Tennants wants us to replace a laminate floor he fitted

[maradonut]

We have tennants who has made several changes to the property without asking our permission including decorating the living room, taking down fitted blinds and digging up the back garden, which we had previously had landscaped. One of the things the tennants have done is to fit a laminate floor in the living room.

After fitting the laminate flooring the tennants identified a problem with a leaking pipe in the living room, after onver a month they informed us of the problem and we arranged for a plumber to go around and take a look. The plumber found the problem and fixed it. This happened 2 weeks ago, today we collected the rent and the tennants have complained that when the plumber fixed the pipe water flooded onto the floor and has caused the laminate to raise and become blistered. When I asked them why they hadn't told us sooner they said they wanted to wait until the rent was collected to let us know. They have also, only today told us that the work carried out by the plumber has not fixed the problem and water is still leaking onto the laminate. I havent seen the damage yet, or the fitted floor but I have a feeling that they fitted it directly on top of the original carpet. Where do we stand as far as liability for the damage to the laminate?

[Carryon Regardless]

I assume your AST contract prohibits such changes without consent,

then you have no liability for their floor. You could request that they restore to original, at least at departure.

The carpet if still beneath could well be rotting, I would be concerned at the smell yet to come.

But at least they will be insured for their own belongings (the floor), won't they ?

[maradonut]

cheers for the reply,

Just for clarification, my original post gave the impression the tennats had fitted the floor without consent but they did ask for permission beforehand, however we have said that the florring must either be left as laminate or returned to carpet.

The decorating and garden work has been done without consent.

I have arranged a meeting with them next week to discuss these issue and will be taking a copy of the original AST with me to clarify a few points.

[Carryon Regardless]

A little different but insurance would normally cover these events anyway.

My AST makes T's responsible for insuring their own possessions, as we generally only insure for buildings risks imagine the outlay to compensate T's following a fire that was deemed to be a cause of the L's installation.

If they have a problem with the floor returning it to carpet state would resolve this and give you free inspection of your possession (the carpet).

To digress further, an issue I have with laminate flooring is that they are free floating and the problem if someone spills a bottle of milk, or other, and it gets under-yuk.

I would only take a copy of the AST, stored safely it may be very important at a later date c/w signatures.

[maradonut]

Just spoken to the tennants about this issue and they dont have insurance and feel that the plumbers insurance should pay for the new floor.

[Carryon Regardless]

This only demonstrates their hope for a 'try on'.

Can you imagine the plumber not requesting some evidence of the 'little' amount of water that had escaped in the month prior to repair.

They're not insured for their own possessions I would assume they're willing to accept the result of their risk (gamble).

[Melboy]

Just spoken to the tenants about this issue and they dont have insurance and feel that the plumbers insurance should pay for the new floor.

From what you have said that won't happen will it?

The leak was already there on the laminate floor before he 'fixed' it and I have to say any plumber who cannot fix a simple leaking pipe needs a career change.

If this plumber is as bad as your tenant is saying I doubt very much he even has public liability insurance.

The bottom line is your tenant should have their own contents insurance.

If this was us fixing a leaking pipe which, I have to say, would have been professionally completed, any re-occurance of a leak would have been attended to but being liable for the damage caused to the laminate floor would have been denied.

Let's face it they are trying something on here and this often happens with Tradesmen working in private homes.

Mel.

[letright]

In future it might be worth thinking about formalising any verbal agreements you have when it comes to the tenant making changes to the property. You should have an inventory that the tenant has signed which should remove the responsibility from you to pay for any damages that have occurred as a direct result from their changes to the property. One thing I have found useful in the past is Imfuna Let. It’s an app that allows you to document the state of the property, and make comparisons of its condition between certain points in time. That way you can see how the situation progresses (i.e. if there is a leak), and make sure you are kept in the clear when deciding on who’s responsibility it is to pay for the damage. I hope that helps!