Following on from my earlier thread about the inherited terraced house (thread 1403 for anyone interested), a new issue has come up that I would appreciate some guidance on.
My tenant contacted me last Tuesday with a list of four items she says need attention. In no particular order: a persistent damp patch on the party wall in the back bedroom, a section of guttering that has come away from the fascia at the rear, the kitchen extractor fan which she says has stopped working entirely, and what she describes as a cracked tile on the bathroom floor that she is worried will let water through.
I went round on Saturday to have a look. The damp patch is real and I suspect it is related to the guttering issue, so those two may be connected. The extractor fan is indeed dead. The bathroom tile looks cosmetic to me but I can see why she is concerned.
My question is about the cost side. I have had a rough quote from a local handyman for the guttering repair at around £180, and a damp specialist has said he would need to do a survey first at £150 before quoting for any remedial work. The extractor fan replacement I could probably manage for under £100 if I source the unit myself. So individually none of these are large sums, but collectively I could be looking at £600 to £800 depending on what the damp survey turns up.
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Is there any obligation on me to consult the tenant formally before carrying out these works, given the total cost? I am thinking of the section 20 consultation requirements but I believe those apply to leaseholders and service charges, not to a standard AST.
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If the damp survey reveals something more serious, say rising damp requiring a new DPC, and the cost goes into the thousands, does that change anything in terms of my obligations?
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With the Renters Rights Act changes coming in May, is there anything I should be doing differently now in terms of documenting these repairs? I have been keeping a paper trail but I am not sure what standard will be expected.
Apologies if some of this is obvious. I am still relatively new to being a landlord and want to get it right.
@Clara_Obscura section 20 is leasehold only, it has nothing to do with you as a landlord on a standard AST. You do not need to consult the tenant before doing repairs to your own property. Your obligation under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is to keep the structure and exterior in repair, and to keep installations for water, gas, electricity and sanitation in proper working order. So the guttering, the damp if it is structural, and the extractor fan all fall squarely within that. The tile is arguably cosmetic unless it is causing a water ingress issue.
On documentation, just keep everything in writing. Emails confirming what was reported, copies of quotes, receipts for work done, photos before and after. That has always been best practice and the Renters Rights Act does not change the basic repair obligations, it changes the tenancy structure. Do not overthink it. Get the guttering and extractor fan sorted promptly and get the damp survey booked.
@PracticalPenny62, thank you for the correction, I think I had got confused because I am dealing with section 20 on my own leasehold flat at the same time and the two situations were blurring together in my head. That is helpful to have clarified.
The tenant has now sent me a list of five items she wants addressed. Three are relatively minor (a dripping tap, a cracked tile in the bathroom, and a section of guttering that has come away from the fascia). The other two are more substantial: she says the back bedroom window is draughty and may need replacing, and there is damp coming through the wall in the downstairs hallway which she says has been getting worse over the winter.
I have no issue with doing the work that genuinely needs doing. My question is whether there is any practical or legal reason I should be getting multiple quotes for the larger jobs, or whether I can simply instruct someone I trust. I am not trying to cut corners, but coordinating three tradespeople to quote on a property 40 miles away is not straightforward when I am also working part time.
For the tap, tile, and guttering you do not need multiple quotes, just get someone competent in and get it done. Those are bread and butter jobs and the cost difference between tradespeople will be negligible. For the window and the damp I would get at least two quotes, not because the law requires it but because damp in particular can be anything from a blocked air brick to a failing DPC and the range of costs is enormous. You want a second opinion on what is actually causing it before you commit to a fix. I had a tenant report damp in a ground floor bedroom a few years ago and the first person who looked at it quoted £2,800 for injected DPC. Turned out it was condensation from a tumble dryer venting into the room. Cost me nothing once I sorted the vent.
@PracticalPenny62, thank you, that is reassuring. I have taken your advice and got a local handyman round to look at the tap and the guttering. The tap is straightforward, he quoted £85 including the part. The guttering is also manageable, around £150 to clear and reseal a joint that has come apart at the rear.
The tiling is another matter. He pulled back the loose tile in the bathroom and the plasterboard behind it has gone soft, which he thinks means there has been a slow leak for some time. He does not want to just re-tile over it and I can understand why. He has suggested getting a plumber to check the pipework behind the wall before anything else happens, which means the cost is now likely to be significantly more than a quick cosmetic fix.
Separately, the boiler in the property is original to when my aunt owned it and I believe it is at least fifteen years old. Given I may need a plumber in anyway, I am wondering whether I should also be thinking about the EPC. The current certificate was done in 2019 and shows a D rating. Does anyone know whether I would need a new one before the Renters’ Rights Act changes in May, or is the existing one still valid?
@Clara_Obscura, your 2019 EPC is valid for ten years so you are fine until 2029 regardless of what happens in May. There is no requirement to get a fresh one just because the tenancy legislation is changing.
I would not lose sleep over the D rating either. Almost every pre-1970 terrace without cavity wall insulation gets a D or an E, and the assessors treat the boiler age as a bigger factor than it probably should be. Replacing the boiler might nudge you up to a C on paper but whether that translates to any real world difference for the tenant is another question entirely.
@greenwhistle_hants, thank you for confirming that about the EPC. That is one less thing to worry about for now.
A quick update on the repairs. The handyman came back on Thursday and has done the tap and the guttering, both straightforward as expected. Total cost was £185 including materials, which seems reasonable. The cracked tile behind the bath is a slightly bigger job than I realised because the grout around the adjacent tiles has deteriorated as well, so he is coming back next week to redo a small section rather than just replacing the one tile. He quoted £140 for that.
However, the tenant has now mentioned that the boiler is making a noise when the heating kicks in. It is a Worcester Bosch installed in 2016 according to the paperwork I inherited, so it should not be at end of life, but it has not been serviced since at least 2023. I have booked a Gas Safe engineer for next Wednesday. My concern is that if anything significant is wrong with it, I am looking at a potentially large outlay on a property I am still not certain I want to keep long term, particularly with the Renters’ Rights Act changes in May.