UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi we have a tenant who has been in our property for 17 months, when she took over the property there was an electric hob in the kitchen which was approx 2 years old, before she moved in I cleaned it and I know it was spotless (don't think the other tenant ever cooked), my husband had to go there about a month ago to do a plumbing repair and said the place was filthy, she complained about the cooker not working properly but he said he didn't even want to look as it was covered in grease and dirt, he explained that he would have it looked at but he wasn't prepared to replace the cooker and the tenant said if she bought a new one she would take it with her when she left, which he agreed to. Today she has phoned to say that the housing have told her we have to buy her a new cooker, could be a lie, not sure!  she said the cooker is dangerous,   I feel, if its dangerous   we should arrange to have it removed,   she is threatening to take it further and became quite nasty, my question is are we legally required to replace the cooker? my take on this would be, she signed a tenancy agreement to leave the house as she had found it, clean condition etc, i.e. cooker in situ,  through her own neglect the cooker is now useless. If this is the case would we be entitled to expect her to leave the cooker she bought to replace the one we installed or if not withhold some of her deposit towards a new one. Just a little extra she 4 months behind with her part of her housing benefit. thanks sorry for the ramble. Sue

If you provide any electrical device as part of the letting, you are responsible for ensuring it is safe.  What you need to do is get a qualified electrician to do a formal test on it.  If it is unsafe you cannot let your tenant continue to use it.

I am not sure how failing to clean a cooker can make it unsafe.

The bottom line is that you need to take some interest here.  If the cooker is unsafe you are puting yourself at risk. If the cooker is unsafe and you were told and you did nothing because it was a bit dirty - I would not want to be in your shoes if anything went wrong.

Saying it's 'dangerous' and it being dangerous are 2 different things.  I can't really think how a fitted oven would become dangerous anyway.

4 months behind = time to say goodbye to your tenant.  With Christmas coming up she's not going to suddenly pay extra.

Is she on a periodic tenancy?  If so I, personally would be giving her a section 21. 

Thanks you both for your replies, helped me to make a decision.

As per the other replies- basically anything that's in the property when it's let is your responsibility to replace if it goes wrong! You obviously have to be especially careful with gas & electric. I would get a professional to take a look and base your decision on that.

As for being 4 months behind- you can begin proceedings once rent is 14 days overdue- and I would strongly advise you do!

I would definitely serve section 21 to get rid, bear in mind if she won't budge it will likely be minimum 5 months before you get your property back.

However, get your cooker safety checked, if it is faulty YOU need to get it fixed or replace it.  I would do this sooner rather than later - it would make me twitchy for safety reasons.  You've let the property with cooker in place, therefore you should continue to do so.