I have a one bed flat in London.
3 months ago I got a new tenant. She moved in straight after the previous one with just a break of one month for cleaning/minor repairs.
New tenant advised she'd got a problem with getting the heaters to work. My husband came out he was unable to sort the problem so we said we would get an electrician in. We could not get the electrician to attend that we normally use as he was busy. We tried several other local electricians and couldn't find anyone who was available to attend. So frustrating for us all. Tenant spoke to a neighbour who was able to recommend an electrician who attended and advised that the heaters were broken, not repairable and need replacing.
This seems strange to me as my previous tenants who were there until February must've been using the heaters! They would have said if there was a problem.
Tenant is rather fed up which I understand (as getting on for three months has gone by now with all this faffing about with electricians) and is wanting the heaters replaced ASAP. For 2 comparable wall mounted electric heaters the cost will be about £750
We would like to get a different electrician to come and have a quick look just to make sure it isn't an internal fuse in the heaters that is broken. That is something that could be fixed for a fraction of the price of new ones.
Tenant completely fed up with waiting and wants new radiators put in and a rent reduction for this month.
I totally understand why she's fed up but can't help but feel that this is life and things do sometimes go wrong and do sometimes take longer to fix.
My thought is to see if I can get my Electrician to come and doublecheck that they really need replacing. If they can be repaired that's saving me £750 and I might consider reduction of £100 in rent this month. However if I have to pay £750 for new heaters then I can't manage a rent reduction as well very easily.
I want to do the right thing here so would appreciate views.