Hi I have a tenant who has checked into a hotel due to the fact that the boiler broke down and says she will reduce the amount in the next month’s rent.
I have never agreed for her to check into a hotel in the first place.
She reported there is an issue with the heating on Sunday night and I called the boiler cover guys first thing on Monday but they only managed to send an engineer on Tuesday afternoon. The engineer realised there was a leak and hence shutdown the boiler on Tuesday afternoon so they stopped getting hot water as well on Tuesday afternoon.
Today is Wednesday and in spite of chasing the boiler repair company repeatedly I could not them to attend site or confirm the date when the part will be procured to fix the issue with the boiler.
Meanwhile my tenant sent me an email to say they want to check into a hotel to have a shower as she has two school going children and a small child and cant manage without hot water this morning.
I’ve been trying to get an engineer out all day today and have been on the phone that I could only reply back to her email at around 4 pm today to say I can provide her with extra electrical heaters and a kettle if need be and also offered for them to come to my house which is only 5 mins away to have a shower.
However she replied back to me to say she could not wait as her children had come home sweaty from school and hence she checked into a hotel.
What are my options right now? Any advise on this matter will be highly appreciated.
Do you have landlord insurance?
Long term…Put in an electric shower then if boiler goes they still have shower. They are blagging you
Unfortunately no as I forgot to renew it when it lapsed a few months back. I thought having a boiler, heater, electric cover should do the job.
Thank you that seems like a sensible option.
In my view, you have acted appropriately and are making attempts to provide your tenant with alternative means for access to hot water/shower. You have no requirement to reimburse the cost of the hotel or other associated costs and your tenant has no right to reduce the rent paid going forward.
Does the property have a hot water storage tank? If not, might be worth looking at getting one fitted as an alternative to electric shower. The hot water can be created by either the boiler or an electric immersion heater in the tank (back-up). I’ve had issues with boiler ignition in the past and just got tenant to switch on immersion heater whilst new part was sourced and fitted. No disruption.
fitting an electric shower is cheaper to do. you need an indirect or direct cylinder ,it gets complicated
To be fair I would have have found a guest house acceptable but not of their choice. That’s open to abuse. They can still use the house for meals with a couple of heaters and sleep and shower at the guest house.
If the tenant requires showers, and that is the problem, then where I live, you can access the changing room at the local leisure centre for free, and take a very nice free shower.
It’s obviously too late, but if this is viable, then you can say that the tenant went too far too soon, and without consulting you.
If the property has bath, then although it’s hard work, it’s possible to make a bath for the children with kettles of water. So again the tenant might have gone too far.
I’ve had situations where things break down, and I normally offer a ‘goodwill’ reduction in rent for that period. No idea the amounts involved, but that might be a reasonable compromise. Because if they refuse to pay the full rent, then you are into legal and eviction issues. Remind the tenant that eventually they will want a reference from you when they move on.
Good luck, Mike