My tenants have flooded my property but who’s problem is it?

Your tenant flooding Mark.

Obviously you can only take any money now from the deposit if:-

1. For some reason it is not in a Scheme

2. If it is it is not in DPS!!

3. If in an Insured Scheme you have an excellent watertight tenancy agreement
that specifically states deductions can be made from the deposit mid term and
not just at the end of the tenancy.

4. Even if you have (3) above in the event of an eventual dispute (a 100%
certainty when it comes to the tenant expecting their deposit back especially as
they will say they have now 'improved' your property!!) the Schemes will take a
very dim view of dipping into the deposit unless the tenant specifically
agreed.

And clearly they won't

Don't understand; any flooding, no matter how caused would be repaired via a claim on the buildings policy.
Any contents damaged would be covered by the LL contents inurance or a tenant's insurance.
Ir there is neither in force then possibly items damaged that belong to the LL may be claimed from the deposit when the tenant leaves.
If it can be proven that the flood was caused by a maintenance issue not caused by a tenant's doing then a tenant may have a claim against a LL for damage that has occurred to their belongings.
They would have to use the county court process which most LL would just ignore.
Of course what would happen if such a flood caused irrepairable damage to their priceless Rembrandt!!!!?

I think yours is an example of perhaps not just looking at the fantastic positive cashflow you can achieve on this particular property.
You now have no viable exit strategy.
You can make all the positive cashflow in the world.
It will NEVER equal the losses you would make if you try to evict the tenant or sell the property.
Best solution would be take out the new RGI policy you can get on LHA tenants, claim on your buildings insurance.
Had you a buildings policy with justlandlords.co.uk you would have £5000 of FREE LL contents cover plus other LL related stuff.
Next payment she defaults on evict her, courtesy of the RGI company.
Any damage or theft she causes, claim on buildings policy along with the contents you are allowed and malicious damage.
I suppose if they do it you use a PSL arrangement with the council

Thank you Paul and Industry Observer for your comments so far. I hold the deposit in my client account and it is protected with MyDeposits insurance scheme. The flooding was clearly accidental damage, whilst my tenants family will not admit to it it's pretty obvious they let the bath overflow as there are no blocked pipes or water leaks. My tenants claim to have spent £575 to fix the damage, coincidentally that's exactly one months rent! If accidental flooding is covered under the insurance policy it's certainly not worth me making a claim. To reduce the insurance premiums by a few thousand pounds across my portfolio I elected for a £500 policy excess. Industry Observer - what makes you so sure that my tenant will object to using the damage deposit to pay the rent in lieu of them having used their rent money to fix the damage?

It's interesting that you have raised the point of exit strategies as I have a very clear exit strategy which I will be sharing in part 10 of my latest series of articles - link to part one >>> http://www.property118.com/index.php/my-first-intentional-property-investment-part-1-2/29019/

If you have the damage insured, then you should claim and the tenant should meet any excess. You have a duty to maintain the property and the tenant could have claimed that it was not in a habitable condition and expected to rehoused. Any action regarding the deposit will lead to a dispute and whichever case examiner looks at it will say that its an you can't expect the tenant to underwrite an insured risk. To recoup money, I think you could sell the rest of the story to Eastenders as a plot line.

Hi Eric

I think we may have been typing at the same time. The damage was cosmetic only and the value of the claim would only have been £75 above the excess.

Great idea about selling the script to East Enders, to take it a stage further I think between the columnists and commentators here we have enough stories to create our own soap opera LOL

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If I was you Mark I would register this tenant on our national database ; where you can register her outstanding rent default and property damages.
Then I would notify her that she is on our system, and that if she doesn't pay the outstanding arrears make sure she realises that her next landlord/agent will be aware of what she has done; and will be less likely to find her desired accommodation in the future.
AND her future landlords/agents will be forewarned and forearmed e.g. make sure that she takes out building/contents insurance..!!

Good luck!

Given the returns on this, and the likely costs of booting them out I'd be tempted to allow it, but make it very clear in writing that you are allowing them off one months payment only, and that it is not going to be repeated. Also add that you need copies of all receipts for either works or materials, and that you need to inspect it to make sure it is done properly.

I think the issues you have experiences and are presently subjuect to are salutory lessons about this industry.
Your very pertinent points just go to show no matter how right you might be there will be things that are just not worth pursuing.
Shows no matter how much experience you have there will always be situations where you have to let pragmatism to the fore.
Essentially having a sinking fund fo those little issues that crop up.
Is there a rule of thumb sinking fund one should ideally have per properrty owne!.
These issues are even more important for a little LL who operates a very much just in time operation.
This is obviously not ideal but many LL are in this position.
Access to afffordable monies, be it credit or loans or savings are critical to esure that life's little problems as Mark has experienced don't trip you up big time.
To follow what protocols Mark uses would be no bad thing for ALL LL to follow if we can!!!?