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.

As a former landlord myself - sell it.

Document what she's done. Say nothing until you are ready for her to leave, take it out of the deposit when that day comes.

A tenant can ask anyone to leave their home, regardless if notice is given. Also they can agree to a tradesperson doing repairs and then deny access and send them away. They can also refuse access for critical repairs requiring LL to go to court and get an injunction. Crazy world !!!

They would, and the agent would liaise with the contractor and confirm with the landlord that the work is done when the contractor returns the keys. A agent wouldn't have just accepted a tenant sending a contractor home and billing the landlord twice. They would also have taken action under the landlords direction in relation to pets and damage.

I was a private tenant in my last home. I have a house cat and if she gets out it is disastrous as she has no street sense. When we had maintenance and repairs it was 100% our responsibility to secure her in another room until the work was done. Your tenant is completely out of order sending the tradesperson away, and should be billed. Having even more pets without permission is also unacceptable.

She is bullying you Op.

I was initially pro tenant. She sounds unhinged. I'd be looking at an exit strategy for these people. I expect the neighbours would thank you as well. I say this as a landlord that has tenants with a small zoo including a cat in their one bed flat.

I'm only surprised that none of the animals have dug the rabbit up!

I think your tenant sounds deeply annoying. One of the weirdnesses about Mumsnet is the fixed belief some people have that all landlords are bad and all tenants are good. Funnily enough I think that there is a mix between good and bad in both groups and you sound jolly nice.

You are allowed to negotiate having pets, I think - and I do not see why her incompetence in organising them should cost you when you are providing the service to her. Maybe you can post this is the legal bit of Mumsnet? or it might be a job for landlord insurance, if you have it. I would seriously get some legal advice though, because she sounds like a thorny kind of customer.

Being a LL is as risky as running any other business - you have to be prepared for bad luck and bad tenants. Being 'nice' just makes it more likely a bad tenant will push you around. LLs have to be completely respectful of tenants' rights but not forget it's a contractual relationship, not a friendship.

It would benefit tenants if the whole sector was more professional and better regulated.

This is not good advice. Pressuring a tenant to move out in this way could amount to criminal harassment.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/eviction/harassment_by_a_private_landlord

If you want her gone then you need to strictly follow the correct eviction procedure.

An agent is in no better position than a landlord to force a repair to be done. If a tenant tells a contractor to leave, then they must leave. As a previous poster stated, unless it's a life-threatening emergency, the only way to get access for repairs when a tenant is refusing, is via the court. It is not about a landlord or agent accepting a tenant sending a contractor home, it is the law. Repeatedly refusing access is a breach though, for which the LL may be able to evict even under the new rules, but it is a legal process and takes time.

As for not billing the landlord twice, I'm guessing you don't have much experience as an LL with a property managed by an agent!

If her dogs have damaged the floor and she's sworn at you and she basically taken the *by having all these animals why can't you get her out??

Using this wording might not be advisable, but I would think the fact that the tenant cannot deal with her pets and it has begun to make the property less livable / safe is an issue worth raising - if necessary through legal means.

to be a landlord you either need to be a full time landlord, or give a cut to an agency to manage, or sell up.

As someone who works for a building firm I can guarantee that no agent sends a representative to the property whilst work is being carried out whether it is routine maintenance or urgent essential works such as a gas leak.

Absolutely this. Or we attend at a pre-arranged time when the tenant is going to be in and rely on them to let us in.

The agent would have had no choice. If a tenant swore and at instructed one of our workers to leave then he would absolutely have left, he'd have had no choice. He'd have then called his manager in the office who would call the agent to inform them of what had happened. They would be billed for the aborted job plus the time of going back again to complete the work.

Add it to rent account, she had plenty of notice.

phone up your local council housing office and ask if it’s acceptable to have two large dogs, a cat and a rabbit in one of their properties.

chances are your tenant is an animal hoarder

I voted YANBU for wanting to do this, however.

Charging for an aborted call out or a tenant turning away a contractor is a "prohibited payment" an I am afraid you would risk a fine if you tried to do so.

I

It doesn’t sound like a council house though, it’s a privately rented property and the council wouldn’t be interested

You missed the point, why can a council say you cannot have that amount of animals, but a private landlord must say it’s acceptable.

Unless there’s evidenced allegations of animal cruelty the council will not get involved in disputes about pets between a landlord and a private tenant. I think you have missed the point

Also 2 dogs and one cat in a terraced house doesn’t sound like too many honestly

The LL allowed the animals, so it's a bit complicated.

That number of animals isn't remarkable, my NDN has a cat and two dogs.
The council won't have any concerns unless the animals are being mistreated or causing problems of some type.

I don’t think you meant to quote me, I agree with you