Ask tenant to replace cooker she's ruined?

[MacarenaMacarena]

4 years ago tenant moved into my flat. I provided a new cooker for her. It's now not working. On closer inspection, she has used it a lot (fair!) but never cleaned it (disappointing), damage from her treatment of it is what has damaged it.
She needs another one.
But I don't really think this is reasonable wear and tear - more neglect and abuse.
Reasonable inspections and checks have been carried out regularly, compulsive gas safety checks have been done.
If she moved out tomorrow I could deduct at least part of the replacement cost from her deposit, but as she's staying, what would be a fair way forward?

I'm afraid you don't sound like a very nice person with your snide comments about her income; it's good enough to pay your mortgage!
Maybe have a think if you would like to have the quality or lack of, of items you've fitted out this rental
property with. Increasing her rent to pay for an oven is ridiculous, it's your place to provide these items.

So if she has been living there for four years, based on the average rent for 2019 (as you say she you haven't raised it) she has paid you approx £33,600

Over thirty thousand pounds and you begrudge replacing an oven.

(That is assuming you are in England and not in London. If you're in London she has paid you approx £68,499)

No doubt you will come back and say it's much less than that, but if you work out the annual rent for four years you should be ashamed you are quibbling over the cost of a four year old oven and trying to pass the cost on to her.

I hope you are also complying with the Electrical safety standards regulations. Your use of "reasonable inspections and tests" shows you probably aren't, as you don't include in the "compulsive" gas checks. The law doesn't care what you think is "reasonable", it's mandatory. There is an possible financial penalty of max £30,000 for breach of duties.

You sound like a poor landlord, ignorant of even the legal basics.

(Figures are from ONS, based on median monthly rent figures April 19-March 2020. England £700 pcm and London £1425, and my maths being correct!)

I cleaned mine and it broke!

Mine too - it was 17 years old, I got a lovely man in to clean it, told him the fan didn't always start up straight away, and he told me it was like that because I had a dodgy element and it needed replacing! But he knew someone who could fit a new one the next day. So I had that done and now I have a sparkly clean oven that works!

You are right that an oven should not be broken in 4 years. You say "she has used it a lot (fair!) but never cleaned it (disappointing), damage from her treatment of it is what has damaged it." There are two options here 1) you know what you say is true because you have inspected the oven, know what has happened to cause it not to work, and know that whatever it is happened as a result of it not being cleaned. If is the case, get a repair person to make a repair, explain to your tenant (or even better get the repairer to explain) what the issue was and how the lack of cleaning caused it. Explain to the tenant how to take better care of it, and charge her for this repair. 2) You know the damage probably wasn't caused by the oven being dirty, but you are hoping that because it was so dirty, you can get away with claiming that the tenant broke the oven and charge her for it, instead of having to foot your own maintenance bills like you should. If this is the case, stop being a cheap skate, uncaring and frankly nasty landlord and just pay for the new oven because you know it's 100% your responsibility to pay.

Um surely you realised you'd have to replace things if you advertised the flat as furnished? Basic maintenance that...buy a cheap one or secondhand one and see if there is some sort of breakdown cover you can get ...

This.

"I've lost count of the number of times tenants have destroyed white goods by not using them properly, but I just replace them and don't buy expensive ones."

You get what you pay for. Poor quality by far the most likely factor in having had to replace countless white goods.

We have lived in our house 10 years and are on our 3rd oven. Our last one was replaced because although it was fixable we wanted to change from gas to electric to make it easier to keep the hob clean due to household members developing allergies but the first one we only had 4 or 5 years and it stopped working and I cleaned that. Ovens don't always last that long. Look at getting it repaired or replace it with something cheap and expect it to last around 5 years

i don’t know how you break multiple white goods by not using them properly?
how can you use one that damages them?

I understand how a washing machine could be misused. I accept that whatever washing machine I get will not last as long as expected because I frequently wash duvets and pet bedding which is probably too bulky and heavy but how the fuck can you misuse a fridge or an oven?

If a tenant ruins somethings by mistreating it landlords should be able to make them pay for it. I'm surprised that all the landlords on this thread who wouldn't.
I wouldn't charge for little things but if something is ruined because of misuse then I would. You can be a fair and good landlord and still charge for things like this.

Are you a landlord? Do you appreciate how hard it is to prove it tenant neglect?

How does a cooker break because it wasn't cleaned?
You'd have to prove that the tenant somehow abused the cooker and that is how it was "ruined" rather than it probably just had an electrical fault or something, which happens often with cookers.
If the tenant had smashed in the front of it with a hammer or taken an axe to the hob, then you would have grounds to charge the tenant for the damage obviously. But not if it just stopped working.

@Mummyoflittledragon @huntingcunting

I'm not a landlord. I hadn't commented on the oven in the OPs OP - I simply said that if a tenant breaks something through mistreating it then if I were a landlord I would expect to be reimbursed for it.

Well that's obvious isn't it.
But failing to clean an oven doesn't break it - which was the example given.

If the OP had appeared and said my tenant has broken the shower cubicle when having sex in it then yeah, tenant should pay

I'm on my third oven in about 15 years. It's my own place, and I just accept that this might be the thing I break (with my mother it's irons, my sister, it's tellies). I don't buy £700 ovens. You can get a basic electric oven from Currys, B&Q or Screwfix for about £200.

Sure your rent charged covers wear and tear, and you understand that it's your responsibility as landlord to replace these items.

A lot of landlords, like the OP, end up getting a shock when they realise that they don’t get reimbursed for a new oven.

They get the value of a 4 year old oven. Which if it’s a cheap oven won’t be very much at all.

As a landlord you have to conduct PAT each year anyway, so secondhand with a PAT cert will suffice. I do this for a living. I see dirty equipment 2 months after installing it. Some look after landlords equipment others couldn’t give a hoot. We can guess which camp your client is in. Don’t waste your money on a new cooker that will look 5 years old next week!

One Christmas Eve we cooked a large gammon. Next day oven wouldn't light, fat head dripped out of dish onto part of gas burner and did completely kill the oven. So yes just by cooking it can break. Learnt a valuable lesson. Hob part still worked though.

There is no legal requirement to undertake PAT tests. The law requires electrical items to be maintained well enough and often enough to be safe. How a landlord, or any other business owner, achieves that requirement is up to them and they bear the risks/consequences if an electrical appliance causes harm or damage due to lack of maintenance/testing. But having PAT tests annually isn't the law and isn't a specific requirement.

It is if you’re registered as an HMO

I don't think the OP said it was a HMO.

But it was the only way the poster had of being right 🙄