UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

Completely new to being a private landlord as we used a management company before so we really aren't sure where we stand with this issue.

We would like to replace all the radiators in the property as they are old and look really tatty (but do work fine) and a date has been arranged with the tenant and contractor. The tenant has a habit of needing to go out on the day of any planned work meaning things get delayed.

The contractor said they will be rather cheesed off if they get cancelled on the day so I thought it would be best if I formally wrote to the tenant 24hrs before saying I will be letting the contractor in if they aren't in/have to go out. The tenant has replied saying as the work is 'upgrade' and not a repair, my notice isn't valid.

I checked the tenancy agreement and it just says ' To permit the Landlord, or any superior Landlord, or the Landlord's Agent or contractors or those authorised by the Landlord, upon giving at least 24 hours' notice in writing (except in an emergency) to enter the Premises at all reasonable times for the purpose of inspection and repair, to include inspection and repair to any adjoining or neighbouring Premises.'

Any advice on where we stand would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

Your notice is valid. But that's not helpful to anyone. I think they mean "legally enforceable".

Your notice probably doesn't meet the criteria for your contract term or the underpinning legislation. So you can't claim a contractual breach on those grounds if the tenant doesn't let your contractor in. Not that that really would help anyone much anyway.

You need to address the actual situation, not explore your theoretical rights. Is the tenant refusing to allow access to do the work? In which case, how much do you care about that? If enough, serve notice to the tenant, evict them and do the work. If that's too extreme, don't upgrade the radiators.

If you find yourself engaged with a legal debate with a tenant about what's legally "valid" and what isn't, one, or both, of you is probably doing something wrong.

I wouldn't be replacing functioning radiators for cosmetic reasons in an already tenanted property unless my intention was to sell it. Which would be something to have communicated to the tenant.

This is why this is a people business, not a property business.

You are arguing the toss with your Tenant (who, according to your text, has no pressing need for the radiator upgrade) about access. You've gone and encroached yourself into someone's life completely unnecessarily, is what it reads like. You won't benefit from the radiators being swapped-out so just leave this pet project until a better time. I mean, I know there's Inflation to account for but I don't think it's known as a great time to get radiators on the international radiator market. The whole premise doesn't make sense to me, unless further information is forthcoming and changes things. You seem to be a fan of "going formal" early... maybe your Tenant made you do this, but it's more successful to do things by the book (documents, GSCs etc.), but try to remain informal and flexible with things like access, rent increases etc..

Lastly - you don't care about the Contractor - they aren't paying you your income.

As Hippo says, we don't 'formally write' to our tenants, we phone or WhatsApp. They either say they'll be there or say let yourself in. Depends on the type of relationship you can make but we've been doing this for years now.