View on flooring clauses in a tenancy?

Reply to the comment left by at 29/08/2021 – 14:04
I always insist that the tenants pay for their own accidental damage insurance.
For a large detached four bed property this is only £60 per year in total
I insist on seeing it as a condition of the contract.
In 12 years I have had two claims.
One for £1500 and one for £300. Both claims were for damage to flooring. But you really do need to see the insurance and not take it on trust.

The tenant wants carpets in several replaced – like others, I’m sure it’s just a tactic to discourage the rent icrease. A lot depends on the condition of the carpets and how you feel about this tenant. I might counter that improving the standard of the property would mean the property would have to attract a higher rent.

Foam underlay does not gurantee quality and developers build to a price so don’t expect developer-supplied fittings to last. Tenants are often hard on carpets.

My fitter said most of his landlords buy cheap carpets and expect to replace between tenancies, and a minority went for a ‘stainfree’ carpet costs a bit more but looks OK for 10 years. I have found no problem removing stains, but they still melt when tenants leave a hot iron or hair curler on the floor 🙁

Hi my tenant complained 2 radiators (one in a bedroom and one in the kitchen) were getting hot but not heating the rooms. I have arranged a plumber to take a look. Now the tenant is saying it’s not the radiators it’s the underlay in the bedroom which isn’t thick enough and the flooring in the kitchen is not suitable. Not sure why?

My grandad lived in the property beforehand and agreed these two rooms were cooler than the others.

If the tenant wants underlay should I just purchase this as cheaper than radiators. I’m not sure how much better the kitchen would be with different flooring. I’m not totally convinced. I think it would be best with 2 new radiators? Should the tenant pay for the underlay?

I have a visit booked in for June. I think I might wait and discuss this again face to face. Any advice please. Thank you.

By way of example, social housing generally rip out all carpets to prevent complaints of lice etc, and leave it to tenants to put in what they want. There’s no fixed protocol for you to provide specific flooring, so long as your property has an EPC of E or better. The best guidance might be to consider whether thus tenant is someone you want to keep, or whether they have expectations which exceed what you are willing to provide.

Reply to the comment left by Jessie Jones at 21/05/2024 – 19:10
Hi Jessie. Thank you. I definitely do not wish to keep this tenant. Too many breaches unfortunately right from the start of the tenancy. The tenant said he would buy a carpet for the bedroom a few months ago. I’ll leave him to do exactly this. I’ve offered a plumber to go round to show I was willing to improve the heating. Lice etc is a concern as a dog was in the property for 7 weeks without permission.

Reply to the comment left by Alison Clark at 21/05/2024 – 19:25
In that case do no more than your contractual and legal obligations. And put the rent up to the maximum local rate every 12 months.

Reply to the comment left by Jessie Jones at 21/05/2024 – 19:59
Thank you. I have just requested a rent review via agent it’s now 6 months of a 18 mth fixed agreement. Tenancy agreement states LL reserves the right to review the rent on a six monthly basis and/or when the tenancy is renewed. Tenant has refused. It was minimal £750 to £775 I know it wouldn’t be a big increase after agent commission but planned to increase in small stages given COL.

Reply to the comment left by Jessie Jones at 21/05/2024 – 19:59
thats the way I am going with every rental from now on!

Reply to the comment left by Alison Clark at 21/05/2024 – 20:32
never give more than a 6 month AST. I’d rather retain the potential to give the tenant notice than be fixed to a longer period. A longer fixed AST is never in interests of the LL, only the T.

I appreciate all this will be gone with the RRB, but actually I see this as good thing. I know the costs in reletting/voids etc BUT the way its going a good tenant is going to want to find something and stay as its getting harder to secure anything at all…

Reply to the comment left by Reluctant Landlord at 22/05/2024 – 07:57
Thank you RL. I do think the agent should have advised a shorter initial tenancy term. However, I suppose if we had a good tenant then we wouldn’t be questioning this?

Do you think offering an early release is advisable? I’m definitely serving s21 when legally applicable, March 2025!! Horrendous first tenant!