am i being an unreasonable landlord?

mirrorimage0

well landlady but thats irrelevant lol

we have a tenant in whose contract expires in jan. the previous tenant did not decorate very well at all and to be honest needed completley redoing , ie skirting boards, bathroom , kitchen everything.

anyway new tenant wanted in asap so we didnt have time to decorate but gave him a rent reduction (£590 pm instead of the £650 mark that goes round here) and he said he will smarten up as he goes along if he wants to.

well he hasnt done anything or going to, which does not bother me as he doesnt have to

so we have now offered to do it all as we have the money now. i rang him a few weeks ago and said would he like the whole flat done now, ie every room including new kitchen and bathroom. i explained it would take roughly 8 weeks and we can go in mon to fri when he is at work so we wont be in his way too much but obviously there is a lot of prep work to be done so may get dusty etc he said he was fine with that but now two weeks in is asking when it is going to be finished arghh

we have only just about finished the spare room and hallway, we have all the dusty work out the way, ie have cut the skirtingboards and everything for the other rooms and have cleaned up each day before leaving (infact have left it cleaner than he does.)

we are popping up to see him today to give him a more accurate itineray and see if he is still ok with this but just wanted opinions on this matter on wether im being unreasable or not. i am 8 month pregnant at the mo so possibly hormonale lol

Dave101t

so your giving him brand new stuff, and he isnt even a long term tenant?
Its unreasonable to offer what you are offering, if its all working, make do!

mirrorimage0

thanks, sorry forgot to add, he would like to be a long term tenant but we are toying with the idea of selling it when his contract runs out but not 100% sure yet.

evoke

Jeez.

Kick the whinger out.

Eliza_2

I think he's very lucky to be having all this work done, I've lived here 10 yrs and had to do all decorating etc myself (including fitting kitchen etc)

Anyway, you may just be jumping the gun a bit, he may just be asking for a more accurate date for when the work will be done rather than putting pressure on you to get it done more quickly. Your idea of visiting him with the schedule of work is a good one and I'm sure he'll be happy with that. It always seems to last forever when you're having your house done!!

colli

mirrorimage0 wrote: »

thanks, sorry forgot to add, he would like to be a long term tenant but we are toying with the idea of selling it when his contract runs out but not 100% sure yet.

he's probably guessed this which is why he's being difficult. I always knew when a landlord got their paint brush out they weren't doing it for my benefit! In his situation I'd guess you'll do the work, get a couple of EAs round to value it and put it on the market if the value is pleasing.

elvis86

colli wrote: »

he's probably guessed this which is why he's being difficult. I always knew when a landlord got their paint brush out they weren't doing it for my benefit! In his situation I'd guess you'll do the work, get a couple of EAs round to value it and put it on the market if the value is pleasing.

I agree. He shouldn't have agreed to you carrying out the work if he wasn't happy with the timescales/level of disruption that would be involved. But really I think you were a bit silly (and perhaps cheeky) to suggest doing it whilst he's living there, if you are doing it with a mind to making it more saleable.

If he was happy with the state of the place, IMO, what you should have done is made a decision RE selling, given him notice if you decided to sell, and then spent the 8 weeks doing the place up on your own time instead of his.

China2

I'm not sure what the guy has done wrong?

I think you're the one who is being a bit sneaky. You mentioned he would like to be a long term tennant, therefore I assume you have mentioned something in passing to this effect to make him believe that. Yet you are decorating the house with a view to selling and are very lucky he agreed to let you in to do the works so you're still getting rent for these 8 weeks, as i'm sure he would have said no if he knew your plans. The least you could do would be to let him know timescales for things.

elvis86

China2 wrote: »

I'm not sure what the guy has done wrong?

I think you're the one who is being a bit sneaky. You mentioned he would like to be a long term tennant, therefore I assume you have mentioned something in passing to this effect to make him believe that. Yet you are decorating the house with a view to selling and are very lucky he agreed to let you in to do the works so you're still getting rent for these 8 weeks, as i'm sure he would have said no if he knew your plans. The least you could do would be to let him know timescales for things.

I think in fairness, the tenant was wrong to agree to the work being carried out.

But yes, I agree that carrying out an 8 week schedule whilst he's paying rent on the property is a bit cheeky, and the OP really should have done this on their own time and took the hit of losing rental income.

mirrorimage0

thanks for the replys people, i havent been sneaky at all, he knew when he moved in that it was probably only for a yr lease, when i spoke to him about decorating the place, i told him it was with a view to sell so he knows all this upfront, i also asked if he would like the place done up whilst he was living in it so it was nice for him for a while to which he said yes.

we dont have a problem with doing the work once he has moved out and losing the rental income for a couple of months, we also told him this but thats also why he has had a decreased rent for a yr.

im just on my way up there now to have a chat so will see what the outcome is.

possible solitions i will put to him, is letting him know how long each room will take, and in what order they are to be done in. or we will finish off the hallway and spare room and leave it till he has vacated.

maybe he just didnt realise how it would look whilst being done, he did mention that he feels he cant bring girls back whilst it is being done so i think this may be the only issue. as we clean up every day before leaving so it isnt left dusty or anything and have also taken a lot of his junk down to the tip that he wanted rid off as we were going there anyway.

will update later on how it went. like i said in the op it may just be me being hormonal. lol

ps can i also add that we know he is having a week off work at the end of sep with a view to going to visit his parents and we offered to pay his train fare as then we could do the kitchen in that week so he wouldnt be without a working kitchen. we also offered that if he is there when we do the kitchen we would pay for takeaways for the week.

like i said we have no problem waiting until he has left in jan but offered to do it now so it was nice whilst he was there.

samroo

Have you given some thoughts about what you will do if the tenant wants to stay on after the initial year.