Can I charge a tenant for rectification work I do myself as a landlord?

Landlord Discussion Legal
1

I have a buy to let with a garden.

Tenant has served notice and moved out last week (all perfectly fine).

They signed the check in report when moving in and are in receipt of the check out report which states a number of issues - a broken light fitting, light damage to an internal wall, unkempt garden, lost set of keys for example (maintaining the garden is an obligation under the terms of the tenancy agreement). They are not disputing any of these.

I can ask a third party to correct these issues and deduct the costs from the deposit. However, it takes ages to sort out a gardener/locksmith/handyman and adds needless hassle, and I need the property looking nice quickly to re-rent it. I can take a time off work and sort most of it out myself.

In the event that I do work myself, is it possible to charge the tenant? I have a regular job in corporateland so this would be in my own time - is there a protocol / best practice on this?

It seems unfair that the tenant would leave me with rectification work and it have no financial impact on them if I do it myself.

2

You cannot charge for your labour

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3

You can but the charge would need to be applicable to work that needs doing ie if a gardener costs ÂŁ20 ph the you could only charge ÂŁ20 ph based on you working at a professionals pace. Ideally you need a quote from a tradesman to back up the claim unless tenants agree to your charge informally.

4

As per @Richard19 above

5

The DPS refused my claim for my own labour.

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6

@Mr_T I wonder what would happen if you happened to be a gardener or a plumber fixing stuff.

7

Different people will answer according to their experiences with charging tenants for their own time. There is only one way to find the answer.

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8

I am a joiner and I fix a lot of stuff in my places, saves me a lot of money

9

@Colin3 I mean if the TDS would “allow” it

10

this is a big IF. my guess is they will say “.well it is your job to do the repairs anyway,”

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11

Thanks all.

I got a quote from a tradesperson and passed it to the tenant and said that I could do it myself, more quickly and for a lot less so we agreed a settlement at about 50% of the cost so both parties are happy.

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12

Yes this is true. As Colin says perhaps it’s discretionary depending on which jobsworth you get allocated.

Even employing a trades person and presenting the invoice, they don’t necessarily allow the whole claim anyway.

13

You can’t claim for your time for being a landlord, so if they thought that all or part of the claim was this, or if they thought the rates too high, they might reject it. otherwise, they were wrong to do that and you could appeal.

14

Just be fair to them . They seem to be good not disputing.

15

There’s plenty of things i can do myself, which can save a lot of money compared to using a tradesthem (sarcasm)!.

But, i am far less likely now to do things myself, there’s only so many grains in the hourglass and they are getting more and more precious to me.

I have in the past saved the tenant quite a bit but at the expense of losing my weekends and evenings. Now I am far more likely just to get someone in and pass on the costs if it’s remedial work which is tenants responsibility…