UK Landlord Forum / Life

I'm shortly, hopefully, seeing the back of some Tenants who'd easily be described as model Tenants by some Landlords, but have given me no end of trouble and caused me no end of extra 'work' over their tenancy which is approaching 2 years.

I wanted to see if other Landlords had similar examples of this kind of thing and wanted to share.

My Tenants informed me that all the under-cabinet lights had gone out in the kitchen and would not come back on again. They'd checked the fuse board. They then concluded there was "obviously" something wrong with the electrics and asked me to get a certified professional around ASAP as they "made use of the kitchen lighting every day". I visited the property and found they'd accidentally pushed a glass jar onto a switch, controlling the lights, turning them off. I flicked the switch and the lights came on. The Tenant looked at the switch, flicked it on and off a few times and said something to the effect of "that's not a very sturdy switch". The switch is a normal switch, they'd just pushed a glass jar full of dried pasta onto it.

My Tenants informed me that the dishwasher wasn't working and asked me to get someone out to look at it. I couldn't go around myself so I got a fixed rate repair arranged in a couple of days and that cost me £140... one charge, any repair or replace... the guy's report said that he turned it off at the mains then started it up again and recorded "NFF" - no fault found. This one I consider something that the manual (provided) could resolve but I blame myself for not being able to go around.

My Tenants informed me that the two bathroom extractor fans did not come on with the lights. They concluded that "obviously" they had been installed correctly. Without going around, I asked them if the oversized extractor fan switch above the entry to each bathroom was turned on. They responded with "that was the problem, I've fixed it" which I chuckled at.

My Tenants told me that a towel warmer in a bathroom never got hot and didn't heat the bathroom. I firstly advised them that it was a towel warmer, not a radiator, and they do different things - a towel warmer is not a radiator. He accepted that and then said the towel warmer did not get hot when the central heating was on and "in his opinion" it was not even connected to the rest of the central heating system in the property. Aghast at this news I went around and looked at it - the heating was on, the radiators were hot, but the towel warmer was stone cold. I turned the two valves at the bottom of the towel warmer to fully open and within 5 minutes the towel warmer was toasty.

My Tenants told me that their heating, controlled by a newly installed Nest Thermostat, was coming on at strange times in the morning - 03:00 to be precise. I said that the Nest system had probably "learned" what temperatures they liked due to them setting it to 20 degrees at 03:00 in the morning. This did not go down well. They accused me of having a faulty thermostat fitted and said they would call out the Installer if I did not. Instead, I logged into the Nest account and reviewed the History... which showed a "manual adjustment" to 20 degrees at 03:00 in the morning. I asked whether there was anyone in the house who could've done that. They admitted nothing. We reset the learning features of the Nest and it's all been fine since then.

My Tenants complained that someone had put some unbagged organic waste into their wheelie bin. They said the stench was horrible and they would not go near it again. They said it would be fantastic if I could arrange for it to be cleaned. I reminded them that it was a Tenant's responsibility to ensure the cleanliness of their owns bins met their own standards. I refused to arrange to have their bin cleaned. I reminded them that the bins were actually brand new at the start of the tenancy and I expected them to be returned in the same clean and empty condition for the next Tenants.

My Tenants claimed the oven was no longer working. I put my head in my hands as this is a £900 range cooker. I said I would come around to look and we would sort something out. The Tenant said that it was "clearly" an emergency as they were going to cook dinner that night. As I was just eating my own dinner, I said I could not be around immediately, but I would be around ASAP the following day. He was OK with this. I then followed-up and asked him if the burners were working, the LCD was working etc. - and he replied that everything was working apart from the main oven. I asked him if the time was set on the oven - as the oven time needs to be set for the oven to work - and he confirmed it wasn't. He reset the time and the oven worked. I asked him what he'd done in the past when, say, there'd been a power cut - as he must have reset the time on those occasions to get it working again... he mentioned something about having to push the clock "past midnight" for it to work again and I decided to end the conversation.

And I decided to end the tenancy. And they received a valid Section 21.

How have they managed to survive this long in live?!

Isn't that a valid question?

Nice stories. 

Sometimes the complaints you get are crazy.

Rent out a HMO for students, had a phone call saying the shower was flooding their en-suite and causing mess into the bedroom, they didn't know how to stop it and when would someone be round as it was serious.  Being away from home, got our handyman to make an emergency call round, only for him to find a tiny puddle. When he asked the tenant, turned out they hadn't been putting the shower curtain inside the tray causing the water to run onto the floor, and the mess in the bedroom was from their own wet feet after walking out of the shower onto the wet floor! It was explained to the student to keep the curtain inside the tray and funnily enough not had any problems since!

I naively authorised an engineer callout because the tenants, both Russell Group science graduates, reported that the heating wasn't working and display on the thermostat was blank.

He changed the batteries for them.

A couple in their 20's viewed the newly decorated revamped flat,very impressed with the neutral décor.At 10.30 on their first night they phoned needing to speak urgently.Her father had called,and declared the colours "rather cold".They wanted to paper with bright florals,and promised to pay for a professional to repaint when they left.You can guess my answer.A couple of days later the plumber called to do the last job,fitting a mixer tap in the kitchen.Late evening again,a phone message to call urgently.When I phoned back,they said it was now okay.They had panicked when they could not get speak to me,so had gone and woken up a neighbour.They could not work out how to use the tap.I ended up buying said neighbour a big bouquet to make amends for all the times they bothered her.
Another tenant,still in situ after many years,has provided some laughs.Reported the toilet bowl was leaking,water all over the floor,a few months after moving in.When I called the first thing I noticed was the thick mould on the shower room ceiling,and no light on the extractor fan.Asked why he had turned it off-blank look.He had not noticed the fan or ever used it.The "flooding" was condensation dripping down.
This year he announced the door on his fridge had broken,it kept popping open and some food was spoilt.It was out of warranty,so a few days later I decided to forget a repair and just order a new one.Thankfully he emailed just in time.He had "noticed " a bag of potatoes was jutting out,and by moving it back,the door had miraculously mended.
A lady told me she had a medical condition that made her feel the cold.I said if she required extra heaters to those provided she would have to buy them for herself.Days after moving,late night call (what is it with these people? The cooker had exploded.Having had plenty of wine,we had to walk over a mile in sub zero temperatures.She had been keeping all the rings on the electric hob on to warm the kitchen,plus draping damp tea towels on them to dry.The explosion had been one of the burners popping. Paintwork ruined.

That last one, frightening.

Yes,she was undergoing training to be a nun.Hope she mentioned in confession that she could have killed everyone in the block.