UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi, new to the forum, we just entered the house after letting it for a year and found a big rat infestation in the locked part of the shed, where we kept our belongings, leather furniture etc. Apparently the tenants knew about the rats for a while, as they told me two days before when I popped in,  they took care to seal all holes to contain the rats within the locked area. but they failed to inform us (and there is a paragraph in the contract, which says they have to inform immediately in such cases). If we were informed in time, we would call a professional and stop the infestation.

I want to take the damage from the deposit. My question is can we claim damage to our property and belongings as the result of failure to inform,, despite the damaged items are naturally not in the inventory list? 

Was the locked bit of the shed part of what the tenant was renting, or was it excluded from the property?

It's very difficult to make the tenants responsible for looking after your property, so you'd need to have a look at what the tenancy agreement said.

It was excluded from the property

The rats were all over the shed, including the rented part.

I reckon you're on a hiding to nothing: you can't use a tenancy deposit to pay for something that wasn't part of the tenancy, even if your tenants have failed in their duty as Guardians of the Mysterious Treasure Room.

You can try, of course: the dispute resolution service is a bit of a lottery at times, so you never know your luck, but I can't see it sticking.

Quote from: Glebby on July 29, 2022, 09:23:24 AMThe rats were all over the shed, including the rented part.

I think you have no claim.
The tenant's weren't responsible for the security of that part of the property, even though they seem to have helpfully tried to close off some gaps.
They weren't responsible for the contents of that part of the property.

That there were rats elsewhere in the shed doesn't change anything, there are rats pretty much everywhere.
The tenants didn't introduce the rats or encourage them to eat your property.

Thank you all