How much "in house maintenance" do you as a LL expect or as a tenant give?

FBaby

But thats the point if I was paying market rate rent I would except these things included in the rent

But what's market rent but what someone is prepared to pay for? The level of maintenance required is likely to be mainly affected by how old the property is and this is likely to be reflected in the rental cost already.

cloo

It really does depend... when I was LL one of my tenant family was a tradesman, so they could do all minor repairs, but I got in electricians, plumbers etc when necessary. At other times tenants asked me if they could get a professional friend in to do things like decoration, carpets or replacing a light and I would reimburse them for the 'mates' rates' they got after inspecting the work, which went quite well.

As a LL I always erred on the side of being resposive and getting stuff done, as that's basically your responsibility. Plus I always felt really bad if anything went wrong and wanted it sorted ASAP!

aneary

FBaby wrote: »

But what's market rent but what someone is prepared to pay for? The level of maintenance required is likely to be mainly affected by how old the property is and this is likely to be reflected in the rental cost already.

I looked at two flats in the same building and the same layout one had a slightly larger terrace and was £25 a month more (the one I stupidly rented). After talking to my neighbour about the issues I was having with my LL she told me her LL was actually really good and the level of service was far better than I got.

So no the level of maintenance the LL does is often not reflected in the price. Market rate is market rate the input of the LL is down to whether he is a prat or not.

p00hsticks

Wyndham wrote: »

In terms of what I prefer - it's tricky. I want hassle free, but I'd really like somewhere to hang my dressing gown and in my current rental I'm not allowed to put hooks on the doors

If you're not too fussed about completely closing the doors (as in my experience you can't when using them) one of these might do the trick https://www.matalan.co.uk/product/detail/s2538067/chrome-over-door-hooks?gclid=CjwKCAjwgvfOBRB7EiwAeP7ehos9nBK_DQLJC-QopAwHizsUs4e8iEWhwltzI8vXZZ5KodsZ3AOK8xoCPJMQAvD_BwE

clairesilverspar

I think it depends on a number of things, including cost, skills and risk. I'm not going to spend money on fixtures/fittings that I'm only going to leave behind.


As a tenant, I'm happy to bleed radiators and change lightbulbs as I'm confident in my ability to not screw it up. Afterall, I've worn the lightbulb out with use, and I'm not going to sit in darkness, and I want my heating to be as efficient as possible - I'm paying for it.
When it comes to the bigger stuff though, If I thought there would be a risk for me to mess it up and cause damage, I would be asking the landlord. It's not my house to risk damaging it.


I'd probably be happy to have a go fixing the toilet seat, especially if it is just tightening a screw, but if I though I was going to risk breaking it, I'd inform/check with my landlord first.
I like to think I'm fairly handy with small DIY, but it would eventually come down to the idea of "it's not my house".


I'd be happy for the landlord to say to me "could you try doing it yourself" as long as they accepted that I'm no professional, and if I thought it was too risky (but wasn't being ridiculous) they'd need to accept no as an answer.

rtho782

I guess it depends on the tenant.

I'm a homeowner now, but probably did more than the landlord would have liked me to do in the past. I've changed toilet valves, because I'd usually rather do it myself and spend £15 than have people come to visit my home. Going back futher, I once changed an immersion heater element myself (because the old one had corroded and died, it was tripping the electrics). Again, only cost me about £25 for the element, and I would rather spend £25 than have an "inspection".

On neither occasion did I even tell the LL I had done these, as then they would probably have come visit.

Part of my reluctance to have visits is that my other half will go through a cleaning spree panic (it's always clean anyway, she's just a bit houseproud and will go mad when we have visitors) which I find becomes stressful, the other part is that I don't tend to want to wait however long it would take to get someone to come out when I have no hot water/no working toilet.

Finally, I used to have cats when I wasn't supposed to, so having visits meant hiding the cats away, taking them to a friends.

I'm not sure if that means I was a good tenant or a bad tenant on balance. However none of our LLs ever knew we had cats on leaving, so it's not like we left the place in a state!

doverdover

As a tenant, I expect the landlord to deal with major things (usually structural, boiler, locks, floors, electrical faults etc).

We do most other things - stuff like fixing curtain rails, doors, cosmetic things etc we just do ourselves as it's quicker than spending 6 weeks negotiating with a letting agent about it.

I find it a bit scary that people would request lightbulbs to be changed or similar.

My landlord sees no responsibility other than collecting his rent though. I dread to think what would happen if the boiler packed in.

Hutchch0920

My LL is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard so if me or my housemates think we can fix it we'll give it a go.

Most recently our washing machine packed up, the LL had conveniently bought one back in 2015 which was stored in the shed, so we (myself a 5'3" 60kg woman and my male housemate) carried it in and fitted it. Without the right tools it took us ages to get the transport bolts out but was much quicker than begging the LL to see to it, which would have taken him months.

I also recently patched a hole in the wall which a mouse was using for access into the kitchen. I'd told LL and his brother (Who was living there at the time) that it was an issue on a couple of occasions with no reply. I eventually saw to it myself with a glue gun and some cardboard....which obviously looks a right mess but does the job....more fool the LL for being a useless !!!!! (there is no inventory and our deposit is not protected so it's being used as the last month's rent - probably shows you how interested the LL is in going things properly).

Carl31

When we rented, we treated the house as our own, so minor damage, bulb replacements etc.. we did ourselves. The only time we called the LL was either for failed white goods, or a major flood issue

Wyndham

p00hsticks wrote: »

If you're not too fussed about completely closing the doors (as in my experience you can't when using them) one of these might do the trick https://www.matalan.co.uk/product/detail/s2538067/chrome-over-door-hooks?gclid=CjwKCAjwgvfOBRB7EiwAeP7ehos9nBK_DQLJC-QopAwHizsUs4e8iEWhwltzI8vXZZ5KodsZ3AOK8xoCPJMQAvD_BwE

Thanks for this - I have something similar. I also remove them when the landlord is coming round (not often) as I just don't want the aggro. They are a bit 'precious' about the flat - I think they'd prefer to have the rental income, without anyone actually living there.... It's fine for my part time 'away' life, but it would never be a home!