UK Landlord Forum / Life

my tenants have installed a sat dish to my house i am renting to them,this breaches what the tenancy agreement says,
they are now leaving in two months time can i insist its not removed as i dont want unsightly cement holes in the red brickwork,
i would sooner have the dish left that repairs done as i think this would look worse   

hello Mac933.

No, sorry, you can't insist on that.  It's called stealing.  You're trying to link two wrongs to make a right.

Is this a "bog-standard" house or flat?  Or some Grade II Victorian mansion?  Are you sure you're not being over-sensitive about the outside appearance.  In my experience, renters are far, far more focused on what the inside is like and pay little attention to the outside (apart from loking for obvious things, like dis-repair).  I think a few holes in the wall will make no difference to its future rental attractiveness.

If you are determined to follow this through then I think you have options of:
- Explain you perceive the holes in the wall as damage and you'll be using the deposit money to compensate you.
- Get a local builder to fill in the holes.  If he's any good, he'll mix up some mortar and then rub two bricks together, creating lots of brick dust.  He'll put the brick dust into the mortar, to redden it up to the colour of your bricks.  Then he'll patch the brickwork up with the red mortar and it wil be barely visable.  My builder has done this on my house and it is only visable because I know what I'm looking for.  It's a near-perfect fix.
- The money you deduct will be he cost of the builder doing this work.  And as it should take him absolutely no more than an hour max, it won't be too much money.

Hope this helps.  Let us know how you get on.

many thanks for your advice, i will now give tennant option to leave dish or pay for repairs from deposit many thanks

Would the tenant really take their dish with them?

The last time we moved house ourselves (as owners, not tenants) we did not take our satellite dish with us.  We left it at our former house and then simply took over use of the one which was already up at our current house with no problems at all. 

These days (and especially with the fast approaching transition to digital TV) satellite dishes are more the norm than roof aerials.  On that basis, can I ask why you have an issue with one having gone up?  Did you already have one which they should have been using?   

You can't insist on them leaving it, as they did pay for it themselves.  Have you spoken to them about what they wish to do?  If they leave it, and it is fully functional, then they have saved you a job perhaps.      If they do take it with them then they should really make good quality repairs to any resulting holes in the wall themselves, or risk forfeiting some deposit.   

what has annoyed me is they never asked me before installing it,it says in there contract no sat dishes to be installed if they had contacted me first i would not of been so annoyed,
other things they have also without my knowlage you can only take so much in till you think they are taking the mickey

mac don't be so anal. Topseyt's right, they have done you a favour by installing it. But if they do decide to take it, they wont have left you any worse off.

Unfortunately mac933 your tenancy agreement is not worth the paper it is written on if you have stated in your contract that "no sat dishes to be installed". It is an unfair contract term and not only is it unenforceable it coul drender the rest of your AST unenforceable too. It may be your house but it ceased to become your home when you rented it to them and they have a right to use it as a normal person would including having access to TV etc. You need to amend your AST to read something like -

"No satellite dished may be installed at the property unless written permission is obtained first, permission which will not be unreasonably refused"

Its the wording "permission which will not be unreasonably refused" which is important legally since your outright refusal without being reasonable would lead you into a whole world of hurt if you tried to enforce your AST.

My advice? Keep quiet about it unless you want to be humiliated in court!

the tenancy agreement was written by my agent not me it states

not to damage or injure the property and contents or make any alterations or addition to it,
without prior written consent of the landord or this agent,this includes the erection of satellite dishes

as i said before if they contacted me first it would not of been a problem i just dont like people taking the piss,,,

As a landlord and a tennant,  you sound like an utter fuckwit

As TV today is generally received via a satellite dish (roof aerials are fast becoming redundant, and are obsolete really), then it is reasonable for them to want one.

Strictly speaking, they should have asked.  However, I still think that as satellite dishes are pretty standard equipment these days then you don't really have much of a case against them whatever the tenancy agreement states, unless, of course, you already had one dish up and did not want another. 

I still think that they may have saved you a job (and some money) if they do leave the dish, although you can't insist on that really.  I am, however, getting the impression that you neither supplied a dish nor wanted one up, which could prove a bit of a sticky wicket these days.     Would you yourself not wish to be able to watch TV in your home?     If the tenant feels "at home" in the property then maybe they are more likely to stay for the longer term, which is generally good from a landlord's perspective. 

I think Jools has made some very good suggestions.