UK Landlord Forum / Life

My husband and I are desperate for some advice/experience of protocol regarding flooding in a rental property.  We are responsible Landlords; look after our tenants and have been faced with a situation that is hellish.  Our property started flooding on 6th January.  Our managing Agent was contacted by our Tenants who reported this.  The agent attended immediately and was reassured by the Tenant's husband that they were coping well and could manage.  We made immediate arrangements to see the house, but it wasn't convenient for the tenants until friday 10th after 4.30. We arrived with a carpenter so that he could investigate under the dining room floor; pull up some boards and try and evacuate water.  The carpenter offered to return on his day off which was Sunday 'it was not convenient' for our tenants.  We returned on Saturday morning with a builder; established the source of ingress and diverted the flow away from the house.  We installed a puddle pump in the dining room and I cleared the ground floor with an industrial wet and dry cleaner.  We phoned to ask if everything was ok on sunday morning at 10am and the answer was 'dunno we are still in bed' . None of the services were affected luckily. The heating, electric, Aga and toilets were functioning as normal. We suggested that the tenants would have to find alternative accommodation whilst the fabric of the building was properly dried out.  We are still waiting for the Loss adjuster who is up to his eyeballs in flood claims.  The Tenants have now found accommodation which is being paid for by our Insurers - but they are asking for compensation for the time that they voluntarily stayed in the house.  My problem is financial.  It has cost a lot of money so far and obviously this will be refunded by the insurers eventually, but I still have to pay a £500 excess.  Should compensation be paid?  Is there a case to say that the house was obviously habitable or they would have left?  I would have absolutely no hesitation about offering a refund of rent if I was financially in a position to do so.  I also know that they are fairly wealthy and really don't need any compensation... and then the question is ... what for? 

Given you have an insurance policy, and only pay the excess, just pass details of the tenant onto the insurance company and the insurance company onto the tenant.

Just put your hands up and say, none of my business lazy tenant, speak to the hand, or the insurance company cause this sister ain't listening.

Sounds like they want to make a fast buck, let the insurance people work it out. You certainly don't owe them a penny legally due to this.