RENTAL PROPERTY LAW - SHOR TERM TENANT WRECKED GARDEN - CONTRACT SPECIFIES CARE OF GARDEN

Grumpy_chap

It is all down to what the regulated deposit company will reasonably allow you to deduct.  You have no further redress.  I assume there was a regulated deposit?

onwards&upwards

The mind boggles.  Spending lots of time and money on a high maintenance garden... for a short term rental property.  Really?

greatcrested

It may be that any deposit taken by the OP (if any) did not need to be protected, as this may well not have been an AST.

* who was your tenant? The agent? The relocation company? The occupant? On the contract or tenancy agreement that you signed as 'The Landlord', who is named as 'The Tenant'?

* I suspect you have a commercial tenancy with the relocation company - but that is just an assumption.

* if so, any claim you have is against that relocation company, not the occupant (who would have been a sub-tenant).

* frankly, this whole arrangement has been entered into most unwisely:

- you have little idea of the legal contract you entered into

- of the rights/obligations of either yourself or the other partie(s)

- of the implications of a short-term contract

- of the implicaions of letting a property to which you have emotional attachments

The bottom line is that you may have a legal claim against whoever your tenant was (see above) but you will need firm evidence of the condition of the garden at the start of the tenancy, and at the end, plus exact wording of the contract.Plus a willingness to go to court if necessary.

ps - what contract did you have with the letting agent? Tenant find only? Tenancy management? Did you pay them to do an inventory? If yes, what does it say?

macman

So, the garden was 'wrecked', but the house was apparently in perfect order? 
You appear to be letting your emotional attachment to the garden get the better of you: why on earth are you letting such a property on such short lets, where the rate of turnover is bound to produce a high degree of wear and tear (or worse)? 

p00hsticks

zoologiy said:

The tenant arrived and I greeted them and said I would be in once a week to check on the garden as it was important. 

So what happened when you checked the first week and saw that the plants weren't doing well ?

Soot2006

I do understand you, OP, because I am very emotional about my plants and I am always worried when someone else looks after them for a while. In fact, I am much more garden proud than house proud. However, it sounds like at least some of these plants were not actually established and were still rooting in. Over the last 3 months, which presumably covers your tenants' 5 weeks, I have been having to water any newer plants twice a day; I actually replanted a newer shrub because it was so badly not thriving that I decided to replant it with a completely different compost to combat the drought; even my established hedge has needed some special TLC. Your tenants may well have "look after" the garden and it could be worth seeing if the more established plants did better than the newer ones, but for everything to be dead within 5 weeks suggests a lack of watering and in recent weeks/months, a LOT more water than usual has been needed ... The good news is that many plant and anti-drought shut down mechanisms and you may well be able to bring them back to life in the autumn.

unforeseen

TBH if I was only staying at a house for 5 weeks I wouldn't give a toss about the garden, and would do nothing about it at all. 
For short stays like 5 weeks I assume it's fully furnished. People will treat it like a holiday let/Airbnb.

If you want people to look after your property, short term lets are not the way to go about it. 

csgohan4

I assume the person was working during those 5 weeks, can you reasonable expect someone to water the plants during the day when working out of the house??

OP maybe renting is something you need to reevaluate? Too much emotional and sentiment in the house

SuperHan

If I was told to look after a garden, I'd think about mowing the lawn once a month and watering the garden maybe once a week, maybe once every ten days.

 I would certainly not be watering twice a day, unless I was 'garden sitting' for a short period with clear instructions. Definitely not somewhere I was a tenant and at a place that was essentially my home. It sounds from other more green-fingered posters that my idea of looking after a garden would have resulted in all of your plants dying... So I think this might just be a mismatch of perspectives.

You are probably asking for this though by letting out (and particularly on such short terms!) properties with gardens you are so proud of. These are business assets, not something to be emotionally tied to. 

oystercatcher

OP says garden is 5 foot long !!    I think someone is messing about!