Tenants smelly cooking

Tenants smelly cooking

14:47 PM, 8th January 2014, About 10 years ago 42

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My tenants of five months seem to live on curry. The flat smells of it every time I go around, despite my asking them to open windows and ensure the cooker hood is used. A tenant from an adjoining flat has already left because of the continuous smell.

Three questions:

(a) can I evict due to the offensive smell?

(b) can I make a claim off their deposit for deep cleaning and replacement of impregnated furnishings that won’t clean?

(c) in future, can I write something into the agreement (as I have with smoking) to prevent strong smelling spices being used in the property?

Many thanks  Smelly tenants

Stewart


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Comments

Industry Observer

8:54 AM, 4th February 2014, About 10 years ago

Mark

The 'clause' in effect is the earlier ones I published which then link in with these above if they have apperared in the inventory and are then backed up by something very simple, sensitive and diplomatic in the non standard clauses.

It has to be S, S and D because of course you are only inserting the clause either in anticipation of a future problem based on past experience, and the 50/50 chance of it happening again with tenants you are about to install, or else you can then include it in a reneal agreement if you are starting to get, to put it subtly, a 'whiff' of a possible future problem.

This is another benefit of renewals v periodics, another big advantage being that few but the total risk takers would not re-protect and re-issue PI for the deposit on a renewal whereas some non believers to this day still do not do so on a tenancy going periodic.

In short there is no standard clause, there simply cannot be. It is experience and probability combined with the battery of clauses that make the total package.

One final point. Someone mentioned the clauses relating to acting in a tenant like manner, which alongside the clause about general behaviour and impact on others also links into all this. I have had cases where this was a real problem in a multiple occupancy property, as opposed to separate dwellings and even flats, so it is a holistic approach that is needed

Mary Latham

18:50 PM, 4th February 2014, About 10 years ago

All the clauses under the sun will not alter the fact that what is a nasty smell to one person is a "homely" smell to another.

A few years ago a delegate on a seminar asked me what he could do about a tenant in an HMO who was filling the building with strong cooking smells and causing other tenants to move out. Before I could answer - not that I had a solution - another delegate said that he owned an Indian Restaurant and let the rooms above. He had no problems with the smells disturbing his tenants because he used a commercial extractor to remove them. The first delegate asked if this was expensive and the second delegate quoted a price and product name. I asked if he meant the huge ventilation units I had seen on outside walls and I was assured that he did not. This was a while ago and I cannot remember the product name but I am sure the Google will know but I do remember that the price was just not an enormous amount.

Many of my tenants cook foods that I don't like to smell but they seem not to cause problems to other tenants. If they did I would find and fit the extractors used by restaurants because I would not want to go through an interrogation of my prospective tenants eating habits nor to make my AST's read like War & Peace.

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