UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi folks,
I guess this is a common problem.
Tenancy of 5 years has just ended. I got the tenants through an estate agent and the deposit was put into a scheme by the estate agent.
I have dilapidations that I want to claim for but not sure what I can claim.

eg. there is an iron burn to the carpet. But I obviously can;t expect to charge them for recarpeting the whole house. What do I do in this situation.

Ditto a burn on the laminated kitchen work top. The plastic has burned right through ( I gave them a trivet but they didn't use it ! )

There are some damages that I have fixed myself. So the costs are only materials. Can I charge them for an hour of my time. How much ? Do I need to provide an invoice for the labour ?

There are plenty more like this !

Any guidance here would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

You can't charge for your own time.

Regards to the carpet, they've been in 5 years, how old was the carpet?  Life expectancy of carpet say 10 years, it's not destroyed, only a small patch damaged etc eff, so basically a pittance.

Same for the worktop, although ideal world would be to replace it that is not how a small patch of damage would be calculated and it can still be used etc etc.

Validating that you cannot charge for your labour. The maths are quite simple if you want to follow formulae. I prefer to do things by agreeing, so I err on the side of being reasonable. If there is a burn in the carpet across the whole house you might think it's reasonable for you to claim carpet replacement throughout the whole house - seriously, it isn't. Also, if it's just a burn in one room... no (you know that). As a Landlord you would always be smart to maintain an Inventory (for yourself if no-one else) as to what model and colour you bought of things.

Paint is especially useful. Carpets too.

The biggest issue you have is the length of the tenancy - it's 5 years. A lot of fair wear and tear can occur (I'm a poet) in that kind of timeframe and many assets we Landlords worry about would not have much longer expected lifetimes... maybe a sink would. If you could show the carpet was installed at the start of this tenancy and it was of a good enough quality to have an expected lifetime of 10 years, then you could be looking at a 50% 'win' for the area that needed re-doing.

The worktop may not be especially aesthetically pleasing... but - this is the nub - it still functions as a worktop.