Tenants Damaged Work Surface!

meester

squoog wrote: »

but oh so:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

not naughty, true.

We've lived in a couple of newbuilds and they look HORRIBLE within a few months. All that shiny laminate deteriorates very quickly, not to mention there are always defects in a new building. Give me a nice old house any day, one that's stood the test of many years.

Imp

Find three joiners, get some quotes, get the work done, charge the tenants about 80% of the cost due to depreciation.

And while your at, let me know how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

meester

jammy78 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

I do not want £550 just for the work surface. I wanted to find out a reasonable amount to deduct. I know a work surface will only cost £50 - £60 what it is a tricky job to fit. So labour must be £100 - £200?

I am estimating £550 for:

1. Loft Hatch which is badly damaged & need replacing (which isn't wear & tear) = £125

Do you have a proper professionally conducted inventory showing that it was in good working order when they moved in? How has it been damaged?

2. The jungle, I mean garden (I provided them with a lawnmower) = £80

Was this written in their contract? Again, did you get a professionally conducted inventory showing the state when you moved in? FWIW, mine says 'garden: overgrown, weeds'

Is your garden of several acres? Here in super-pricey Surrey, I called several gardeners, and the prices ranged between £10 and £20 an hour.

4-8 hours to mow a lawn?

I don't think so. More like 30 minutes.

3. Large computer table / desk - which they asked me to leave = £20 (part of cost)

Sorry, not sure what you mean by this? Did they take your desk?

4. Holes left in wall due to them putting up blinds, which I told them they need to repair any damage/holes before they leave = £25

Again, did you get a professionally conducted inventory stating the condition before you moved in?

5. Work Surface = £200 - £300?

Get a quote, you can't pluck numbers out of thin air.

And why did it get damaged so easily? Sounds like it wasn't suitable.

I think you are missing the point with your 'reasonable amount to deduct'

There is a procedure to follow wrt to managing damage caused to rented property.

1. On move-in, pay for professional inventory of whole property (will typically come to about 30 pages for a normal-sized house). In many cases the tenant will be charged the cost as part of their agreement.
2. On move-out, pay for professional inventory of whole property.
3. Use the results of check-out inventory to find damage caused by the tenancy, and ask the appropriate tradesmen for quotes to remedy the damage.
4. Send the details of the damage to the tenant along with the quotes, ask them to confirm.
5. Assuming tenant has no disagreement, get the work done, and return the the deposit to the tenant, minus the agreed costs.

Strongly advise looking at this site

http://www.saxoninventories.co.uk/

Here's what an inventory should look like

http://www.saxoninventories.co.uk/assets/applets/Residential_sample.pdf

Have a read

http://www.saxoninventories.co.uk/html/check_out.html

jammy78

Yes I had done a full inventory of the property (even with pictures)!

With the garden it is in the contract & they have agreed to pay for the grass to be cut. I would like to see anyone cut the grass in 30 mins in this weather. Have you tried cutting 10 inches of grass soaked in water - maybe with a industrial mower?

I had a desk in the spare room which I was going to take out before they moved in but they asked me to leave it. I think they dismantled it to move in a bed & then re-assembled it, causing damage.

Anyway I think people have got the wrong idea about me judging on the comments. All I really wanted to know is the process of claiming money from the deposit for repairs.

I don't want to take their deposit as like some kind of benefit. I just want to put right for the damages which I think they have cause?!

So all you had to say was I needed to get quotes from the professionals, rather than estimating the costs.

Thanks!?

Imp

jammy78 wrote: »

I don't want to take their deposit as like some kind of benefit. I just want to put right for the damages which I think they have cause?!

So all you had to say was I needed to get quotes from the professionals, rather than estimating the costs.

Thanks!?

Firstly, it is not up to you to think they have caused damage. It is not a unilateral decision. The tenants have to agree, and if they don't then it goes to arbitration/court.

If you are a professional joiner, by all means estimate the cost for replacing the work surface. If you are a professional gardener, by all means estimate the cost for cutting the lawn

If you are not, what are you basing your estimate on? You might get away with it if you use an up to date price book, but these are costing around £130 at the moment.

Would you be happy if the tenants estimated the cost for fixing the work top at £3.50? Would you challenge that? How about if they just plucked the numbers out of the air rather than getting the actual costs?

If you are going to charge your tenants, then you should either have the work done, or charge them a tiny fraction of the price based on the reduced life of the items. Take your work top. You could work out the price to repair it, decide not to do it, you can only charge your tenants part of the cost of repairing it. Otherwise, every time a tenant damages it, you could charge them for a new work top, not put one in and pocket the deposit dishonestly.

If you are going to play at being a landlord, then play properly or take your toys home.

SingleSue

How big is the garden?

Even if wet and at that length for a normal sized garden it would take next to no time for a strimmer to get it down to a level where a normal mower can go through it.

My back garden is 130ft long and my brother can do the whole lot in less than an hour...and that also includes the 30 foot front garden!

For a normal length garden (60foot approx), for strimming and then going over with a mower would take at the outside 2 hours.

Gardeners can be picked up for between £10-£15 per hour (unless you employ my brother who charges £5!)

Gingernutmeg

jammy78 wrote: »

With the garden it is in the contract & they have agreed to pay for the grass to be cut. I would like to see anyone cut the grass in 30 mins in this weather. Have you tried cutting 10 inches of grass soaked in water - maybe with a industrial mower?

You don't need an industrial mower. I had to do this when I moved into my last house as (surprise surprise) neither the landlord or the letting agent had looked after the garden during the time the house was empty, and yet I was expected to keep the garden in a nice condition. I got a 'Worth It' strimmer from Woolworths for about £10, and the cheapest lawnmower I could (£20). It took me about an hour of hard work to get an average sized garden looking nice (and yes the grass was wet through). I bet a gardener with 'professional' equipment could do it even faster.

huntersc

Do you have any pictures of the damage? Or the garden? I think we would all be interested in seeing exactly what it is you want to charge £500 for.

Lavendyr

jammy78 wrote: »

So all you had to say was I needed to get quotes from the professionals, rather than estimating the costs.

Several people, myself included, said this from the very start; however you have continued to pull figures out of thin air. As has been stated - several times now - go and get three quotes from reputable tradesmen so that you can demonstrate you have obtained reasonable quotes - then select the cheapest.

Deposit deductions are not one-way, though, and if the tenant disagrees with any of your complaints, they can commence a dispute with the deposit protection scheme. The scheme will then arbitrate and will provide a decision on a fair amount that you should retain. The decision will thus be entirely out of your hands. So it is in your interest to provide a reasonable and justifiable figure in the first place.

olly300

Lavendyr et al the OP is not interested.

They brought a new house and had to rent it out so they have an emotional attachment to it.

If they didn't have an emotional attachment to it they would think like a business person and also realise that the majority of tenants are extremely bad at keeping gardens to the standard the landlord wants.