say that I think you need to call the landlord.
I would have wanted to know that the painter was slopping through the job.

I couldn't agree more Barb5 with what you said. This painter is getting paid to do something that, in 6 months or less will more than likely have to be redone and cost the landlord more. My sister wanted to do it herself but after encouragement from her husband asked the landlord, which of course agreed to do the paint job. Next time maybe she should consider just that and asking for some form of compensation.

It is taking every ounce of my will not to jump in the van to go over and have a look while they're working today. I wouldn't say anything at all, just observe and note what looked off in my eyes. But I am resisting and trying to mind my own business!

We have rental property as well and would definitely want to know if someone was doing that to my property. We have let tenants paint and then wished we hadn't done that, but if I paid a professional, I'd want a quality job. Please tell your sister to call the owners. I'd love to have a tenant like her.

"You get what you pay for." I think I'd tell the landlords so they know what they bought. I bet they paid very little for the job.

"I think I'd tell the landlords so they know what they bought. I bet they paid very little for the job."

I disagree with your statement. To assume that they paid very little because it is a landlord/rental situation is unfair. I know there are some landlords that do the absolute minimum to maintain their properties. These people do not fit into this category. For heaven's sake, I don't even have a cedar deck.

Unfortunately in this world there are some people out there that are warped, crooked and have no problem with ripping people off. In this situation it is very easy for them to complete an inadequate job without the landlord knowing what he's getting since he's not making regular visits to the house. Regardless of the amount of money involved...if a person claims they are a "professional", then in my eyes I better see professional results.

My sister has called the landlord and is waiting for him to return her call. She will let him know what's going on and he can then make a decision.

I've been a landlord, and I would have LOVED getting a call about crap work like that.

I would have been down there in a flash, with my game face on :)

What did the Landlord say?

I wasn't trying to say that the landlord is an inherently bad person in my post, but the reality of a rental property is that there is a fine line between what you can invest on things like painting and new carpet on a regular basis (between renters). Remember that the landlord also loses a month's rent between tenants when updates are done. It may be more of a financial strain on the One property landlord than the one who has dozens.

I am sure he didn't hire the painter and say "Ok do a sh--ty job because its a rental property" and I doubt the painter is Intentionally doing a bad job,,,he's just not a good painter.

I just had 5 interior doors, the associated trim, and a small area of wall paneling painted, plus the ceiling and walls in a hallway. It was new work that needed some sanding and priming and removal of the hardware so lets make that equal to your sister's kitchen. I paid $4200.00 to have that done in the way that I think is best.It took two people seven days to do this. How much rent would a landlord have to charge to recoup that?

I would have told the landlord. I had painters that came here that didn't know how to paint. I picked someone in the middle of the bids and I thought I would be OK. I was wrong. I asked for the ceiling to be primed and two coats of paint. Well they didn't prime and if any one has had a few water spots knows that you can paint it forever and they will come through. I told them to go get primer. They never came back.

An update: the landlord talked with my sister and said that there was a misunderstanding on the work that was to be completed by the painter. Adding all the "new" things on would of increased in by a lot so they aren't doing it.

I was by there today, nieces wanted to come over and visit cause they had the day off. It didn't look too bad from a distance, but up close you can notice the sloppiness. The hinges are the worst cause they got paint on them. The colors look good together from what I could tell and my sister is happy which is all that really counts anyway.

She spoke with the landlord again tonight and he said he will buy her the additional paint to do all the trim in the color she wants if she'll do it.