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.

Actually you may be out of luck on that too. 6 years depreciation will be taken off value first.

She is putting in the work, she is talking to the tenant, she is pre arranging and agreeing remedial work. If it wasn't convenient or the tenant felt the landlord should be present, she was free to say and she did not. It was her responsibility to secure the cat. She turned the plasterer away without recourse to the Landlord.

The landlord has been been more than fair over the pets, she could have used it against her, she had not.

I don't know what you are reading differently from me, but I don't see that the landlord is not present, she seems to be capable of managing her tenants quite well.

She's taking the micky on so many levels.

What are the rules about a rent increase under the new rules? Could you put the rent up, and start recooping the builder costs and pet damage thst way?

I've never ever had a landlord present when any tradesperson has called at anywhere I have rented. Not for a boiler check, not for a repainting job, not for tiling replacement, not for a meter reading. Not for anything that I can recall.

Good landlords liaise with tenants on when to book these jobs because some tenants prefer to be/to not be at home. I prefer to be at home to point out the issue/show them where things are/make them a cuppa! If there was no option and I couldn't be there then the tradesperson would simply get the spare keys from the landlord - if they've had a proper brief, the landlord doesn't need to be there while the work is being done, although they might want to check the end result prior to payment - but often they've worked with someone for years and don't feel it necessary to 'hover'.

The key is to have a good relationship between renter and landlord - that way you can both navigate the most harmonious way to fix any problems that arise. I think this is the relationship that @Ilovemychocolate has had in the past, has tried to rub along nicely together and given people the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes those people take advantage and this is what has happened here. It doesn't make @Ilovemychocolate a bad landlord or unprofessional, it makes them the opposite actually. We should all be so lucky.

Omg I absolutely love your passive aggression!
Well done mate!

She shouldn't have been so dramatic. It's true some cats are scared of builders, handypeople etc as they are often noisy in places the cat doesn't expect and smell different.
But it will of course come back. Unless it's an indoor cat which I think is pretty cruel anyway.

Thank you so much my lovely xx

The legislation isn't that you need to Llow her to have a menagerie in the property but that you can't deny someone with pets rent.

I'd bill her £250 and either demand it with rent next month or add it to her rent for the next 3 months to recover the £250.

She sounds a bit odd though tbh. She must have known there would be costs to sending the builder away.

I hope she moves out soon.

I’d serve her notice in the basis she has broken the terms of the lease by having pets, especially if those pets have now damaged your property.

I understand that if you've got a reliable/trustworthy tenant who you've got a good relationship with. That isn't the case here. I don't mean to suggest a landlord should be present for the duration of works, but meeting them at the property to confirm what does/doesn't need doing on the first day of works (for major works) isn't unusual at all. Different if they're just fixing a leaky tap or doing a gas safety cert.
I do think the LL needs to take this up with the builder too, as no way they should have packed up for the day without discussing it with the landlord first. Fair enough if the tenant was kicking off if they needed to de-escalate the situation by leaving the house. But they should have gone back to the van and rang the landlord to agree next steps.

Neither of those options are legal. The op needs to take her court for it or recoup from deposit at the end of the tenancy if she wants the money back

Honestly I don't know why you bothered posting, if you just wanted people to agree with you and turn sarky with anyone who doesn't.

New no fault eviction rules mean you can’t get a tenent out unless you are selling or it is your primary residence. Neither can you refuse pets. If they refuse to leave or stop paying you still have to get a court order to get them out even if it’s your only house. It’s insane.

Totally stacked in favour of tenants. I wouldn’t be a landlord if you paid me (it probably wouldn’t cover the wear and tear and certainly not wear and tear and the mortgage)
Maybe it will bring housing prices down?
or maybe it will just stuff the rental market, time will tell, but I pity landlords.

But she did have a good relationship from the sounds of it, right up until the tenant threw the plasterer out without recourse to the landlord.

And whilst I maybe accept your comment that the plasterer should have run the landlord before leaving, it is unlikely to have changed the outcome, it was the tenant that ejected him.

Ask her to pay... if she declines, just send an estate agent around to value the house ready for putting on the market. It'll be a nice lesson for her!

Honestly I don’t know why you bothered replying, if you just wanted to pick a fight.
As I said, you have yourself a wonderful evening, and thank you so much for your considered response on the thread.
I will strive to be a better landlord, 30 years of experience has obviously taught me nothing.
If only I could be more like you, with your big important job that doesn’t allow me time to be a landlord.
Oh well, I can only wish…

No worries love, it's just how things have worked in all the time that I have been renting (and I am 47! I used to own when I was married but prefer being a rolling stone these days for work!) - I can totally see where you are coming from. I've only once had a shonky landlord when I was a student ("Black mould? No, that's shadow on the wall!" No it's bloody not!) Yes there are unscrupulous people out there, but they exist in both landlord land and tenant land!

It's always such a piss take when you give people an inch and they take a mile - particularly where money is involved. You arranged a date, she agreed to it, she should have secured her pets (as a responsible owner and for their safety) she didn't, and then she sent the guy away and then yelled at you for her own mistake which has financial consequences for you.

It's that whole 'one person ruining it for everyone else' scenario isn't it? You relent on the rabbit because, hey, it's got floppy ears, looks harmless, and it's not the biggest deal in the world. You want to start off on a good footing, But then she just takes the pee and opens her own petting zoo. And that's why no one else can have nice things anymore! I wonder if the rabbit just gave up on living with her because it decided: "Nah, too much effort..."

I visited the property two weeks prior, with the builder and tenant present, to discuss all work that needed to be done.

I'm not sure I'd agree from what the OP posted. They'd been kind to their tenant, and a bit passive, re the pets and damage. That might have been well intentioned but it's not a good landlord tenant relationship - it's one where the boundaries have started to blur, as the tenant has started to breach the conditions and the landlord has demonstrated that they will let things slide/not enforce. If a tenant has a tendency to push boundaries (even if they don't plan to) that isn't a good dynamic.
I say this as someone who used to rehouse/mediate with landlords for homeless/vulnerable clients, I do have sympathy for landlords but it's a business not a hobby. It needs time as well as financial investment, and the commitments/requirements have increased hugely in the last few years.

I can’t throw shade on the rabbit, it lived a good life and is now buried in (my) garden.
RIP.
The two massive dogs, and the cat that has made the whole upstairs stink of cat piss, I’m not so fond of!!!

I’d give notice for that number of pets when you stipulate no pets.

If that's the case I think you've got even more grounds to challenge the tradie for leaving without speaking to you. That cost you the opportunity to have the conversation with your tenant either about them returning immediately or consequences of them refusing access for pre agreed/booked work.

You must have missed the bit in the post where I mentioned that as I found out about the menagerie, my dd was in the process of trying to end her life.

In no way do I blame him.
She told him to leave, he is a lovely bloke and not to blame in any way!!!