My 2 hour walk cost me £194 when my tenant could not contact me?

My 2 hour walk cost me £194 when my tenant could not contact me?

8:40 AM, 12th January 2022, About 2 years ago 41

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While I was out on a walk my tenant tried to contact me to say her boiler had broken down and the emergency breakdown co I was insured with would not attend without my permission even though the tenant offered to pay the £70 call out fee.

By the time I returned after 2 hours, the tenant had ordered another company to come and fix the problem and I had to pay their £264 bill.

My insurance company pointed out that on page 17 of the T&C’s it said that only the landlord could arrange the callout.

The company has never needed my permission to attend the property to carry out boiler servicing or CP12 certificate in the past.

Should the tenant have waited longer than 2 hours before taking action?

Many thanks

Ashley


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Comments

Ashleigh

12:48 PM, 12th January 2022, About 2 years ago

What your tenant has done is not acceptable, however, if the tenant has been a ‘good’ tenant in the past and you have a good tenant/landlord relationship it would be a shame to compromise this. I would explain to the tenant that in future, more effort would be needed in trying to contact me and that 2 hours wouldn’t be an acceptable time frame to then go off and arrange their own contractors, and if it happened again, the tenant would be responsible for the costs. I would then probably suggest that we split the cost 50/50 on this occasion. The tenant should think themselves lucky and you keep a good relationship with them.

Tom C

13:27 PM, 12th January 2022, About 2 years ago

Explain that they should have contacted you first, or at least waited 48 hours before spending your cash.

Say that on this occasion you will pay the bill as a goodwill measure.

At the first opportunity raise their rent by £25 per month or £25 per month above your planned rent rise, to cover the bill.

Kash

14:05 PM, 12th January 2022, About 2 years ago

Who do people use for landlord home emergency cover and what are the fees?

paul kaye

14:11 PM, 12th January 2022, About 2 years ago

Most of the power suppliers give cover,like British gas.
I use a local company that are more reliable.
I can recommend the one I use to anyone who is located
around Spalding,Kings Lynn area
just drop a message.

paul kaye

14:11 PM, 12th January 2022, About 2 years ago

Most of the power suppliers give cover,like British gas.
I use a local company that are more reliable.
I can recommend the one I use to anyone who is located
around Spalding,Kings Lynn area
just drop a message.

Mick Nelson

15:36 PM, 12th January 2022, About 2 years ago

I do agree that only waiting for two hours before organising their own repair (to your property) is unreasonable. You could have any number of reasons to not be available at the drop of a hat, nor should you be.
However, I'm trying to look at this from the tenant's perspective. If they have no heating & hot water and you've not been contactable for 2 hours is there any guarantee you'll be available in 3 hours, 4 hours, 24 hours, the same week? I know for a fact that I don't routinely notify my tenants that I'm going to be away on holiday although I am normally contactable they wouldn't know that.
Without them having any way of knowing I can see possibly why the tenant took matters into their own hands even though only waiting two hours does sound unreasonable.
I'd be miffed but, assuming they are a decent tenant, I'd (reluctantly) take it on the chin and learn from it by putting contingency measures in place such as having more than one person on your policy who can authorise repairs and set out some clear guidelines for your tenant what the correct procedures are and if they did choose to ignore them and organise their own work in future it would be at their own expense.

Smiffy

19:43 PM, 12th January 2022, About 2 years ago

Two hours is far too short and I certainly wouldn't have paid the contractors bill. The tenant instructed them, so they are liable, the contractor should have clarified that before responding or proceeding with work. Even after they booked the contractor, they should have continued to try to contact the landlord.

It is also not unreasonable for the insurer to not respond to a tenant if that is not previously agreed, you could end up with the insurance engineer responding to issues that are either not covered or non existant. For example reprogramming a timer or bleeding a radiator. The next issue could be if the repair carried out by the contractor fails, will the insurer cover further repairs?

The trouble is, we live in a society that expects everything to be instant and everyone immediately contactable.

Two hours is nothing, walk in the countryside, a movie at the cinema, dinner in a restaurant. The tenant needs to learn this the expensive way. Bill them.

Clint

20:02 PM, 12th January 2022, About 2 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Smiffy at 12/01/2022 - 19:43
I fully agree.

Chris H

20:28 PM, 12th January 2022, About 2 years ago

No reason a LL should pay for that repair, at best the tenant could hope for the £70 fee rpaid to them, not to mention was it really broke? A friend of a friend repaired 🙄
I have had tenants I would not trust to need a repair, arrange a repair or even be involved, so I side with the LL only arranging.

Ashley

17:31 PM, 13th January 2022, About 2 years ago

WHO SHOULD PAY THE LANDLORD OR THE TENANT?
I have decided to pay the all the emergency insurance bill my self.
I have had this tenant for more than 12 years and would not like to lose her over a payment of £196 which is about 10% of the monthly rental, losing the tenant, having the property empty, and paying, new check-in fees does not seem a good idea. I have now told the emergency repair company to accept any request for help directly from my tenant.

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