Tenant sent the builder home!

[Ilovemychocolate]

I am a landlord, and rent a house out to a young couple.
There is some urgent work that needs doing to it, so I arranged for a builder to attend the property yesterday and today to carry out the work, at my expense obviously.
At lunchtime the tenant sent the builder home, as her cat had escaped and she said the cat wouldn’t return if the builder was in the house, he was plastering so hardly creating a huge amount of noise.
Not withstanding that her original tenancy agreement stipulated no pets, (which I overlooked as she is very pet orientated) am I being unreasonable to ask her to pay for the builder when he has to return next week to finish the work?
She didn’t phone me first to check if it was ok to send him home, I called her when I found out she had, and she swore at me, saying she didn’t give a fuck about the building work, she was more concerned about finding her cat.
I am bloody livid right now, the work should be finished by now, and now I’ve got to stump up another £250 for an extra day!
And before anyone piles on, yes I have a cat, yes I get she was upset, and yes I know the rules about pets have changed since May 1st.

Presumably you agreed with her in advance when the builder would attend? So it was her responsibility to make sure that the cat was secured in a room away from the work while it was taking place (immaterial if she originally wasn't allowed a cat in the contract but you've subsequently allowed her to do so - you broke your own contract there!) but it was her responsibility to keep her animal away. Cats come home when they are hungry - how many days he is due to be there, was it a one and done and he'd be gone by 5pm today? In which case she was being entirely unreasonable to send him away - not least as some maintenance men might be choosing not to work in the temperatures that some parts of the country will be experiencing over the next few days. I doubt you will get her to pay for it but you are well within your rights to take her to task on her language - unacceptable - and for the fact that she should have secured her animal away from the work. This is on her. But I think you'll be whistling in the wind for your £250 because she sounds unreasonable... maybe it won't be a long-term contract eh? I had emergency plumbers in on two days last month - not my fault, I've barely been here five minutes - but the boiler needed replacing and so did some tiles in the bathroom because there was a leak into next door. I work from home and it was bloody noisy. But I rolled up my sleeves, bought some KitKats for the lads (and coffee as I don't drink it myself!), put on the kettle and sucked it up! Means to an end and all that.

She wants to prioritise finding her cat, that's understandable, but if she sent your builder away, she should pay for the extra costs of having him back.

She should have secured the cat in another room while building work was going on. She's lacking common sense! If the builder was only due to work until 5pm (would seem standard) today then the cat would most likely come home at tea time. 99% of cats would!

It was agreed in advance,she says she did lock the cat away but it got out, told me it’s a house cat so not used to being out.
I agree about the contract, however she started out with a rabbit which I overlooked, she has now added two big dogs and this cat, the dogs have completely ruined the wooden floors.

It depends if you gave her notice that the builder was coming. If you did I think you’d be entitled to ask but PRACTICALLY it seems unlikely that she will, especially since she’s sworn at you

She has had notice for two weeks of the builder going in yesterday and today!

Well if it's a house cat I can't see it objecting all that much to being restricted to a room in the house for a few hours. Relocate it's litter tray and spoil it with Dreamies - job done! I can understand her panicking, but her pet = her job to make it secure while essential works are going on. My parents had their roof done recently - had to make sure that the cat was out of the way while the scaffolding went up/down - so he stayed in my mum's room for three hours. No biggie. He actually quite liked it when the scaffolding was first up as it was much easier for him to climb on the roof and talk to the seagulls!

You've made a rod for your own back there with overlooking the first animal... she sounds like she is now opening her own animal sanctuary.

Get her out of your property. She is an awful tenant.

If she doesn't pay, you could deduct it from her deposit? But, make sure you keep records of your exchanges, so write to her about it.

How??

I doubt that's legal

Why didn’t you get her out before they ended no fault evictions? She is turning your house into a zoo.

I'm not sure you can legally make her pay, what would the mechanism be?

You've created this situation by tolerating the breaches of contract.

You should have attended rather than leave it to the tenant.

Lesson learned! Go with the builder next time.

How does increasing rent work with the new rules? Can you increase her rent as soon as it’s allowed and to the max you are allowed?

I'm fairly sure it's not. Although the dog scratches on the floor could definitely come out of the damages monies.

Give her the required legal notice and then put this house up for sale.

I would think about serving notice for breach of the rental agreement. And I say that as somebody who is always pro tenant when it comes to landlord / tenant disputes.

Definitely bill her at a minimum.

Because I’m a soft twat and knew she would struggle to find somewhere else.
I am seriously considering just bloody selling it tbh

She hasn't breached the tenancy agreement.

You can’t be soft and be a landlord. That doesn’t mean you become some awful landlord who treats tenants like shit - you can be fair, and moral and treat people with respect and dignity. But you cannot be soft. She was breaching contract all over the place, showing you she was a problem tenant, she has turned the floors and her deposit won’t cover replacing wooden flooring.

You should have got her out.

Thanks for the suggestions, I couldn’t attend as I work.
I have been lenient with regards to the pets, I don’t think that means it’s my fault that she send the bloody builder home!

I think probably the fault lies mainly with the builder. He should be taking instructions from you, the person who booked him, not the tenant who he has had no contact with until he arrived. What would he have said if the postman said he could knock off early, or if your partner had said he could go as the work didn’t need to be done. It’s not up to them… it’s between you and the builder.

Aye, hindsight is wonderful! 😳

Pre May 1 she absolutely did.

Since then she hasn’t made a request in writing to keep all the pets she has procured (as required by the rule change) - without getting into her two big dogs ruining the floors.

She sounds like a nightmare and I would be looking for legal means to evict her.

It’s not exactly hindsight. The pet issues are long standing and you just ignored it, and you knew the law change was coming so you also just ignored that. Now you’re stuck.