Tenants complaining of smoke smell

marshall666

Hello, accidental landlords here. We moved into a house together and the smarter of the two of us already had a place, which we are letting out (still too high a LTV to go interest only, so the monthly balance can be a bit precarious. all with banks approval etc.)

We have two new tenants (joint tenancy), prior to them we had a stoner who decided to start growing "supplies" in the back bedroom, causing a police raid and his eviction. Obviously his disregard for the tenancy agreement included smoking in the house as well as doing a bit of indoor gardening.

The two new tenants are a lovely couple of mature students, non smokers, all good. They visited the house twice (its a 2 bed terrace), on the second viewing the house had been shut up for at least a week without any airing at all. All seemed good, papers signed, wonderful.
We even told them about the problems with the previous tenant, pointing out a small cigarette burn in the carpet in one room (i.e, the house was smoked in), and the inventive use of the rear bedroom.

A week in and they started complaining about a terrible smell of smoke. They have apparently tried cleaning the carpets, washing the walls, air fresheners (!?) but the smell is so bad they are getting headaches, and it happens to be worse in the back bedroom which was used for gardening. The air fresheners they are using are also making them ill...

We've given them an air purifier (HEPA and carbon filters) to try for a week; when we dropped it off they invited us to smell the back bedroom which they now keep shut to stop the smell spreading. We both thought it smelled quite nice! They are clearly very sensitive to smell. They claim that they can not use the room due to the smell, and have not unpacked anything into that room.

The fact that they are both nursing students who presumably have to deal with a variety of unpleasant odours makes me wonder how this sensitivity is going to affect their careers, but I digress..

Given this sensitivity, I get the feeling that the air purifier will not work, from their point of view.
They have already suggested that we redecorate in order to remove the smell. That is not going to happen, full stop.

So - while I feel they are being ridiculous, I thought I should check and make sure I am not the one losing their grip on reality. Do they have any kind of argument at all? They are signed in to a 6 month tenancy, should we just cut them loose (they seem willing to leave without argument), or hold them to the contract?

Your thoughts most appreciated!

Lou24

First question, Do you smoke?

If I go Into someone's house who smokes or have smoked. I can smell it. Maybe just paint the house. It will freshen it up.

Did you put new carpets in? As the smell will always be there even if you clean the carpet.


If you don't want to paint the house. Let the people in there know If they want to paint it, they can.

Or just let them go. Sounds like it would be an easier choice

It doesn't sound like your being fair.

princeofpounds

Well they don't have a right to a redecoration.

But from my experience redecoration is the only thing that deals with smoke smells. And they are very pervasive, so if someone has been smoking for an extended period of time I very much doubt it smells 'quite nice' if nothing has been done.

The air purifier is going to do nothing, as the release from the surfaces is slow and continual.

Your attitude come across as a slightly weird mix between honest and helpful (disclosure of the issue, providing a purifier) and dismissive.

If I were you, I would make two offers. You can give them permission to repaint the troubled room themselves. Or you can agree to their surrender of the tenancy, which is a neat way to resolve the problem without getting into a grudge match.

Mallotum_X

Is there a carpet in the back bedroom, can you borrow a carpet cleaner - either rent or from a friend and shampoo the carpet. For a bedroom this is going to take an hour or so.

Are the walls painted or wall papered, a quick coat of paint is again not going to take very long and will get rid of any smell.

I would be tempted to make the effort, as this is only going to take the two of you an afternoon or so to do, so surely thats easier than keep having to go round.

Bantex_2

The smell of smoke would not be grounds to break a tenancy.

marshall666

Lou24 wrote: »

First question, Do you smoke?

If I go Into someone's house who smokes or have smoked. I can smell it. Maybe just paint the house. It will freshen it up.

Did you put new carpets in? As the smell will always be there even if you clean the carpet.


If you don't want to paint the house. Let the people in there know If they want to paint it, they can.

Or just let them go. Sounds like it would be an easier choice

It doesn't sound like your being fair.

Neither of us smoke. We cleaned the carpets but didn't put new ones in.

marshall666

Mallotum_X wrote: »

Is there a carpet in the back bedroom, can you borrow a carpet cleaner - either rent or from a friend and shampoo the carpet. For a bedroom this is going to take an hour or so.

Are the walls painted or wall papered, a quick coat of paint is again not going to take very long and will get rid of any smell.

I would be tempted to make the effort, as this is only going to take the two of you an afternoon or so to do, so surely thats easier than keep having to go round.

Carpet cleaner is the next option I think. The walls are papered. I don't think we're being that unfair if they signed up to the place as seen/smelt and are now trying to get us to redecorate. I think they would complain about the carpet even if the walls were painted. Half of me thinks they'd complain about the smell of the paint if we painted it!

Annie1960

Either fix the problem, or release them from their contract.

If you don't fix the problem, the risk is that your next tenants will also find the smell a problem.

WestonDave

They were notified of the issue and signed a contract on the basis of that so as adults (albeit naïve young ones) you are entitled to see out the contract. As you have made efforts to resolve the problem and on your inspection there didn't appear to be an issue, you have done all that is reasonable to resolve it and so I don't see why you should suffer a void period at this point especially with finances tight. By the time they leave at the end of the 6 months the smell will have diminished further anyway, but you'll have a chance to plan for a quick redecoration before showing new tenants around. They may moan and whinge but they need to learn that a contract is a binding agreement and they will have to stick by what they sign!

marshall666

princeofpounds wrote: »

Well they don't have a right to a redecoration.

But from my experience redecoration is the only thing that deals with smoke smells. And they are very pervasive, so if someone has been smoking for an extended period of time I very much doubt it smells 'quite nice' if nothing has been done.

The air purifier is going to do nothing, as the release from the surfaces is slow and continual.

Your attitude come across as a slightly weird mix between honest and helpful (disclosure of the issue, providing a purifier) and dismissive.

If I were you, I would make two offers. You can give them permission to repaint the troubled room themselves. Or you can agree to their surrender of the tenancy, which is a neat way to resolve the problem without getting into a grudge match.

You talk a lot of sense. Honestly the room smelt fine, fwiw the previous tenant had been growing weed in there, rather than smoking. The house was empty for nearly a month before we put these guys in, and well ventilated during that time.

I like your two option idea; think that is the way forwards.

marshall666

WestonDave wrote: »

They were notified of the issue and signed a contract on the basis of that so as adults (albeit naïve young ones) you are entitled to see out the contract. As you have made efforts to resolve the problem and on your inspection there didn't appear to be an issue, you have done all that is reasonable to resolve it and so I don't see why you should suffer a void period at this point especially with finances tight. By the time they leave at the end of the 6 months the smell will have diminished further anyway, but you'll have a chance to plan for a quick redecoration before showing new tenants around. They may moan and whinge but they need to learn that a contract is a binding agreement and they will have to stick by what they sign!

that's what my Mr Hyde side says! Dr Jekyll says keep them happy and let them go if they want to; if this is an issue to them imagine what they'll be like if something like damp becomes a problem...