New tenant asks for maintenance work that is financially not viable

[Amadeaa]

My tenants moved in this week. They’ve asked me to undertake maintenance work which they believe are in my responsibility as a landlord, but these works are financially not viable. The costs would exceed the yield of a whole year’s rent with no guarantee that the problem might not reoccur within 6 months. I also don’t have this kind of money available right now. What are my options? They are at the start of a 1-year contract. I don’t think I can terminate the contract without any fault at the tenants side.
Should I offer them money if they agree to terminate the contract early?

I'm a landlord I've probably made zero profit. New roof was put on its just ticking over until I'm ready to gift to DD one day. Im incredibly proactive about repairs as the bills become worse the longer you leave it. Most of the rent you get you need to put in a separate account so you build a slush fund for repairs.

Start with a damp survey from an independent damp surveyor. Not a company that provides damp proofing, that's quote not a survey

We had an independent damp survey of a place we were hoping to buy. It was £250 and identified gutters as the problem

In the meanwhile supply tenants with a dehumidifier. It will suck out damp from walls. It will generate water from walls that will need emptying every day. Get the building survey for £400. If this damp was not visible to you or your agent a week ago it can't be that bad. Is there a fan in both the kitchen and bathroom? If not get an electrician to put one in. Are tenants airing properly or are they drying washing inside? I doubt it will cost anywhere near £15k. I had a tenant complain of damp whereas previous tenants had never mentioned it. It turned out new tenants did not put the fan on in the bathroom when having a shower.

If you can’t pay for it, you can’t pay for it. It’s one of those things that will destroy the home though. I would look into if it’s a problem you have to fix legally. If not give them the option to break the lease at any time with no penalty and give them one month free as an apology for the situation. If they choose to stay it’s on them. If you have to fix it legally as it makes the home uninhabitable just break the lease yourself and pay whatever the penalty is. Maybe give them three months free rent while they look for somewhere else.

And is that fair on the tenants without a comparative reduction and rent during the time before and during the disruption of any work and surveys being done?
Dehumidifier is typically 450 Watts times 730 hours a month this equates to, at 33 pence per kilowatt hour, to around £84 pounds per month plus VAT at five percent?
I've been a landlord and I've rented and I've owned as an owner occupier several homes. It's got to be sorted because it may be affecting the fabric of the building and maintenance is up to 10% of the value of the property per year and kind of needs to be done

@RollerCoaster2020 I did not suggest an indefinite dehumidifier. Generally it can be used for up to a week to suck out any damp in a wall. A building surveyor inspection would take about 2 hours on one day. The tenant would not even need to be there. If tenants have complained of damp presumably they understand a survey will need to be done to establish the cause. I find it very odd that damp not visible to owner or EA will suddenly appear within a week unless a water leak.

Thank you to all those who replied with kindness and helpful advice, I appreciate it!

I think I’m unable to sleep tonight because of worries and thoughts racing through my head…

Ive lived in this property myself not so long ago. It’s an unusual built and there were issues with condensation water. I had to use a window vac and dry window sills in the morning. I ventilated frequently and never had any issues with damp and mould. I didn’t consider the condensation too big a problem and not a health hazard.

I’m currently on the other side of the country and haven’t been in the property for a couple months so don’t know for sure what the current situation is. The estate agent never mentioned anything when they did the viewings but then they might have just been after their commission and simply didn’t care.

But I think I’ll try to assess the situation again in a calmer state tomorrow, reading the replies I think there must be a way to fix the problem without doing the major works that were proposed to me.

You sound like a decent person.

£15k. That’s pretty substantial. Albeit, maybe it depends on the value of the property.

I would ask if they will agree to 6 months reduced rent (maybe 75% of what they pay now), and once they find somewhere to move to, you’ll give them £1000 to help move.

Hopefully they can find somewhere before Autumn. In the meantime you can start the process of selling the property.

You couldn’t pay me to live in a damp house and potentially get ill for 6 months, especially if there is children involved.

Any suggestion of asking the tenants to stay at a reduced rate just sounds like people are living on another planet.

Even if the renters are in such dire financial straits that they would accept an offer like that, I don’t think it would be morally right. It’s a very sad situation that we are in as a society that we are so proud to do things at the expense of others and very Dickensian.

@Nanananananana99

Of course. If it is an immediate, and awful health hazard, then of course, it’s grim to bribe someone to continue living there.

If with some minor work it can be reduced to the point of almost not being a short term issue (until the weather cools again), then I think the tenants would feel a fair compromise is to agree to a reduction and find somewhere else to live.

Despite popular Mumsnet opinion, tenants still have very little rights. The damp would probably have to have caused a health issue before the council/authorities would step in - something that would take months. A normal landlord would just say “sue me then”. Knowing full when the clock is ticking and they can issue a section 21 in 4 months time.

This is why landlords get such a bad rep 🙄

Could you put in a PIV unit instead? It runs the ventilation and clears the air so should reduce condensation and therefore damp. It's quite a common problem in houses when the level of heating use changes.

I’ve been a landlord for over 20 years. Unfortunately a fair amount of tenants don’t ever crack open a window let alone go to these “extremes” to keep the property in good shape.

I take it this is an older style property. Sealing it up further will not remedy the situation and I think you’ve had some good advice about getting a damp survey to see if there are any issues, which can be remedied.

Getting a dehumidifier and asking the tenants to run this even for a protracted period may be a medium term solution if you offer a decent rent reduction, which covers the running costs and a little on top for the inconvenience. People cannot expect to live in an older style property and believe it to perform the same as a modern one.

Do make sure to convey to them how you managed the property with careful ventilation and removal of excess condensation from the windows. They may be prepared to do this. But I would keep a very watchful eye on the house and insist on 3 monthly property inspections so that you can assess for mould growth.

You may need to be cleaning mould off regularly yourself with a mould cleaner. Do not use bleach as it apparently just masks the spores rather than removing them.

Look at it like this. You have a property with some significant issue regarding its habitability.

If you lived in it you would need to fix it.

You have tenants in it. You need to fix it. Their rent actually pays you to make upgrades to the house that you would otherwise have to find yourself.

Seems a pretty decent deal to me. You end up no worse off.

Op did live in the property until she moved out. She managed the issue so didn’t feel the need to address it and naively presumed she could ask the same of tenants. I am a landlord and it is very expensive to rent property out these days and many people are operating at a loss, which is why mMy are selling up, causing a rental crisis. Op has been clear she will make a substantial loss if she follows through with these works and will therefore be considerably worse off.

Dehumidifiers? Short term solution but no guarantee your 15k will cure the problem.

Just be honest with them tell them you can’t afford it and that you are going to have to sell the property and give them notice to leave and find a new house offer to pay moving costs.

I hated being a landlord and it wasn’t intentional I was glad when I sold up.

I know it can work financially but you need lots of cash reserves and contacts in the trades.

You need to be very careful before engaging “damp specialists”. As @pigletjohn would say “a damp specialist will find damp”. The cures are not always expensive works. And yes, tenants (I have some) are often not good at ventilating properties, hence why many rental houses don’t have tiled bathrooms, rather panelled ones.

Is it damp or condensation because they are not opening windows/drying washing over rads etc?

As others have suggested get a proper surveyor out. He/she may establish its condensation due to lack of airing the house. I lived in a house like this years ago it was awful and I’d never live in an older house again, but it was caused by having upvc windows and it needed airing each day.

Some people never open the window, take long hot showers with the door open and hang washing around the place. This will cause issues with condensation.

Some agents are better than others at advising on the best action.

If it’s damp then you need to get it done, for your sake as well as theirs. It won’t go away, it will only get worse.

What are the quotes suggesting be done and how big is your place? It may well be that you just need to upgrade the kitchen and bathroom fans to continuous extraction fans. I have ones with humidity sensors, they continuously run at a low level and then increase extraction when moisture is high. With a couple of retrofitted trickle vents the "damp" problem was sorted.

As others have said you need a proper survey, NOT someone trying to sell you something, but an independent expert. I live in an older property and I don't have to vac windows every morning , I have extractor fans in kitchen and bathrooms and I do open windows. I would however consider it odd and worrying if I had to clean windows of moisture daily. Please be aware that if the tenants call out Environmental Health then they will inspect the whole property and will send you a list of everything that needs to be done to bring the property up to standard. That really will make your head spin as failing to do so can have all sorts of repercussions. I used to work as a homeless officer and frequently referred customers to EH, I then saw the results of the full inspection and it could be eye watering. I do mean this kindly OP, but you need to keep on top of disrepair and make friends with a local,reputable builder who you can trust to deal with issues like this. I've seen landlords who wouldn't replace a couple of tiles on the roof, the EH report caused them to have to do a huge amount of work; all for the lack of minor work.

We once rented out a house we had lived in hassle free.
We did rented it properly and used decent agents.
One set of tenants got the council environmental health inspector in as they said there was mold/damp.
The inspector told them to open windows and stop drying clothes over radiators.
There wasn't any big issue with damp if you looked after the house properly we actually lived in it again later.
Don't panic OP. You have some decent advice on the thread.

I haven't read the whole thread but this issue sounds like it could be solved pretty easily with a PIV unit. This moves the damp air up and out the loft (assuming you have one). It's about 1 - 1.5k to buy and install

I think you have learnt lots of lessons from this situation but what stands out to me is you are very far from the property making managing it much more challenging. The reality is it is your responsibility to maintain the property to a standard that isn’t hazardous to health. Being a landlord isn’t for the faint hearted. A lot of landlords are selling at the moment because of the legal requirements. We rented our family home when we were overseas and it has not been an easy ride.
I do believe the legal requirements are really important as no one should have to live in substandard accommodation and the reality is many landlords still exploit their tenants. All this is to say, if you own the property look at ways to refinance- via the mortgage or loan. It is work that needs to be done even if you sell the property.