SMF - Just Installed!

Bulb replacement responsibility

Started by Hippogriff, November 19, 2016, 05:45:53 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Hippogriff

Well,

It's finally happened to me. After so many tenancies I'm finally preparing for a Check-Out with a Tenant who claims that they're not responsible for replacing light bulbs because some of them have gone during the tenancy.

The email in earlier did give me a right old laugh. I actually never believed that it would happen. I think I'm in mild shock.

Some people will do anything to escape from their responsibilities. The tenancy has been running at close to 2 years and the grey area this Tenant is trying to get me on is as follows...

At the start of the tenancy the property had brand new LED bulbs fitted throughout. Some of these (possibly 5 out of maybe 40 total) have gone. Dead. Kaput. Unfortunate, said I... but they're still bulbs and they're still a Tenant responsibility - the clause in my AST is quite clear, it says - "To replace light bulbs when necessary (with the same type of bulb, e.g. LED)." - and I figured this was unequivocal.

Apparently, in the eyes of this Tenant it's not...  because LED bulbs "should last much longer"!

Well, I'd agree they should. But they didn't. That doesn't mean the Landlord has to replace them. This guy is a right old laugh. Could well be my first foray into the DPS ADR scene... I've always been very reasonable with deposit deductions and not once have I had someone argue against what I've suggested. Most ex-Tenants have raised their eyebrows in pleased surprise and agreed there and then.

I'm trying to assess whether I really need to remind him of Denning and "tenant-like manner". There may be trouble ahead...

friendlylandlord

But bulbs SHOULD last but then you don't know that he doesn't leave them on 24/7 so they've run out sooner?

Just trying cause trouble by the sound of it?

Hippogriff

Oh, definitely trying to make this hard... that much is certain. The latest is that he is refusing to replace batteries in some garden motion-controlled lights because he removed them at 'some point' during the tenancy and put them in storage. That is true, he did remove them, he did put them into storage... but he forgets(?) to realise that he actually told me about this via email and that he had used them for almost 200 days (nights) at the beginning of the tenancy and, in that email, he said he was going to put them in storage as - "the batteries have now expired and I don't want to fork out on batteries every 6 months" - so, er, you used up the batteries, then?

That should have been a warning sign, I suppose.

The AST has a section that says the batteries should be replaced in the battery-powered garden lights. DPS ADR, here we come!

Not a mu-hassive deal - but there's 4 lights and each takes 4 D cells - so that was 16 x Duracells I'd paid out for on the day before the tenancy started.

Hippogriff

Well, bloody-hell... that was the hardest, most stressful, Check-Out that I've ever done... bar none.

And that's over quite a few years and a number of properties. It had shouting. It had veiled threats of legal action. It had a complete refusal to accept that bulbs and batteries are a Tenant responsibility. It had me reciting from printed-out emails I'd received earlier in the tenancy to prove my point. It had the Tenant shouting back "you've got me, you've got me, whoop-ti-do, very clever" and me rubbing my hands close to my eyes in that "why are you crying?" motion, like a kid! All very, very unprofessional, on both sides, and I genuinely thought it was actually going to end up in some kind of physical altercation at one point... his hackles were certainly raised.

It started this morning with them saying they'd be there at the time they dictated to me weeks ago but saying they could only spare 30 minutes - I replied saying it would take around an hour, because that's how long the Check-In took and they're generally the same - I must be allowed to check for proper operation of things and for damage. I suggested they come 30 minutes earlier. We then took closer to 90 minutes, because of all the arguing, and the male Tenant stomping out of the property repeatedly to calm down, then coming back in.

If this had been videod then it would be a prime example of how not to conduct a Check-Out. In the end I deducted just over £100. They finally agreed and signed the Check-Out document. All that angst for that little money. And, then, he had the cheek to express that the entire deposit was "just a day's pay" to him and he wasn't bothered at all... why we spent ages arguing is beyond me. The wife was another thing, though, she wanted to fight on... good on her. But she didn't. I am never doing that again... I'd probably prefer to let the ~£100 slide and have a quiet life. Principles can all too often get in the way of harmony.

Over 90 minutes of my life wasted for just over £100... and no-one left there happy.

Riptide

Good grief, sounds like an experience.  Might be time to use a 'professional' (I use the word loosely) 3rd party inventory clerk and claim the cost as a deductible?

Hippogriff

There were some funny bits...

Like, he decided to tell me that I'd put the wrong LED bulbs into certain light fittings. I said - "how do you figure that?" - and he replied that they were rated over what the safety sticker said on there. I asked for more clarity and he pointed to a 6-light fitting, where each shade had a sticker on it saying "Max 40w" and he smiled smugly at me. I said - "what's the problem?" - he told me that the problem was that I'd used 50 watt bulbs in there.

I pointed out to him that they were all LED bulbs and sought confirmation from him, and he absolutely agreed with that.

I pointed out to him that a 50 watt LED bulb would be like the sun being in the house - never mind 6 of them. I told them that they most definitely weren't 50 watt LED bulbs.

He disagreed with that. He got a little uppity at this point and he challenged me to take one of the ones out that he'd not had to change during the tenancy. I asked him which one it was (although I knew) so that he could point to one... I took that specific out and I looked at the writing on it...

As I knew it would, it said it was a 5 watt bulb.

I handed it to him.

He peered at it.

He peered at it for a long time... maybe it was slowly dawning on him that his eyesight is screwed?

He them admitted he might be wrong on that front.

I asked him if he accepted that he might be wrong simply because 50 watt LED bulbs probably don't even exist... he said - "don't treat this as funny".

You can imagine I was nearly wetting myself at this juncture.

Bugsy

Hi Hippogriff,

sounds like you have a right one, but not really.
To use a quote from the Great George Carlin, "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

I think there should be some exam that tenants must be able to pass a basic DIY / Hygene course before being allowed to rent any house.

Today, due to a complaint we just cleaned mold off a wall behind a curtain that never got opened, brand new windows, air tight, so no ventilation.

In the meantime, the kitchen and bathroom are fckin disgusting (3 20 yr old girls).
Kitchen sink is pilled high with dirty plates, underneath said sink is a brand new dish washer.  WTF