Accidents happen. Annoying, I know. And especially so when they occur in your property without you even being on the premises. What’s more irksome than an accident though? A cigarette butt in a once-pristine carpet, that’s what.

Thing is, picking up the pieces following tenants’ accidents or misuse is just part and parcel with being a landlord. You kinda have to suck it up.

Well, sort of. Sure, you might need to deal with the issue and put things in motion to resolve it, but if you do your bit right you sure as hell won’t be paying for it. But what does that really entail? Have a read through this short guide and you’ll find out.

Wear and tear’s one thing; damage is another

Tenants and landlords both know and expect wear and tear to happen in rental properties. Old appliances that have finally broken down? Damage caused by gale-force winds? Discoloration of an ancient sofa? You know it’s going to happen, and you know it’s reasonable enough for you to deal with the consequences as the landlord.

But what if damage has occurred in a short amount of time, too short for it to be considered “wear and tear”? Or what if a window’s been broken, a carpet stained or a handle pulled off a cupboard? That’s when you know someone’s been misbehaving, and it certainly wasn’t you.

Whether it was the tenant themselves, a misguided friend or a pet who caused the issue through misuse, it’s not your responsibility to pay for the damage to be repaired.

Communication is key

I’m always saying this, and that’s because it’s so damned important in property. Being a good landlord and having the wheels of a tenancy turn smoothly is all down to honest, friendly communication.

The better your relationship with your tenant, the more likely they are to come forward and let you know if something’s amiss. That’s why it’s crucial that you build a respectful and trusting tenant/landlord relationship from the get-go of every tenancy.

With polite, effective and fairly regular communication (don’t go getting all overbearing now!), you can expect your tenants to come to you whenever there’s a problem. So if and when some sort of damage has occurred, make sure you reassure your tenant that you want to help them fix it. Thanking them for telling you won’t hurt either.

Establish the issue

As soon as you hear that something’s wrong at your property, politely ask your tenant to send you some photos and explain exactly what’s happened, so you can establish the issue.

Once you know what sort of problem you’re dealing with, it’s time to send in the big guns. Book an appropriate contractor to head on in to assess the fault and provide a quotation for repair. Ask them to send you “before” photos for your future reference, and to flag the fault as tenant misuse if they think that’s what’s happened.

Don’t forget to give your tenants ample warning that the contractor’s coming. If you’ve been successful in keeping things friendly, there shouldn’t be a problem.

Go back to your tenant

Now that the fault’s been assessed by your contractor and labelled as tenant misuse, you need to go back to your tenant and let them know what’s going on.

You should put this update in writing, quoting any clauses in the contract that are related to the issue and including any maintenance costs that have been quoted. It’s worth you mentioning that the fault is a breach of contract too, so your tenants know for absolute certain that responsibility for the cost lies with them.

Best follow your letter or email up with another friendly phone call too, to make sure things continue in the same vein.

Find a resolution

Work with your tenant to agree a resolution (one where they pay for the remedial works!) and continue to be super polite and upbeat throughout your communication. It might take a bit of back and forth, but you’ll get there in the end.

(And if you can’t get there and things turn sour, you should have grounds to speak to their guarantor or even to talk about serving a Section 21 Notice, since the damage caused was a breach of contract.)

One thing to note is that you should never ever ever discuss the idea of taking money from the deposit during your conversations with your tenants. You never know what else might go wrong during the remainder of their tenancy and you might need to keep that deposit for other “accidents” later down the line.

Go ahead with the works

Once a resolution’s been reached, take payment from your tenant then instruct your contractor to carry out the works. Ask them to send you “after” photos when they’re done or, better yet, arrange a visit with your tenant so you can take the photos yourself.

During that visit, make sure you’re happy with the remedial work and sign it off as a project completed. Send one final written bit of correspondence to your tenant to thank them for their cooperation and let them know everything’s been sorted.

Then put your feet up and pour yourself a congratulatory cuppa!

If you’ve got the vavavoom to deal with these sorts of issues in between all the other jobs on your to do list, that’s absolutely fabulous – more credit to you! But if you’d rather someone else took care of the dreaded parts of investment, the parts just like these, then we should talk about Hello Owl.

Hello Owl’s a property back office for investors just like you, offering top to tailfeather support without payroll. Whether it’s managing disputes with tenants, getting maintenance work done, or simply handling the day-to-day running of your entire portfolio, we’re here for you.

Give us a call on 020 3432 3888 or send an email to tell us what you’re looking for.