To expect my tenants to understand?

[Littleelffriend]

I own a flat which I rent out. I wanted to sell it but no takers so I’m stuck . The rent doesn’t cover the mortgage but better than nothing. I got new tenants 5 months ago, lovely couple no issues.
Since they moved in there have been numerous problems. The roof started leaking, I got it fixed within 3 days. The cooker broke, I ordered them a new one straight away. They blocked the toilet with wipes, I paid for an emergency plumber the same day.
They called Friday and said they had no heating or hot water. I had an engineer out within 2 hours. He said he had to order a part which would be here today. It’s the wrong part, and it won’t be fixed until Friday now so a week of no heating or hot water. Totally shit, no argument from me. But my tenants are now being crap about it, going on about how frustrating it is. I know it’s frustrating, but these things happen and I’ve done my best. Aibu to wish they would be a bit more understanding?

They shouldn’t be putting wipes down the loo, only poo, pee & paper so please tell them not to do that again. Show them a photo of a fat-berg. Maybe I wouldn’t charge them this time cosof having to wait for hot water etc but if it happens again they will be billed.
You’ve tried your best re the hot water do not much else you can do.
I hope you did all the requisite checks in them too. After being fucked over by tenants myself I am extremely wary of who gets to rent out my property now. Every check under the sun gets done.

After being fucked over by tenants myself

Yup, same here. Previous tenants left a lot of little things that I've had to sort - or pay for the agents to sort - apart from burning out the oven (just HOW do you do that???) they were just really careless in the kitchen, and what was a newly renovated house looks like a bomb has hit it after only 2 years.

And of course, couldn't retain the deposit and what we could retain has paid for only about half of what it's actually cost.

Tenants rights are shocking, but are that way because of certain cowboy landlords, I've had it before with previous tenants, boiler bust, completely, couldn't get a comparable one, I could however get a cheapo one that wouldn't do weekly timer, asked the tenant they "really relied on that weekly timer etc" and so I ordered it, lead time of two weeks, at this point it's June and there is an electric shower, then three days in I get bombarded with texts, emails and phone calls, from the tenant and the letting agent, "why isn't it done!" (Because you needed a weekly timer)
"This is ridiculous" (see above)
"Tenants have rights to heating" (in June) anyway, it goes on for ten days and plumber gets a call to pick up the boiler, the £2400 (inc fitting) boiler with room stats, weekly, and monthly settings, energy consumption helper thingy, but it doesn't make tea, he rings tenant to go and fit the boiler, remnant 'can't' for at least ten days, on day 21 of no boiler I get a 'withholding rent for xyz' letter, now, this boiler could have been fitted ten days ago mate, luckily my plumber is savvy and had them confirm in texts all the many reasons, including, best bit, their dog had 12 puppies and they all needed to be seen by a vet, I don't allow pets!!!!
They tried to sue me, I countered, and I won, and I also sought legal advice against the letting agent and won. So maybe a few
Bad landlords is your experience, but a really really bad tenant is mine.

The worst exploiters of tenants are midde class "accidental" landlords.

Where is your evidence? That's a bit of a sweeping statement.

I was one of those. Flat was bought for our DD to live in and after she moved elsewhere we rented it out. We always maintained it to the standard we'd be happy for our own DD to live in.

We had 4 years of perfectly civil interactions with 4 pairs of tenants, and always sent in tradesmen to make repairs as soon as we were notified of an issue. Fifth pair were a nightmare from the outset. They were late with rent from the start then stopped paying altogether. They made lots of promises and gave plausible "reasons", then they stopped responding to all forms of communication. They failed to pay bills to 3rd parties (utilities etc) as well. Failed to accept help to pay the rent (from local council). to add insult to injury, they left the flat in a shocking state.