Blu Tack Banned In Your Rental? What To Use Instead
You've moved in, you've got a stack of posters and framed photos, and somewhere in your tenancy agreement is a line telling you not to put anything on the walls. Blu Tack specifically, quite often.
It feels petty. It isn't, quite. And the reason matters, because it's the difference between getting your deposit back and losing a chunk of it over some grease marks.
The short version
- Blu Tack marks aren't fair wear and tear. That's the official position from one of the government approved deposit schemes, not a landlord's opinion. You can be charged for them.
- White Tack isn't the loophole. It leaves grease marks too.
- Command strips and washi tape are the usual answers, but test them on a hidden patch first, because they can lift paint on older or badly prepped walls.
- If you've already used it and there are marks, you probably can't be charged for a whole fresh repaint. There are rules about that, and they're on your side.
Why landlords ban it
Not because they're joyless. Because of what it does to a wall.
mydeposits, one of the three government approved tenancy deposit schemes, is blunt about it:
"Blu-tack can pull the paint and even the wallpaper off the walls. It can also leave grease marks and in some cases the tack dries so hard, it can't easily be removed without causing some damage."
mydeposits, Blu-tack facts
The grease is the sneaky part. It doesn't show up on day one. It seeps into emulsion over weeks and turns into a shadow you can't wash off, and it goes right through fresh paint, so covering it means sealing the patch first. That's why a few small blobs can turn into a bill for a whole wall.
The bit that actually costs you money
Here's the line worth remembering, from the same guide:
"Although reasonable wear and tear cannot be deducted from your deposit, blu-tack marks do not count as reasonable wear and tear."
That's the whole thing in one sentence. Normal living leaves scuffs, and you can't be charged for those. Blu Tack marks sit in a different category, because they're something you did rather than something that happened.
So if your agreement bans it and you use it anyway, you've handed them a deduction they can actually justify. Our guide to your rental deposit rights covers what else falls on which side of that line.
What about White Tack?
Loads of people switch to White Tack assuming the problem was the colour. It wasn't.
mydeposits again: "'White-tack' may seem like an alternative, but you should still avoid using this as it can also leave grease marks."
Same stuff, same grease, same argument at check out. Not worth it.
What to use instead
Ranked roughly by how safe they are for your deposit.
Command strips and hooks
The standard answer, and they genuinely work on sound modern paint. Removable adhesive, a pull tab, no holes.
The catch nobody mentions: they hold on well enough to take paint with them if the wall underneath is old, chalky, freshly painted, or was badly prepped by whoever decorated last. Which in rented property is a lot of walls. Test one in a corner behind a door and leave it a fortnight before you trust the rest.
Pull them straight down, slowly, holding the tab flat against the wall. Yanking outwards is what rips the surface.
Washi tape
Light, cheap, low tack, and fine for paper posters. It won't hold anything with weight and it can fade a patch of wall if it sits in direct sun for a year, but for a student room it's hard to beat.
Anything that doesn't touch the wall at all
This is the properly safe category, and it's the one people forget.
- Freestanding shelves or a leaning ladder shelf. Frames sit on them, walls stay untouched.
- A picture rail, if the place already has one. Plenty of older rentals do, sitting unused. Hooks and cord, no damage whatsoever.
- Clothes rail or a length of string with pegs. Genuinely nice for photos, and it comes down in a minute.
- A cork board or pinboard propped on a chest of drawers. All the pinning you like, none of it into the wall.
Things to be careful with
Removable wallpaper and wall decals are sold as damage free, and on a good wall they are. On a poorly prepped one they'll take the top layer off in sheets. If you're going to use them, the deposit scheme's own advice applies.
"There are now products on the market claiming they can be used without leaving marks, but we recommend you ask for permission to use these from your landlord/agent in writing. Then make sure you test the product before using all over the walls."
In writing is the important bit. A text or an email is fine. What you want is something you can produce in eight months when someone claims you were told not to.
Can you just ask?
Often, yes, and far more successfully than people expect.
Landlords say no to "can I put stuff on the walls" because it sounds open ended. They say yes far more often to something specific: which product, where, how many, and an offer to make good or cover the cost if it marks. Frame it as you being careful rather than you asking for a favour.
Worth checking what your agreement actually says first. Plenty of them ban nails and holes but never mention adhesives at all, and some just require permission rather than banning it outright. Our guide on what you're allowed to change in a rental goes through the usual clauses, and why the written agreement matters covers why the wording is worth reading properly.
If you've already used it
Don't panic, and don't start scrubbing.
Take the tack off gently. Warm it with a hairdryer on low so it softens, then roll it off with a fresh piece of tack rather than picking at it with a fingernail. Cold hard tack is what pulls paint.
For the grease shadow left behind, a bit of washing up liquid in warm water and a soft cloth, dabbed rather than scrubbed. Scrubbing burnishes emulsion and leaves a shiny patch that looks worse than the mark did.
Then, if a mark is still there, here's the part that's genuinely on your side.
What they can and can't charge you
A landlord can claim for the damage. They can't use it to get a free redecoration.
Deposit adjudicators work to the principle of fair wear and tear, which the House of Lords defined as "reasonable use of the premises by the tenant and the ordinary operation of natural forces". In practice that means the age and condition of the décor before you arrived gets taken into account.
The rule of thumb the schemes work to is that decoration in a rented property has a lifespan of roughly five years. So if the walls were four years old and tired when you moved in, a claim for repainting them from scratch isn't reasonable, because most of that paint's life was already used up before you ever opened a poster tube. TDS guidance on damages spells out how that apportionment works.
Adjudicators also look at how long you were there, how many people lived there, and crucially the condition at the start compared to the end. Which is why photographs matter enormously.
If you've got dated move in photos showing the walls already had marks, you're in a strong position. If you haven't, take some now anyway, and read our guide on documenting the condition of your rental before your next tenancy.
If a deduction turns up anyway
You don't have to accept it. Deposits in England and Wales are held in a government approved scheme, and every one of them has a free dispute process where an independent adjudicator looks at the evidence from both sides.
The landlord has to prove the loss. Not assert it, prove it, with the check in inventory, photographs and an actual invoice or quote. A round number and a vague description of "redecoration" tends not to survive contact with an adjudicator.
Our guide on getting your deposit back walks through the process, and ten things that help you keep it covers what to do before you hand the keys over.
The honest summary
The rule isn't there to stop you making the place feel like yours. It's there because a pound's worth of Blu Tack can leave a hundred pounds of grease shadow, and the schemes have decided that's yours to pay for.
Use Command strips on a wall you've tested, washi tape for anything paper, and shelves and rails for everything else. Ask in writing if you want to do something bigger. And take photos on the day you move in.
If your landlord or agent is unreasonable about any of this, or comes after your deposit for marks that were there before you arrived, that's worth putting on record. Reviewing them on Marks Out Of Tenancy is how the next tenant knows what they're signing up to.
This guide covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own deposit schemes and rules. It's general information rather than legal advice, and it can't account for what's in your particular tenancy agreement. Sources: mydeposits, Tenancy Deposit Scheme.