UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi

I'm looking for some advice. I have a tenant who has lived in my rental property for over 2.5 years. He has paid rent on time throughout the whole period. He is on a AST and his initial 6 months period has ended. He was in his previous rental property for nearly 7 years and I suspect that he has no plans to move out of my property in the long term.

He complained that the toilet was broken so I have arranged for a plumber to install a new toilet. I also agreed to install a new sink at the tentant's request. This has yet to be installed.

The plumber has sent me photos of new toilet and also photos of the current state of the bathroom. In summary, there is black mould on every surface. The tenant has mentioned the mold problem to the plumber in the past but hasn't said a word to me about it.

In the inventory I stated that he must use the manual extractor fan installed when using the bath/shower to prevent bacteria/mold. He clearly hasn't been switching this on.

I'm at a point where I could do the following:

Option 1 - Install the new sink and tile the area around the new toilet & sink. Do not address the mold issue as the tenant hasn't mentioned it.
Option 2 - As above, but also install an extractor fan linked to the light switch to aid ventilation.
Option 3 - Install a new bathroom and eradicate the mold problem.
Option 4 - Give the tenant notice so that I am able to rent the property to more responsible tenants.

I'd be interested in hearing your comments in terms of what you would do if you were the landlord. Which option would you choose, would you incur all costs to rectify the situation or ask the tenant to pay all or part of the costs.

As I said earlier, he has always paid his rent on time and I have no other issues with him. Just the state of the bathroom.

I look forward to hearing your views.

Carol

Option 2.

Clean the mould, its easy, just spray a solution of bleach and leave.

Ask Tenant nicely to try and keep it mold free.

Enjoy your rent paying tenant.

I agree option 2 is the way ahead - forget linking it to the light switch, put a PIR activator in, you can set the activation time, and are sure that if bathroom is used some air is circulated no matter what time of day it is.