The accidental landlord: when a tenant makes unreasonable demands sometimes it's best to end a contract

A tenant demands double-glazing, sends a bill for draught excluders and still says she's cold. There's no pleasing some folk says the accidental landlord. 
£2,400 a month: a three-bedroom flat in Blackhorse Lane, E17, less than 20 minutes from central London, is available to rent unfurnished through Fizzy Living (020 8607 0555).
Victoria Whitlock3 February 2018

Every so often you get a tenant who you just can’t please, no matter how hard you try. When that happens it’s best to cut your losses and give them the option to break their lease and leave.

My friend had a tenant who asked her, within hours of moving into a period cottage, to replace all the original timber windows with modern double-glazed units.

Of course, the tenant was aware the windows were single-glazed when she agreed to rent the place, and she had been shown a copy of the Energy Performance Certificate, so she knew before she signed the lease roughly how much it would cost to heat.

Nevertheless, she complained that the house was cold, so she emailed my friend a list of demands which included adding more loft and cavity wall insulation, in addition to replacing all the windows.

She also sent her a bill for several hundred pounds-worth of draught excluders that she’d bought before she moved in and without consulting my friend, and she warned her that she expected her to pay for thicker curtains and other heat-saving measures.

Unless the windows were replaced and the insulation was improved, said the tenant, she would move out.

My friend paid for the draughtproofing and added more loft insulation, but replacing all the windows simply wasn’t affordable.

Get real. If you fall in love with the idea of living in a chocolate-box character cottage, you have to accept that from November to March you’ll be wearing your overcoat indoors.

From this April, the Government is introducing a minimum E energy performance rating for all rental homes.

Landlords with properties that fall below this will have to make improvements before they can re-let them, but my friend’s cottage is already above standard.

Nevertheless, just to keep her tenant happy she looked into applying for a newly reintroduced Green Deal loan, provided by energy companies to cover the cost of installing double glazing. However, the property wasn’t eligible because the cost of new windows would have far outweighed the energy saving.

My friend contacted her local council to see if she was obliged to go along with the tenant’s demands and was alarmed to hear that the tenant had gone behind her back and made an official complaint to them.

Fortunately, the council accepted that my friend had done everything she could to make the cottage as warm as possible and the complaint was never followed up.

The tenant then threatened to reduce her rent to compensate her for the fact that she would need to spend more than she had budgeted on her energy bills.

At that point, given the option to leave, the woman did.

There’s now an elderly gent living in the cottage. He hasn’t complained once of being cold. In fact, he says he loves the place.

Victoria Whitlock lets four properties in south London. To contact Victoria with your ideas and views, tweet @vicwhitlock

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