Tenant is billing me for refurb work he claims he’s done!

Tenant is billing me for refurb work he claims he’s done!

19:40 PM, 26th January 2015, About 10 years ago 3

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I am evicting a tenant with a section 8 in ten days time. Tenant is billing me for refurb work he claims he's done

The tenant has just issued me with repair bills which he claims to have done during his contract. No notification has been give as to any works being required.

The works include replacing all taps, lifting and refitting carpets due to noisy floor boards and replacing lights as they stopped working.

In addition to this he says he will be charging us for boarding out garage roof for storage and installing lights in garage and rodding drains owned by the water company. The list goes on!

Has anyone else had this problem on eviction?

Thanks

Dave


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Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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19:43 PM, 26th January 2015, About 10 years ago

I'd just press on with the eviction without mentioning the work if I were you. At worst he attempt to put it all back as it was but he may just leave it all.

If he tries to counter-claim for his work then he will need evidence of the fact that you commissioned it. If he has no such evidence then he's on a hiding to nothing.

My advice to you is say nothing regarding the works unless he raises it in Court
.

Tessa Shepperson

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11:59 AM, 27th January 2015, About 10 years ago

For tenants to be able to offset the cost of repair work this either needs to have been

1. agreed with the landlord, or it needs to be
2. work in respect of the landlords statutory repairing covenants which he has failed to do after being given notice.

In the latter case the tenant is supposed to give the landlord 3 invoices first and time to get the work done before being entitled to offset.

He is not entitled just to get work done willy nilly and then charge it to the landlord!

Mind you that does not mean that you may not have problems with some Judges ... Not all of them are up to speed on housing law issues.

You may want to consider getting representation. We have a service that can be used as part of our DIY eviction service http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/repossession-services-landlord-law

Dr Rosalind Beck

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17:21 PM, 30th January 2015, About 10 years ago

Sorry to be flippant but can you get him to come around and do the same to my floorboards! Mine are very squeaky (NB I've never heard anything so ridiculous in my whole life - to try and claim for something so trivial. Some tenants come up with some really crazy shit, but as Tessa says, unfortunately some judges could be stupid enough to take it into account... but I don't think they would on this occasion). I'd do as Mark says and completely ignore it and not mention it because it's nonsense and they can't prove you commissioned it.
It reminds me of a situation we have. We currently have an ex-tenant trying to claim some of the deposit back - despite having left owing us money, with a carpet they'd wrecked after we'd bought it only 8 months previously and having left so much stuff we had to hire a large skip - the deposit won't even cover this, but they've told the DPS we agreed to hire the skip at our cost to get to rid of their rubbish... I just wrote back to the DPS saying why would we agree to pay to get rid of a tenant's rubbish when they also owed rent arrears? I said that we have documentary proof of everything and they have it for none of their claims as they are all lies. They also said they'd left our house because it was in such poor condition. I pointed out it might rather be because of all the debt collectors and bailiffs calling at the door - one of their debts was for a couple of thousand pounds owed to a pub where they'd had their wedding do! How romantic!

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