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.

Him being the nicest person ever is irrelevant. His agreement was with you and unless she was threatening him at knifepoint, all he had to do was say he wasn’t leaving unless you told him to. It’s real easy to be nice when you know your client will just pay you another 300 quid to come back again.

Your dt knew the tradesman was coming so it was on her to secure her housecat.
Get rid

What a lovely response, and now I want you as my bestie 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Why? It's pretty clear here that the tenant is at fault. She's broken the rules, damaged the floors and is costing the landlady time and money.

But even if they have contacted op, what would have happened?

Op says stay... tenant continues to demand he leaves...op says he must stay....? Builder has to remain in a persons home where he is clearly not wanted?

Thats not a fair situation to put him in

Concertina has made valid points, why are you saying to go and bother some else? It's a public forum and everyone is allowed their opinion.
The fact is you ignored the first pet and now it's got out of hand with the pets and a pita tenant. You obviously don't like to think most of this is down to your making, but it is inspite of all your experience, your tenant has taken you to be a complete mug.
People make mistakes it's a fact of life.

If tenant asked builder to leave and he didn’t then he would be trespassing. He shouldn’t be put in that situation so of course he left.

Respectfully, what is the point in asking her to pay? To get her to pay or to make a point?

Because if she's the sort of person who swears down the phone at her landlord, getting her to voluntarily cough up £250 isn't going to happen and you must know this?

Is that correct? Surely, as it is the landlord who authorised the builder being there and gave proper notice to the tenant about the work being done, the tenant has no right to accuse the builder of trespassing.

It’s her home while she is there and paying rent. Nobody can be in that home bar emergency that she doesn’t want there.

It’s that simple.

The tenant is the persons whose home it is during the tenancy and has the final say on who is in it. Of course, absolute emergencies like floods the landlord has right to enter (and builders) without tenant permission. Plastering doesn’t sound like a life/death situation though.

Thank you so so much for your comment x
Yes, I’ve realised the error of my ways, I am indeed a complete mug.
I will now flagellate myself on the alter of all kind landlords the world over.

The tenant has rights to say no to access, but the builder should have given the LL chance to try to speak to the tenant.

Kinky x

lesson learned... don't show kindness as people take the piss

It's a shame isn't it?

Yes OP should probably have refused the pets back when she could, and certainly it's worth approaching the TDS to recoup the damage, but there's no way landlords can win on here. If she'd said no to the menagerie she'd have been everything that's evil, and now the fact she didn't apparently makes her un-business like

Edited to say I've just seen that trying to get back the damages will apparently mean you're "despised". I sometimes wonder just what goes on in some people's heads ...

Sounds masonic eh?! Well ironically that did originate from the traditions of stonemasons... which isn't so far away from plastering is it?

Side note - my dad was once invited to join the masons (he was the director of HR for a council) but he said to them: "My nipples aren't nice enough - ta ra!"

Honestly it sounds like you're the problem.

Just sell the property, you have no idea what you are doing and you are coming across as extremely immature and unprofessional.

She had because initial agreement said no pets. Now she has 2 dogs, a cat and a rabbit. Regardless of what the changes were wef May (I need to look this up as no idea).

Honestly it sounds like you're the problem.

So, the tenant's started posting now?🤔

I just wanted people to agree with me and let me know I’m not being unreasonable to ask her to pay…goddam Mumsnet and all these experts in landlording in the present age 🤣
And yes, I turned a blind eye to the pets, as I used to be a tenant and when I became a landlord of two properties, I was absolutely determined not to be an absolute dick, like all the landlord’s I’d ever experienced.
That obviously makes me unprofessional and ill informed to be a landlord, but tbh I don’t really give a fuck, life is short, be kind is my mantra, a few pets aren’t going to kill me. (Hopefully 🤣)

Well the OP is bitching about stuff they could have prevented by saying no in the first place.

Rabbit is dead.
RIP.

Ha ha ha!!!!
I am 58 years old luv, but you go girl!

You sound delightful. I'm sorry MNetters are giving you a hard time - don't take it personally. It's their little daily challenge - 'how can we contrive to make this the OP's fault, and be nasty and judgmental in the process'?!

Infuriating. Getting reliable workmen to turn up and do a decent job is hard enough without the tenant sending them away.
I wouldn't try and get the money but I wouldn't be finishing the job either.
The pet thing..... I couldn't ask someone to get rid of pets they already had. But I'd certainly be saying this is the limit of pets.