Tenant maintenance help!

[firstposts]

I have a tenanted property, with a nice couple renting it. As per our contract we deal with maintenance, what that really means is we engage the contractor rather than the agent. We live 2 hours away. This has always worked well, until now.

We received an email from the agents, the tenants had a burst pipe over Christmas and they want to be reimbursed for £££ they spent on emergency plumber.

We were not at any point contacted, we have a plumber who has attended before and we trust. But we were not given the opportunity, the bill from this unknown plumber is huge.

We are accidental landlords, husband in forces two young kids. Of course cannot and will not leave tenants out of pocket. Contract says clearly we are to be contacted, and have always acted immediately for any previous issues. Just wonder where we stand legally, not because I intend to stick them with the bill (we will need to get a loan to pay) but because I need to think ahead about how we protect ourselves from this happening again.

Thanks in advance

We pay 9%. Think we were robbed! It's for making sure house is let, as continuously as possible. Also for taking care of the legal side if we ever had bad tenants so sending the right eviction letters / notices within the required timeframe.

Although if they can't manage names and addresses god knows why I am now supposed to trust them with that

I did feel sorry for Anthony, it was all very surreal. Me saying, 'but you know we replaced the shower!' 'You met rob the plumber' 'what do you mean you don't have our email, we've emailed lots of times' Anthony sounding confused saying no, that never happened.

Poor Anthony the second. He should definitely sack them too!

Agent failed to apologise, said it was 'easy mistake to make'. I requested a refund of this months fee. They offered £20 discount for goodwill. Hmmmmm.

My jaw is on the floor !!!! So pleased for you - but oh my word !! The agents need a good telling off !!!!

When I read the OP I was going to reply that as a tenant I would always contact whoever I was meant to contact before any works were done. But on reading the rest of it you definitely need to at least change agents. What am incompetent bunch.

Even the email suggesting their paltry £20 discount did not include the word 'sorry' perhaps worrying I am going to sue them or something

They value my time spent calling / worrying / researching at around two pounds fifty an hour then.

Have found somewhere else and will be terminating them (well the contract, not the agents)

Onwards and upwards!

Glad it's ended well and you're not facing a big bill anymore.

Be careful changing agents with tenants in situ that old agent introduced you to as you'll probably be hit with further charges from them. This happened to us and we avoided it by waiting until the lease had run its course and tenants wanted to leave.

9% seems on high side for rent collection. You don't need agent to cover legal side, your LL insurance will most probably cover this.

I'm feeling guilty that I've been hating my poor innocent tenants all day.

I am sure they can handle it!

i have thought about becoming an LL, which is why i read this thread. sounds scary...

glad it's all ok.

Why should they get off so lightly for fraud and crazy incompetence? At the very least, they need to accept termination of the contract with you, pay back your fees dating from this cockup of theirs, compensate you for the mistake (which you might have paid dearly for, had you not investigated), and lose the other LL's business.

However, they clearly need some additional "enforcement" and oversight going forward!