Tenant Issues

[caringcarer]

We let out a house to a new tenant. When they moved in there was a brand new kitchen and all new white goods: washing machine, dishwasher, tumble dryer, cooker, hob and a large fridge freezer. We had gas and electric checks and certificates issued and painted all rooms and cleaned all carpets before they moved in. Tenant saw our cleaner and asked to borrow it to clean the carpets herself. I agreed so they were cleaned twice. After a few weeks she text to say the bath was blocked and water did not run away. We went up and saw water slow to flow away so called plumber and he plunged it and said the bath was blocked with lots of long black hair. The tenant has long black hair. She also said there is a smell in one of the bedrooms. We can smell nothing. We asked plumber of he could smell anything but he said no he couldn't either. Two weeks later she text to say shower did not work. We went up but shower was working fine. Two weeks later text again said shower did not work. We went up and ran shower for 20 mins and it was fine. She said fuse flipped down so we got electrician to checkout fuse box and he tested and said it was fine. Three weeks later she text and said boiler was going off so thought it was broken. We went up yet again and as weather warmed up she had thermostat at temperature that meant it went on and off to keep to temperature she had it set at. So nothing wrong with boiler. At the same time she asked to borrow our industrial carpet cleaner again which which we agreed to as she says one of rooms smells. We can still smell nothing. Now she has text me demanding carpet is changed for new laminate flooring. I want to tell her there is nothing wrong with the carpet and so she can't have new laminate flooring as we can only legitimately claim expenses on replacing old/broken items and the carpet is only 3 years old and nothing wrong with it. We have other properties and keep them up to a good standard. AIBU to refuse her laminate? We have already paid for a plumber because she blocked bath with her own hair and an electrician when there was nothing wrong with electrics.

Tell her to jog on! If she wanted laminate flooring she should have rented a property with laminate.
She sounds rather paranoid.

Tell her she can have the flooring only if she pays for it to be professionally laid and that you retain the right to have carpet reinstated when she vacates.

She’s go no legal right to ask you to change the flooring just say no to her, if she’s not happy she can move out. Make sure she is given instructions for all appliances including boiler and tell her she needs to read them. If she complains something doesn’t work and engineer attends and says it’s user error that she will have to pay for the call out charge

I have very long thick hair and my bath has never become blocked so I think it might be unable to blame her for it when there could be a weakness or fault in the plumbing. Also sometimes electrics do play up and then start working - it’s possible it had something to do with the networks. I think that, unfortunately, being a landlord means you do have to accept these extra costs. However, she cannot demand a different type of flooring although perhaps you would do better to go wrong there and get her to explain to you where it smells whilst it is happening so you can smell for yourself.

I have been up twice after she has text me and can smell nothing, neither can dh or plumber. She waves her arms and says it smells but we really can't smell anything and don't know what she means. We accept we will have expenses and obviously the rent covers these but when tradesmen find nothing wrong it is annoying and costly. She has laminated instructions for all appliances. We also showed her husband and her about boiler and thermostat when they moved in. It is a standard boiler so not hard to understand.

It is very difficult, this. We used to live in hosues that went with my job, and we rented out our own houses. It is a lottery,tbh. I tended to do whatever the tenant wanted, not because it needed doing but because I wanted to keep them happy. The poshest tenants were the worst. Is there an agent? They should be earning their money, and perhaps they could be a go between? How long is the tenancy? 6 months , renewable? Is she keeping the place nice, inc garden if any?
To be honest, if you have a bad feeling about what is after all your major asset being in her hands, I'd be tempted to limit her period. It is a worry.

That’s a lot of problems to have isn’t it. Think about how many problems you have in your own home in comparison. I’ve had a plumber out once in the last two years (incredibly broken toilet way out of the norm) and that’s it.

Of course you don’t have to laminate, she has no right to that as a tenant. I’d give her notice at the end of her fixed term tenancy myself, too much hassle.

YADNBU some tenants are right CF. We once had someone who complained because slugs came into the garden (flat is next to a river!) and she wanted a new washing machine because the (new) one we installed was 'louder than the one in her last place' she then painted the kitchen yellow off her own back without permission then asked us if she could pay half the rent that month for her time and the cost of the paint I said no, but I'll tell you what I won't make a fuss about you being in breach of your contract or charge you for the paint job we'll have to do when you leave.

However this is MN and being a LL is akin to being Lucifer himself so sorry OP I think you're going to get flamed by the Guardian swallowers!

She sounds like very hard work OP and as if she has potential to damage your property.

I'd give her notice at the end of her fixed term.

How long has she been in? She sounds like an absolute nightmare and you sound like a great and conscientious landlord. Can you give her notice?

Of course YANBU. I always rented up until now and wouldn't dream of asking for my landlord to change a perfectly good carpet. Surely she saw the carpet before she moved in?

I think if plugs are blocked by long black hair and the tenant had long black hair then it's a pretty safe bet it's hers. I have to unblock my plughole on a weekly basis because of my hair

That was to blackbat

I have had similar issues with a tenant for the first 5 weeks of the tenancy, don't really want to give too much detail but there were no issues that couldn't be resolved by reading the manuals, and the item we were asked to replace was as seen when the property was viewed. We did do a couple of snagging jobs which we were happy to do. It is a case of being very firm and drawing boundaries. My t settled down after 8 weeks and is no problem now 5 months down the line.

They moved in at end of February and signed a year long lease. I am now wishing I insisted on 6 months. I think we are fair to our tenants as we don't charge any admin for setting up or renewing leases and have not complained when a tenant has come to us after birth of new baby for example and asked for extra days to pay rent. We have other properties but no one complains in any of these unless a genuine problem arises. The management agency credit reference checked them and they paid bond. It is difficult because her sister and family are in another of our houses for over 3 years and we have had no issues with them at all which is why we agreed to 1 year instead of the usual 6 months for initial lease. I think I will go up tomorrow as she has requested we visit again about so called smell. If I still can't smell anything I shall just refuse her laminate as nothing wrong with carpet. I have asked her husband if he smells anything but he just shrugs. I am just worried she could break things on purpose. They have paid March and April rent on time and garden not too bad but a few dandelions now showing and grass could do with a cut. They keep house clean. She seems obsessive about cleaning tbh.

Perhaps she is unwell

Don't do it. It will encourage her to stay.

She is working full time so not home sick.

You can buy a thing from Dunelm which goes over the plughole and catches hair. Very cheap but I was shocked by how much hair it catches. Tenant sounds a right PITA .

She sounds like a fucking nightmare, from a tenants perspective, I think she’s definitely taking the piss. I don’t have time right now to go into everything I think she’s doing the opposite of what I would, but honestly she’s taking ou for a ride.

Can you have some sort of clause to say if trades have to com to property for no identifiable reason you will start charging her? Can you lodge these as arrears if she doesn’t pay? Can this be a way of eviction?

Shes doing your carpets damage having them cleaned so often too btw

Can she describe the smell? We use drink have a horrible smell in the kitchen that would come and go, couldn't work out what it was and it was only when I mentioned to a plumber that it smelled like rotten eggs and was worse at night that we got it resolved. It was a blockage inside the overflow pipe, it wasn't too bad in the day when we had water running fairly often but at night/early morning/returning home from being out all day when we didn't have the tap on and off as much it was drying out and smelling. He cleared the blockage and it was fine after that.

I'd expect a few repairs reported when someone first moves in as some repairs only become apparent once someone is living in the property (e.g., heating issues) and that this would settle down after the first few weeks. She sounds like she's complaining over nothing though and she certainly has no right to demand that you replace the flooring.

Be inclined to charge her for call outs of nothing is found if issue caused by her. Plugholes block with hair. You just clean them out.
No to the laminate. Sound like she just wants laminate and is making up the smell unless you painted the room with valspar and the day was warm enough to trigger the smell!

If the carpet is in decent condition no to laminate. I have had a tenant who constantly wanted me to send workmen for random things. Gas fire not working (because they had forgotten to top up the meter). Faulty light fitting (they'd broken the bulb off by treating a screw thread as a bayonet) .Electric gone off (overloaded extension lead) faulty plug socket (nope that's the TV with exposed wires you plugged in to it) . I no longer send a workman round without going first myself to assess the problem.

She rented the house with carpet, so absolutely don't change the floor. Carpets are so much nicer than laminate anyway!

I had a tenant a bit like this a few years ago. For example she wanted a plumber to go and show her how to use the shower... I went and showed her myself.

She asked for an emergency electrician as her electricity had suddenly stopped working. I agreed as obviously I didn't want to mess around with the mains electricity myself!

It turned out that her hairdryer had shorted and the fuse had popped out in the fusebox. She didn't know what a fusebox was. I insisted that she pay for the electrician as it was a fault with one of her appliances rather than with the wiring etc of the house.

After that she calmed down a little bit. She was always very needy though. I guess that she had always been looked after by parents, siblings, boyfriend etc so had never learnt basic household skills for herself. However this didn't mean that I as her landlord should foot the bill!

OP, don't rip up perfectly good carpet and don't pay for plumbers, electricians etc if there is either no problem or the problem is the tenant's fault.

YANBU to refuse laminate. If she wants somewhere with hard floors she’d need to move out.

She sounds like there is something going on for her in that she can’t work out things for herself. Hopefully she’ll get used to the house and stop texting you so much.