Tenant asking for rent reduction due to scaffolding

[babychange12]

Our tenants have asked for a 20% rent reduction because the flat they are renting needs maintenance work to the exterior. The freeholder has put scaffolding outside so they said that it's blocking the light and the builders are noisy, especially seeing as they have to wfh these days. The work is meant to take 5 months because of Covid builders are social distancing so can't have as many people on site.

I personally feel that the amount they are asking for is too high - it's like a month free rent? Aibu? The agent hasn't advised one way or the other.

They are generally good tenants. They've only been in the flat for 18 months.

Maybe we will give them 10% off.

I had this in a student let for the entire time we were there - went up 2 weeks after moving in. The place also came with cockroaches which we only found out when we switched off the light on the first night and the landlord had the audacity to say we’d brought 100s of cockroaches in within 3 hours of getting the keys and crucially not moving any of our stuff in yet. Turns out legally if you don’t ask in advance and have it in writing that you specified pest-free then you can’t break a rental contract for this - the landlord agreed with great effort and much prodding from citizens advice and the university accommodation team to pay for their extermination. It was awful and depressing and then we can people with radios outside our window every morning dropping metal poles. It was the worst place - those who could moved back with their mums and commuted which I couldn’t do as mine were 400miles away. 8 years later I still think about how much of d*ck that landlord was. The sofa had a nail that stabbed you if you sat in it wrongly and we tried replacement so eventually we said we’d use an old sofa from someone’s mum that was only 5 or so years old compared to the 20 year old one it replaced. We actually gave him a sofa. It wasn’t super cheap either! It was mid range for the area that rented to students.

So if you don’t you’re not keeping good company.

I gave a month free in similar position as it really does impact quality of life, which is especially annoying when it's not your home and you're not going to reap the benefits.

We had scaffolding up for almost 2 years for extensive works on a 15 story block of flats. Took months to even put it up and it was loud as fuck. I was heavily pregnant at the time and was so miserable with it all. I moved out and rented it out with 200£ off the rent per month, which was around a 15% reduction but the new tenants didn’t work from home so we’re happy.

They are being CF! If you lived there you wouldn't be asking the bank for 20% off your mortgage. My God!

But if you own a property, you benefit in the long term from building maintenance, so the short term inconvenience is worthwhile @LST. There is no benefit to the tenant, just inconvenience.

They might still not be able to suffer it working from home in lockdown and move out... So at least a rent reduction might keep them longer and not have to get new tenants with the works going on.

Wow, it would never have occurred to me to ask for a rent reduction. Sometimes a property needs maintenance end of. It’s not nice but if it needs to be actioned just crack on with it.

Scaffolding is SO intrusive. Imagine having people at your window for five months, let alone not being able to open the windows (which we are being advised to do) and the noise and potential mess.

I think it will be hard to find new tenants while it's going on so it must be easier to offer a discount

As a landlord doing exterior works, it's good to offer a fixed rate payment as a gesture for the inconvenience.

If it is offered before the works start, the tenants are pleased at the thought of some money. A fixed amount if money limits the payment if the job runs on and means they do t feel as irritated by the work as they are bei compensated.

Some kind of payment though is reasonable. It's better for the landlord to take control and make an offer before work starts rather than it begins out of the blue which is very annoying. And then the tenant might request much modern.

20% very reasonable for each month of disruption. The worth of your property on the rental market would be significantly lower with ongoing works like this. Can't be compared to being an owner occupier.

It'll be a bigger hassle for you to find new tenants if they decide to give notice because of the works.

It's not comparable to a mortgage - one of the benefits of renting is you don't take on that kind of risk and you are paying for a service.
20% seems reasonable especially for the length of time, and that they are WFH.
How long are the works supposed to go on? If they put 1month notice in now, I'm assuming prospective tenants would not want to move in until the works are finished. In which case you have an additional 2 months to recoup roughly 20% of a years rent.

I had this happen when I lived in a rented flat. It never occurred to me to ask for a discount at the time and even now, I wouldn't. It doesn't sound like some unnecessary cosmetic project you've embarked on yourself and the cost of the flat to you hasn't changed.

Absolutely reasonable. 5 months?! What on earth are you doing?

I would def offer a reduction. If they walk, who will rent it?
Plus it is the nice thing to do.

This is from 2020. Hopefully the work is finished by now.