Good afternoon everyone,
I am a long term lurker, but this has really bugged me so just thought I'd see what others opinions/views are
Here goes... We rent out a house,have Very nice tenants. Received a call yesterday from our tenant to say they have got an invoice for us from next door ( adjoining semi ) for the fence? Wtf? We spoke for a while and it appears our neighbours have gone ahead and ripped down our boundary fence( and the rest of theirs) and replaced it, he is now expecting £400 for this fence...way over priced, it's only about 20feet. This neighbour has had no communication with us or the tenants, the first we knew about it was from the phone call yesterday.
Been to pick up said invoice...which is actually just a typed letter no proof of purchase for the fencing..and if you've not fallen asleep yet reading this post,this is what they have written
Sir/ma'am, due to the recent bad weather and poor maintenance of the fence panels at said property, I have found it necessary to have these replaced prior to contacting you. As you are probably aware the weather has been quite bad of late. This has resulted in said fence panels for the said property which as landlord you are responsible for becoming severely damaged and a health risk due to them being at a state where they could fall down at any moment. as a father of 2 young children I felt that these needed replacing as a matter of urgency, along with my fence panels which I also replace at the same time. The total costs of replacing your fence panels are split into £250 for parts and transportation and £150 labour. The total sum that I request from you is £400 to recompensate me for the costs of having your fence panels replaced at such short notice. I would appreciate payment by cheque of bacs transfer to blah blah account. If you can settle this sooner rather than later that would be very much appreciated as this has left my finances considerably short for this month.
I'm picking now but he spelt panels pannels!
So my problems are,
A) our tenant said the fence was actually ok, we had previously about 4 months ago replaced the other side as our tenant had contacted us about it and like normal people we spoke with the neighbours ( other side) and an agreement was made to go halves and get 3 quotes...so this is what I would have expected from these people.
B) you cannot go asking for money with no proof of costs etc.its a rented house and we have to keep records like any other business
C) even if we are responsible for that boundary( not sure yet as I need to check the deeds) people can't just rip down your fence...surely this is classed as criminal damage ?
I realise I am completely rambling now, but any comments or what you think we should do most appreciated...
Thanks for reading if you've made it to the end! 