Landlord replacing kitchen

[pocketsized]

Hi,

I am the landlord in this situation. Due to waterdamage we are having to replace the kitchen in the property we rent out. I am in the process of getting quotes etc, but obviously there will be significant disruption to the tenant while the work is done (the kitchen is currently usable, but definitely needs replacing sooner rather than later) - what have others done in this situation in regards to compensating/accommodating (or not) tenants while this sort of work is carried out?

if there's no kitchen the tenant really can't live there without a lot of hassle, so you need to provide alternative accommodation or money for it. Your landlord insurance should include that.

I had to replace the entire downstairs floor once. The kitchen and lounge were unusable for 2 days. I gave them 25% rent rebate, some wine and chocolates, and sorted some convenience food.

They were young professional sharers, no kids so were very relaxed about it.

Only 25%? I'm shocked, but then again we currently had a landlord who let us move in without a working boiler and said we didn't need it anyway because it is summer. What summer?!

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They were happy, living the kind of lifestyle where they were always out, socialising or working. It was summer so they had pizzas in the garden for a day or two.

No kids, pets etc. to be disrupted and they had a much improved place at the end.

In return I didn't evict them when they set fire to the place by tossing cigs into the recycling bin. Give and take

Thanks for the replies. All the appliances are stand alone, and do not need replacing so will be available throughout. We will need to rip out the units, replanted, replace units and then decorate. I anticipate the whole process will take a couple of weeks, but there will only be a few days where there is very little usable kitchen. I would not expect the tenants to stay in the house with no cooking facilities, but I wonder if it is reasonable to expect them to stay while the fitting /decorating etc is done, even though it would be fairly inconvenient for them.
I will call our insurance company today and enquire as to what they will/won't cover in these circumstances.

Who are they? Do they have kids / pets?

Could you coincide the work with their holiday?

You need to talk to your tenants. Involve them with choosing the kitchen units. In a similar situation I allowed my tenant to choose the kitchen units from a choice of five or six that I was happy to install. I allowed her to pick a new lino.

I didn't give the tenant any discount or pay to rehouse her during the work. She was happy to accept the temporary distruption to get a beautiful new kitchen with new appliances. The level of distruption is no worse than if you get your own kitchen replaced. Long term it will improve the quality of your tenant's life. I think she had the microwave in the living room briefly and spent quite a bit of time at her boy friend's place.