Who is responsible for tenants valuables during work done to property?

[Nathalie]

Hi,

Need some confirmation here... A property which I let out as a shared house (HMO) will be undergoing some major electrical work for the next couple of weeks (lighting will be rewired), this means lifting of floorboards etc etc. Who's responsibility is the tenants valuables? While I will be making every effort to supervise the electricians in the bedrooms it may not be possible 100% of the time as it is a very large property and there will be a team of electricians to supervise. Can the tenant hold me responsible if anything were to go missing (hopefully unlikely) even though I will have warned them in advance and asked them to store their valuables in a safe place?

Basically I have done so, but a tenant has emailed me saying he will not give permission to access his room (despite this being essential work for safety reasons) unless I can guarantee the safety of his valuables.

Also am I right in thinking that if he denied access to his room and essential work needed doing, he would be liable for any future accidents in that room while he is a tenant, if it were directly related to that area of the wiring? I learnt that in the Landlord Buy-to-Let show this week!

Thanks

Nathalie

[Mortitia]

Hi Nathalie,

I think it may be difficult to get inurance to cover such a risk while the work is going on but if you are using an elelctrical firm with a good reputatiion then I would like to think that there would be no problem. You could offer to store in a rented lock up space particular valuables but I would take care to photo graph them and list them with the tenants present to be sure. Quite a lot of extra work in this.

As for your problem tenant I would be inclined to get the contractor to do his room on a specific day and stay there myself (take a book) until the work is done then lock the door behind me. Ask the tenant first what his paricular valuables are - like an antique emerald ring or whatever.

Rather than go down the route of him being liable for any future mishap (I find that hard to believe that he could be held so) I would try a more positive approach and get him to co-operate and if necessary get your local council health and safety person for HMO's in to spell it out to him. Give these sometimes lazy council workers something to do to help you.

Hope this gives you some pointers.

Mortitia