How to handle helpless tenants

notAMember · 01-02-2022 2:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565149#Comment_118565149

God almighty. Hard to make things foolproof as they say... they keep building better fools.

Ash.J.Williams · 01-02-2022 3:05pm

now that i'm thinking of it, if you tell the tennant to do it themselves and they are that useless it could end up a catastrophe

Flinty997 · 01-02-2022 3:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565392#Comment_118565392

There are limited a Landlord is not house keeping you get in a hotel.

Flinty997 · 01-02-2022 3:19pm

Dublin’s Immersion Heater repairs and fits immersions all over Ireland (they must be fierce busy).

They shared the following wisdom with us.

“The main problem with leaving an immersion on constantly is that the immersion thermostat will be constantly switching on and off. After so many hours the thermostat will give up, causing one of two problems.”

“Problem one is that the immersion will not work. At all.

“Problem two is that the immersion will stay on causing the water in the immersion cylinder to boil. When the water boils the cylinder will make loud noises and push the boiling water into the cold tank in the attic. The water coming out of the cold tap will also be boiling.”

FYI

spaceHopper · 01-02-2022 5:37pm

A friend of my wife's was like this, nothing wrong with her just her parents did everything for her.

Bulb went in her room, borrowed a lamp from her flat mate because she didn't know how to change it.

She used to go home can come back with frozen care packs.

It was her first time living away from home so she was always out. Eating crap food and drinking, she got scurvy - at least she had the sense to go to the Dr when she wasn't feeling great.

If it's a normal bulb I would tell them to DIY, I could forgive the recessed light as they are a bit harder to do.

The most frequent search term on youtube is "how to ....." tell your tenant to lookup a youtube video and if they are still struggle you will be over in a day or so. Saying that may Mum had a tenant who tried to unblock the shower/bath drain with screwdriver. Then flooded the flat below his. He was white as sheet when I say him and the handy man was giving him a whiskey to steady his nerves, we forgave him!

02-02-2022 2:15am

What is it with Irish people and the obsession with 'the immersion'. Every other country I've ever lived in and in my own house in Ireland, you 'set and forget' the water heating and it just works away in the background and you pay attention to it about once every few years.

It seems in Ireland half the country lives in terrible fear of switching on some bizarre contraption that heats the water in a large, uninsulated cylinder, or they seem to have to keep babysitting the hot water tank for various weird reasons.

Seriously! Can we not get proper water heaters at this stage? It's not 1937.

Hontou · 02-02-2022 7:42pm

OP. I have also been renting property for over 25 years. In the 1990's and 2000's I barely got a call from tenants, but during the last 7 years, I have been getting non stop calls about ridiculous things. Drains blocked with own hairs, vacuum cleaner bags not changed, light bulbs in spot lighting, etc. I now cut the grass for tenants because they seemed to break the mower every second time they used it - yet it never broke for me. I service the boilers regularly and replace furniture and flooring etc between rentals so the properties are kept well. Has people's sense of responsibility changed? This "helpless" tenant behaviour has caused me to serve notice and sell one property recently and I am planning on doing the same for my remaining rental property. I can cope with all the nonsense regulations and taxation but not helpless, yet very entitled tenants. My advice is........serve notice and sell. It is no longer an investment, it's just a risk.

Deeec · 02-02-2022 8:17pm

This is why I think every tenant should have to do a day course on how to care and maintain a property - they should have to present a renting licence to the landlord when viewing a property. Some people have never had to take responsibility for a house - I include basic maintainence and cleaning in this.

Ive had a tenent that flushed food waste down the toilet and thought it was acceptable to hoover once a month. They also let the oil run out constantly and wonder why the heating is not working - we have to then go round and sort it out. This has happened 4 times - they never seem to get the message.

salonfire · 07-02-2022 7:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118563581#Comment_118563581

That's not the OPs problem and certainly does not give them a free pass. In fact, if I suspected this was the case, I would be telling them in no uncertain terms the boundary between landlord and tenant.

Gant21 · 07-02-2022 7:42pm

The more you do for some people the less they will do for themselves.

Jmc25 · 08-02-2022 4:09pm

Sounds like you could certainly have better tenants. These current ones obviously don't have much experience in basic maintenance, but at the same time, that's something that usually comes with owning a property yourself - out of absolute necessity rather than a want to learn.

Difficult situation to manage though, I mean the lease likely doesn't specify what types of basic maintenance the tenant should be able to carry out themselves.

Two roads to go down I guess, as someone mentioned you could call over and give some basic DIY tutorials or you could threaten to charge them call out fees (for professionals, you can't charge for your own time).

I'd always try the softer route first and only go the abrasive route after everything else has failed.

How to handle helpless tenants

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