Hello. I have a tenant couple in my one bed flat on an AST. They have been tenants for about 20 months.
A month ago they sent me a picture of the kitchen sink and the surrounding counter as water had accumulated at the joining of the wall and started to soak into the worktop. I could see from the photo they sent that the silicon had failed so I made an appointment to visit.
Once at the flat I could see that water had soaked into the corner of the worktop and it had rotted away. I wasn’t very happy and explained to them that they should have called me weeks or even months before to tell me what was happening. I explained that it wasn’t a repair, it was now a replacement because they didn’t inform me quick enough. They accepted that they would pay the £650ish repair cost but said I can “take it out of the deposit”. I explained that it wouldn’t work like that as it would mean I would be carrying the repair cost until they leave the property at some unknown time in the future - months or years. The deposit is with DPS.
My belief is that a deposit is taken to ensure firstly that the landlord doesn’t lose out if the tenant doesn’t pay the final months rent, and secondly to cover any damage repair AFTER the tenant has vacated the property. Am I correct and how can I prove this to the tenants.
Frequent inspections are a must, i think you should perhaps share some of the blame. Is it possible water was leaking for a while without it being obvious to tenant ?
If a tenant was at fault I would expect separate payment, as you say the deposit is for when tenant checks out.
Has depreciation been taken into consideration in your replacement cost? This is a requirement.
Your deposit can be used for whatever your contract stipulates it can be used for .
In this situation I ask the tenants to pay upfront . I would not wait till the end of the tenancy . It’s a reflection of how your property will be and the deposit won’t cover it .
Thanks @Mark10 Thanks @A_Z
Yes it was pretty obvious it was happening. They’re both young, 22 and 23, and just unaware.
I did ask the tenant to pay up front and that’s the issue, they won’t. They say they will only pay from the deposit and don’t see me carrying the cost until they eventually vacate as a problem.
I’m afraid you’ll have to suck up those costs at least initially. Quarterly inspections esp with Ts like yours who are likely to be inexperienced, are absolutely vital for keeping on top of maintenance issues like this. When you let property, you’re very often in the education game.
I’d offer them an interest free loan and increase the rent by whatever they can afford to pay each month until it’s paid off then revert the rent to whatever’s agreed. Either that or I’d issue an immediate rent increase if you can.
I agree with the comments about inspections. The reality is that tenants often have no clue about maintenance issues and seldom report them. If the tenants contest the deposit deduction/repairs payment, you have no chance of persuading a court/deposit scheme to agree it.
This is why we have a page in our property manuals that explicitly flags maintenance issues that they are likely to need to report (e.g. leaks) and their liability for not doing so. We go through this at check in. As a result, all our tenants are proactive in reporting stuff which is super helpful.
In my experience, courts and deposit schemes see maintenance as almost exclusively the domain of the landlord. We are expected to pick up issues at inspections. There are a series of minor maintenance tasks that tenants are responsible for to behave in a “tenant-like manner”, such as unblocking drains, but they’re not required to have any knowledge of what serious defects look like. Indeed most tenants will never have owned a property to learn those things. With regard to making reporting a contractual issue, I suppose if a landlord also gave a tenant a long list of specific things to look out for at the start of the tenancy and they failed to report one of them, there might be some chance of a claim against them, but you’d have to show deliberate negligence and its usually easy for a tenant to say they didn’t notice it or didn’t understand that it was serious.
The good thing about tenancy deposits is that it costs landlords nothing to attempt a claim with a deposit scheme, so worth doing, but more in hope than expectation in my experience.
Just for clarity, this isn’t our movitation in providing a (brief) list of specific things to look out for. It’s primarily to raise awareness and make the conversation easier if an issue arises later on because it doesn’t come out of the blue.
I think you’d be on a hiding to nothing but hassle if you tried to pin something on them simply because you listed it on a piece of paper they kept in a folder they never looked in in a drawer they never opened in the kitchen.
I.ve just evicted tenants because despite me explaining everything they were not interested . The damages were only going to get worse. One refused to let me in the house after I raised issues at inspection. The other told me so and would not let me in because he did not want to rock the boat with his housemate. Getting rid of them quickly meant I have gone in and rectified stuff that would have caused serious damage. This was my first experience of tenants refusing entry . You don’t know it’s going to happen until it does.
I’ve opened a new thread - ‘Council threat of Improvement Notice’ if you’re interested in hearing the further developments. I value all your opinions. Thanks.
Hi michael, a strong spread of responses to your situation
Taking a slightly different approach for the future , here is a suggestion. When the gas tech goes round to service the boiler why not take the opportunity to do a hands on landlords inspection. Check toilets are flushing, check taps are on tight and not leaking, look at the silicone seals, see if handrails are on tight, any hazards, loose carpet etc, look for any damp and so on. It’s a stitch in time approach.
I would have probably just fixed the worktop, maybe drying and using wood filler then silicone or if too far gone howdens do a good quality well priced worktops.
Keeping good relations whilst the tenants are in place in my book is a priority and in future something to bear in mind.
However you are where you are; councils are pro tenant so just do what they ask with good grace and bide your time. Take a step back. Butting heads with councils is never wise; they been the bane of my life but i have never sought confrontation.
Great advice @Priory-lodge thank you.
I’ve had my two very smart investment flats for 20 years and 11 years and I’ve never had a problem with a tenant, so shocked now how chuffing awful this tenant is and doubly shocked that they can even go to the council complain and have the council come down on me so hard on something that isn’t a major issue and should have been easily resolved.
Well to be fair, the Ts are probably also reeling at being evicted over something like this.
Yes, it should have been easily resolved, but neither T nor LL were willing to accept the other’s terms to resolve it. If you’ve had two “very smart investment flats” for decades and no issues then you have definitely had the opportunity to build a sizeable financial buffer to allow you to be flexible when an expense is due. That is very likely to be a far cry from where your Ts are financially.
In situations like this, it’s important to separate routine maintenance from damage caused by negligence. The deposit is generally intended to cover repairs after the tenant vacates, not to prepay for ongoing or immediate repairs. Asking tenants to pay upfront for damage that resulted from delayed reporting is reasonable, especially when the issue has worsened from a minor repair into a replacement.
A practical approach is to provide documentation of the damage and repair costs. A local handyman service can assess the extent of the damage and provide a detailed quotation. This not only justifies the cost to the tenants but also helps establish that the expense is legitimate and necessary.
Tenants should be made aware that immediate payment protects both parties: it ensures the landlord can address the problem promptly and avoids disputes at the end of the tenancy. In many cases, tenants respond more cooperatively when presented with clear evidence and professional assessments rather than vague claims.