I live in a rental property that has a tiny yard out back. I’d love to paint it just to brighten it up a little more for sitting out in the 3 days of UK sun, but don’t want the landlord to take a hissy fit and steal my deposit. So if I did paint it, is there a (easy) way to strip it before I leave? 
Have you considered contacting the landlord to see if you could just paint it with their permission because if I was a landlord and my tenant wanted to do something like that, assuming they did it properly, I wouldn’t be upset. It would probably be considered an improvement.