UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi all! So my tenants accidentally put a hot pan down on a Maia-material kitchen counter-top. It caused damage which is apparenlty too deep to repair, so fixing it would involve replacing the entire counter-top - turning it from a £250 job to a £2,000+ one. The deposit would still just cover that, though obviously it is a lot more. That tenancy came to and end and the damage was flagged in the check-out, but I have not returned the deposits. The tenants reasonably asked me if it was covered under my insurance, and it was - I checked with the company and they will honour a claim. So here are my questions:

First, do I pay for it out of the insurance or the deposit? I want to do right by my tenants, but this was clearly their fault. I guess a claim would involve higher premiums in future, and I would have a claim on my record. What is the usual process here? NB it may be relevant that the tenancy agreement specifies that I will have home and contents insurance (though not what I will do with it). I had I guess thought of it mainly for use where the deposit would be too low to cover the costs or if the tenants absconded - but I can see how the tenants would prefer that I called on it!

Secondly, if I do pay for it out of the insurance, do I take something off the deposit to balance the expected higher premiums and loss of my no-claims status? How do I allow for it given I can't know exactly how much (if at all) they will go up, and for how many years they will stay up? (I will ask the company, but I suspect they won't be able to give me a straight answer).

Thirdly, the tenants are in a hurry to get at least part of their deposit back - and meanwhile I may wait a while to do the works so I can be around when they happen. Should I pay them back based on an estimate of the counter replacement cost/increased premium, with maybe a little extra retained temporarily for margin, or should I wait until I do the works, even if that is a while?

I would actually prefer to wait to get the counter replaced until I am no longer renting out the house. I'm planning to knock a small amount off the rent if I do this, or maybe just not increase it. I guess that is only fair :-) Meanwhile, the question is how long the insurance company will let me delay. 

Thanks so much - really appreciate any advice!

Stephen
 

If the damage relates to something that you are required to insure against under the tenancy agreement, then you are probably required to claim it from the insurance, and the tenant only liable for any excess on the claim.

If it's something that you just happen to have cover have, then it'll be up to you. Also, if the damage was the result of the tenant's negligence, and you claimed from the insurance, the insurer could then have a subrogated claim against the tenant for the payout so the tenant wouldn't actually benefit from you claiming and be worse off when you take in legal cost.

I realise you said the damage is apparently too deep to repair, but I'm surprised depth is an issue. Anything can be filled, then it's just about getting the surface right. Have you tried to talk to the Plastic Surgeon guys?

https://www.plastic-surgeon.co.uk/

I'm not recommending them, but I have experience of their work. You might say some of them are more like artists than builders. They will, at least, give you a no obligation estimate, from your photos.

If you are not going to actually do the repair until some future date, I think it's hard to ask the Tenants for their money... unless you can do it by prior agreement. If they agree it will cost £2,000 but are unhappy about that, and you settled on a lower figure, then maybe. What I suspect you do not want is for the Tenants to use the ADR process of the Deposit Protection Scheme (and hence another reason why you just can't keep hanging onto it - how many days have passed now?) as their Adjudicator's assessment will be something like - does it still function as a worktop? Yes. Ouch.

Maybe do some quick maths:

by ending your no claims discount, how much will that increase your premium (approximately) per year? Then multiply by how long it would take to get back up the your current no claims discount (presuming your cover will get cheaper each year as your premium drops).

Personally, I accept that there will be some costs involved in being a landlord, so maybe offer to not quite take the full amount from the deposit, but show your insurance premium calculation to show the tenant that they're not getting a bad deal.

Then the decision can be yours when to replace the worktop, and tenant should be happy.

Also, as an analogy - car rental companies will take the cost of any damage you do to their car, and very rarely will they get any dents/scratches removed.

Thanks so much for these brilliant replies everyone - really grateful. A firm has now said they think they can do the repair, though it may not be 100% invisible - I think rather than embark on a major operation to replace the entire counter-top, I will go with that. The advice has been very helpful though, thanks again!