Tenant's take ages to tell me when things go wrong

[CoffeeDuchess]

Name changed for this.

I've been a LL for 9 years and I've never had tenants like these.

They pay on time, keep the place clean and seem like nice people. They had 2 great references from 2 previous landlords.

The only issue is that they don't tell me or the letting agency when something goes wrong immediately. They moved in in Janury and so far:

A light switch stopped working and it was only noticed when an agent when down to do their 3 month inspection, when asked, they said it had been like that for almost 2 months, I thought it was strange that they didn't just ring the agent and tell them straight away but shrugged it off.

The cooker stopped somewhat working, so the stove didn't work but the oven did, it took them 3 weeks to let someone know.

Neighbours tree fell over, toppling on to the properties fence and it took the agents inspection for us to find out, the fence had been down for more then a month.

At that point agent asked if they'd report things straight away, so that we could get it fixed asap and they wouldn't be inconvenienced.

They agreed but just got an email from the agency, the boiler has stopped working for 5 days and they've just reported it this evening who can last without hot water for 5 days, surely most people would have reported it immediately.

They're good tenants and I'm not planning to take any actions, I'm just really befuddled, why not report an issue immediately?

We find our tenants report the slightest problem even for things that as a tenant we would expect them to sort themselves - such as- light bulbs, smoke alarms batteries need changing.
In the past we have had tenant call us because:-
They have locked themselves out. Driven 45 minutes to let them back in.
The wind has blown so hard it has smashed the garden gate in half, obviously left it open banging on the side of the house- we bought a new gate.
The bathroom has got black mould growing- They had disconnected the extractor fan.
The bedroom windows were steamed up in the morning- they slept with the windows closed and had damp clothes on the radiators.
They couldn't get the washing machine to dry their clothes- it was a washing machine not a tumble dryer.
Their were stains on the carpets from the previous tenants - They moved the double bed out from the wall to show us- they wanted new carpets.
They were getting bites, the house must have fleas- yes from their cat.
The hedge needed cutting, the gutters are blocked, the kitchen sink is blocked- yes that is your responsibility!!!
Having said all this we had one couple who had a major leak over their double bed in Nov 13 when we had all that really heavy rain as the roof leaked and didnt tell us till we did check out the following March which by then cost us ££££'s to put right :(

I once reported an issue with the heating control panel. It was intermittent so of course the day the agency's maintenance guy came it worked fine.

The agent phoned me the next day and was unbelievable. He patronisingly suggested that I google the instructions for how to work the control panel and suggested I should be paying for the wasted call out. Fucking prick.

Three days later the panel gave up totally and had to be replaced.

That is only the tip of the iceberg of my LL experiences.

Sometimes reporting seems like more hassle than dealing with a broken light switch.

I agree about the boiler though, that is something that can't wait.

Social anxiety. I know people who would be so uncomfortable that they would rather go without than make the call.

I think it's that landlords are in such a position of power. They don't necessarily mean to be, or even realise they are, but for tenants, especially when you know your whole life will probably end up being renting, it's so stressful. Nothing is long term; you know that however good a tenant you are, there will eventually be a time when things have to change. The rent will go up, they'll sell, their children will sell, they'll find another tenant, their children will want to live there, whatever. And your life will be in a mess, trying desperately to find somewhere else that is going to work out, and that can be so hard. If you have children settled in schools or your work depends on living where you are or various other things, there's going to be huge upheaval. And you'd do anything to try to stop that from happening, put up with whatever inconveniences you can, in the hopes that they'll think you are a good tenant who doesn't cause any bother, that they won't raise the rent, etc. It's part of the anxiety of knowing you are always renting. Not the landlord's fault, but just the fact that they are in a different position than you. No matter what happens in their life, they are almost certainly going to have somewhere to live, long term. And you aren't.

Crotchet sums up our feelings as tenants perfectly. We have rented the same house now for 8 years. It feels like home so we rarely bother the landlord - partly because the big jobs that need doing that we told them about 5 years ago still haven't been done and are now in a really bad state of repair, or we have HAD to do ourselves as they were too dangerous to leave, so little jobs we just get on and do ourselves. And partly as we are worried that if we start to mention small jobs or hassle about the big jobs that we will get the rent put up and have to leave.

We've only been in our new flat two weeks and I've already had to report three things, including the toilet not working!
I feel terrible about it, but these things should have been dealt with either by the last tenant or by the LL/letting agent in between him leaving and us moving in!

Perhaps they've had bad experiences with other LLs e.g. putting rents up or getting shirty about repairs.

Perhaps they don't want to bother you.

Perhaps they both work full time and struggle when asked to be in for repairs. In our case if it was something like a light switch that didn't really cause any issues then we'd wait till we were coming up to leave to report it as we've had a bad experience with the LL's tradesperson not locking up after a visit so prefer to be in.

Bit odd they didn't report the boiler though.

Maybe they are telling the agent. The window in my bedroom doesn't open. I've emailed several times, and every single three month inspection, I mention it and it is noted. The agents have done nothing about it, and I doubt they've informed the landlord.

I'm an excellent tenant. Never missed a payment, take great care of properties. Generally leave them in better condition than I found them. I've had 12 moves in as many years so I'm very very used to renting (all my choice to move, never been asked to leave).

I've had some terrible landlords and letting agents. I've been left without hot water, without hearing in the dead of winter, broken ovens etc- generally not fixed in any acceptable time frame. I've had the most ridiculous reasons given as an excuse not to return my deposit- there's a spoon in the dishwasher for example, or a mark on a wall which hasn't been painted in years.

At the moment I'm renting a lovely family home, in a very sought after area. And paying a huge amount for it- but we only bother the agent if we really need to because we want to stay put!