Unhappy tenants - WWYD?

[strandedabroad]

Here's the background. DH and I let out a small 2-bedroom house. Our tenant is a guy in his late 20s and has been a great tenant so far. He's been there for about 2 years.

I used to live in the house. Did it up for myself to live in and loved it. Then met now DH who had his own place and we decided to move into his and rent mine out.

For the last month or so there's been an ongoing problem with the boiler/hot water. The tenant gets intermittent hot water problems. He has been in touch half a dozen time and every time we called a plumber/boiler man/gas man. It's very difficult to get them over quickly. People are busy. DH is very handy and on the various workmen's advice he replaced the shower unit and a boiler part. Then went over to help with the thermostat as the new boiler part had interfered with it. The problem is not straightforward. We managed to get the plumber in once, that's when he advised we change the part.

Plumbers don't come out at the drop of a hat for non-urgent issues. We have tried several. Yesterday the tenant phoned to say the issue is still there. DH is now abroad so I'm dealing with this. The plumber said he'd call this morning to arrange a time. He called at 11 to say he could go to the property shortly. I phoned the tenant and he said that didn't suit him and he still had to have a shower. We then agreed on Monday.

I then received a text from tenant to say he's not happy with the situation and he wants a chat. I'm calling him back at 3.

I suspect the bottom line will be that he wants a discount on the rent as this has been an inconvenience for him.

WWYD? Do I have to put my foot down? We honestly couldn't have done any more. There's nothing in the contract that mentions interruption of services or similar.

Just to clarify, this is not a money-making thing for us. The rent just covers the mortgage and with the insurance and expenses we certainly don't make money. We will sell as soon as practical.

Thanks for your opinions.

If you're struggling to find a reliable plumber, could you ask the letting agent you used for a recommendation? Failing that, I would bite the bullet and get British Gas out, and take their repair cover for future issues. If you get your own plumber for boiler issues make sure they are gas safe registered - this is crucial.

Your DH should certainly not be undertaking any work that should be done by a gas safe registered tradesperson - please check what repairs he has done. On our boiler even the cover can't be taken off by a none gas safe person! This is very very important as apart from the safety issue, there are legal implications. If your DH has done something he shouldn't please get it checked and get a new safety certificate. I have linked a document below and it also has the register number so you can find a tradesperson.

What did the tenant want you for? If he has reported a heating or hot water issue six times and it hasn't been resolved, his none GS landlord has carried out possibly illegal repairs himself...I think you should be offering a rent reduction as a goodwill gesture and getting this sorted ASAP. If it was me, I would pay for a priority repair by a competent person (via B gas or GS) and definitely definitely clarifying what your DH has done in terms of repairs.

I hope you get it sorted.

www.gassaferegister.co.uk/pdf/Who%20can%20legally%20work%20on%20a%20gas%20appliance.pdf

I was a tenant in this position several years back. Our house was being renovated and I was heavily pregnant so we took a short term let in a new build. Cost was extortionate.

For a month out of the four month let we had no hot water/heating because the arsehole landlord insisted that we could only use the maintenance firm with whom he had an agreement (new build).

I used to have to fill the bath with a kettle to bath my 13mth old. I came home from hospital after giving birth and was unable to have a hot shower. Eventually we paid an alternative plumber over 2k to replace the boiler and I didn't pay the last month rent. He threatened to take me to court.

I also rent my flat. I have insurance to cover all boiler breakdowns for £11 per month. They were out twice last year. I would absolutely give a good tenant a rent discount if they were having to go without hot water for any length of time, I wouldn't wait to be asked tbh.

ignore the bleats about the evils of renting property for profit. Anyone who does so had better be 100% sure that whatever they do to earn their living does not involve human need.

your non-gas-safe husband is in all sorts of trouble for playing with the boiler in a rental. But equally, here in the real world it is very difficult to get gas people and electricians out quickly in winter. As you are finding. It doesn't help when the tenant refuses access!! He can do that but how the hell does he expect to get things fixed?

too late I see, but hope you have managed to calm the tenant and agree a way forward. This really needs to include a gas safe engineer and a new certificate, I'm afraid.

Just in case it helps I had exactly the same issue as you and after a few plumbers it turned out the mixer valve on the shower was failing and letting the cold water (mains pressure) force its way through the mixer across to the hot side and around what should be hot pipes (hope that makes sense?)

Worth checking!

I've been a tenant and now own my flat and I had problems in a shared flat (tenancy) with hot water and a shower not working... Luckily there was boiler cover (I think) with BG and my flatmate stayed in so it got fixed. But we too were having to cope with not only shower working but also hot water too.... And ours was winter too! Luckily our landlord was excellent and just sorted it out (I think he gave us details of the cover etc and we called out BG).

If it bothers you that much having tenants and want to sell then make arrangements to do so when you're ready but put yourself in your tenant's shoes, he pays the rent and bills for his hot water so they should be working (for something as simple as a shower) and I'd be pissed off having to wait a month too for it to be sorted.

I would definitely get British Gas Landlords cover on your property, it costs around £25 a month and includes your boiler service & Gas safety certificate. We have it on properties we rent out and my daughters landlord has it on her property. It takes all of the pressure of you as the tenant can call them out themselves without you bring a go between.

Thanks everyone.

HollyMaingate that makes perfect sense and sounds like we could have a similar problem. I will discuss with the plumber on Monday when I go over.

Super I enjoy having tenants and someone living in the house I spent a lot of sweat and tears doing up. If I didn't want to be a tenant I'd sell up. I want to be a fair landlady but also not be taken for a ride by someone who turns down a plumber when I've finally managed to arrange one.

Thanks for your concerns. I agree that DH shouldn't have done any work. He's only installed a thermistor on the plumber's advice. And yes this plumber is the guy who's Gafe Safe registered and who did the gas certificate (luckily end of December after DH had replaced the part). The only other thing DH did was change the shower unit, but I believe that's ok.

Anyway just to give you the final low-down, I had a nice long chat with the tenant today. It turns out he's being very understanding about the situation. Reason why he was unhappy and wanted to speak to me was that the last time DH and plumber were there, plumber forgot to lock the back door (and DH failed to check). Tenant had texted DH and DH had apologised. I had no idea this had happened. Tenant said he's always felt comfortable and safe in the house, but this episode left him feeling shaken and unsafe in his own house. I appreciate it's really crap that the back door was left unlocked. The garden is enclosed but not that secure. Not much I can do about that now - I apologised again and said I'll be dealing with this on Monday as DH is abroad and I'm very fussy about safety (not sarcastic, I actually am). And I promised to sort it Monday or soon after, pending the plumber's verdict. I said that since he seems to have spent some extra money on water to help with the issue, we can discuss a refund once this is all sorted.

So crisis avoided, and I will be taking out cover ASAP (probably still have to sort this issue separately as not sure I would be covered?!)

Thanks all. I hope you're all having a good weekend.

It's not unreasonable that he said no to the plumber - it could have been inconvenient for any number of reasons.

I'm a landlord and when the boiler died and it took a few days to get the new one in offered a rent refund straight away as well as having a couple of electric heaters delivered. A bit of goodwill goes a long way. Perhaps get some wine or something delivered just to say thanks for bearing with.

I would always call a professional in for a job like this and would never attempt a self-repair. We have BG cover (have tried others and they're all rubbish in comparison) and it gives us and tenant peace of mind that there will be help whenever needed. When it comes to renewal, don't accept the renewal price (it's always hiked up) but either negotiate one with the BG customer service or take out a new contract in your husband's name (or whichever name you didn't take the first contract out in) and you'll get the new customer price, as opposed to the passive continuing customer one. They tried to put ours up by over 30% this year and I cancelled old one and took out new one at a more reasonable 2% price rise.

I seriously doubt that a certified plumber would encourage and recommend that anyone who isn't certified to install a part that would in any way be dangerous or invalidate a gas safety certificate.

OP just you said in your Op that "you'd sell as soon as practicable" so that's where I thought you weren't happy renting the house out.

Apart from someone sharing my bought flat with me I've never separately rented out a property, my stepdad and other relatives have though, stepdad wouldn't do it again other relatives only doing it to make money as investments. stepdad used agents twice to rent out his flat after dealing with it himself (and the stress with it being a flat in Sussex coast and him living in London). It can be stressful managing your own property to let out though as you've found.

Cover is good for the boiler etc, your communication with tenant is good glad you got it all sorted!

Yes, that's where letting agents come in. There's so many threads on MN where the OP thinks self-managing is very straightforward, and is soon put right about how time-consuming, expensive & demanding it can be.

The ever-increasing legislation eg deposit schemes, legionella assessment, the complexities of tenancy law etc have made it anything but.

I would never self-manage again as a LL, having done it previously.

Also tenants, quite rightly, want a professional service. Not dodgy DIY or an inexperienced amateur LL making mistakes.

Lol, what do you think agents do?! They're useless as all they do is call a few contracted tradespeople to get a quote and if it's a minimal amount, they can authorise the work. Otherwise, they're just the middle man for the owner. And because they've got "preferred" tradesmen, there's a much bigger wait before someone comes out. Then there's no obligation for the owner to actually hire the tradesman the agent recommends, so the owner can then ask for more quotes from more people, etc.

When I was a tenant, the agents always added another working day of delay as a go between. Owner always ended up calling me directly.

Sadly, many LL don't live in the area and are forced to pay stupid premiums for an agent to make a few calls during working hours to a few tradesmen.

I agree that most agents are actually shit, and marginally less useful than just renting through an owner.

thanks for the update, OP. Talking works wonders!!