Sometimes emergencies will call for your tenants to shell out for a cost that they shouldn’t have to pay. If you’re out of the country and a pipe bursts or there’s a gas leak then your tenants will have had to pay for the repairs out of their own pocket. How can you go about making sure you’re even?
Emergency Repairs
In most cases the answer is pretty simple – if the work genuinely needed doing and your tenants paid a fair price then cash or cheque is a good idea. It’s not wise to arrange deals where you waive rent or refund a deposit, it’s best to keep rental income and maintenance expenditure separate on the whole.
Unwarranted Repairs
Sometimes your tenants will get a workman in or pay for repairs that you don’t feel you should be paying for. Tenants, particularly students, will often ask to be reimbursed for things like light bulbs or cleaning products.
A good distinction to make is the difference between capital expenditure and revenue expenditure: any big capital repairs that will improve your property are your responsibility whereas day-to-day replacements of low value items are revenue expenses and you don’t need to suffer them. In the event of a dispute it’s sometimes worth just giving in to diplomacy – tenants have been known to give their notice over maintenance costs.
Insurance Claims
If you’ve claimed for an item on your landlord insurance then it might be tempting to wait until the claim comes through to reimburse your tenants. Unfortunately, the cost of repairs is with the freeholder in most cases and, unless it’s a very small amount, your tenants should not suffer a cashflow disadvantage. Tenants who are waiting to be paid are in a powerful situation and they may refuse to pay rent if not reimbursed so, again, be diplomatic and be fair.
It’s a bad situation when you’re not around to pay for repairs, but it does happen. Ensure that you take steps to quickly refund your tenants and keep relationships good – it’s not wise to lose a year’s worth of rent over a £100 repair bill.
