DH Painter & Decorator repaints rental homes in Kingsley for landlords and letting agents, mainly between tenancies. Kingsley lies 1.5 miles north-east of the town centre in NN2, and its let stock ranges from two-bedroom terraces behind Kettering Road to shared houses and larger Victorian properties near the Racecourse.
The HMO direction and what it says about Kingsley
In March 2012 the council made the Northampton North and Central HMO Article 4 Direction, and Kingsley ward is one of the areas it covers. It is a non-immediate direction: since it took effect, turning a family house (use class C3) into a small house in multiple occupation (C4) has needed planning permission. It shows the council regarded HMO conversions as an issue here. We have no sourced figure for what share of Kingsley’s housing is rented, but agent listings show terraces on Junction Road being let as well as sold, and existing shared houses carry on.
For a landlord, the direction matters for decorating in one main way: existing HMOs in the ward are worth keeping in good order, because new ones are harder to create. Communal halls, stairs and kitchens in those houses wear quickly, and they are what a prospective tenant or an inspecting officer sees first.
Turning round a two-bedroom terrace
The Victorian terraces such as Junction Road follow a compact pattern: a front sitting/dining room, a kitchen at the back, two bedrooms upstairs and an enclosed rear garden. Many have had uPVC double glazing fitted, which takes window painting off the list. A typical void repaint in one of these houses covers:
- Filling picture-hook holes, dents and blu-tack marks, then two coats on walls in the living room and bedrooms
- Kitchen walls and ceiling in a wipeable, moisture-tolerant finish
- Hall, stairs and landing in a scrubbable emulsion, with satin on the spindles and handrail
- Skirtings, doors and frames touched in or fully recoated, depending on their state
Parking on these streets is on-street only, so we bring everything in through the front door and plan the work to suit the keys being picked up from the agent.
Matching the finish to the wear
| Area | What wears it | Our usual choice |
|---|---|---|
| Narrow terrace hall and stairs | Bags, bikes, moving day | Scrubbable matt, mid-tone |
| Rear kitchen | Steam, cooking grease | Kitchen and bathroom emulsion |
| Bedrooms in shared houses | Furniture knocks, posters | Durable matt, one colour throughout |
| Doors and skirtings | Shoes, hoovers, door handles | Water-based satin |
We keep one neutral colour per room type across your properties where we can, and note the paint names and batch details so small marks can be touched in later without a full repaint.
Let property in the conservation area
If you let one of the larger Victorian houses on East Park Parade, Kingsley Road or St George’s Avenue, it sits inside the Kingsley conservation area, and that carries obligations a landlord cannot pass to a tenant. For the specific house numbers named in the 1990 Article 4 Direction on those three streets, the right to alter the front doors, windows, porches, gates, walls and railings without permission has been withdrawn. When the outside of a let house on those streets is due for repainting, the front door, railings and porch should go back in their existing scheme. A cheap modern replacement door would need checking with West Northamptonshire Council first.
Inside, the tall rooms, cornices and deep skirtings of those houses take longer to repaint than a terrace, so we price each one on a visit. The painter and decorator cost guide explains what drives the figure. How we work with agents and landlords generally is on our landlord and letting agent decorating page, and the Kingsley area page covers the district’s housing in more detail.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
