Tenants Should Report Problems Immediately - Why?

Tenants should report problems immediately. Landlords should have a spreadsheet with a feedback checklist. What could go wrong? 

1 Fixtures and fittings incomplete. 

2 Curtains too short or too narrow. Cleaned curtains returned with stains, shrinkage, holes, missing tie-backs. No curtain rings.

3 Items not delivered.

4 Electrical equipment delivered without guarantees and instructions. Fitted item such as a washing machine without the door. Item too large to fit the space. Washing machine or dishwasher not attached ready to use and not checked to see it is in working order. Tenant not warned not to use fridge for 24 hours until contents have settled otherwise if it won't work the guarantee is null and void and a new machine will have to be paid for and delivered after another month or two waiting.

5 Old item such as a bed or washing machine not removed.

Item removed leaves stain or dirty area which landlord could remove.

For example:

Item ordered
(size, colour, material, accessories, number of pieces - see eBay listings for ideas)

Supplier
address
tel
part number
order number
customer number

Delivery address
(Landlord/tenant/agent/pickup point)

Date Sent from Supplier


Date received/checked

Date delivered to property

Date unpacked/ installed

Feedback: Satisfactory/missing parts/wrong size/date of written complaint/replacement sent/refund made

Problems For Tenant With Missing Kitchen Shelf (Singapore)
As a tenant in Singapore I had two problems with deliveries:

The top kitchen shelf in one cupboard was missing. (My husband said: Don't complain to the landlord.  It's a lovely new kitchen. I'm overseas, I haven't time to email him. You can't reach up that high. It doesn't matter.)

Two years later when we vacated, the landlord's agent sent somebody to do an inventory check. We were charged for the cost of replacing a missing shelf: replacement shelf, delivery charge, fitting installer's charge.

Moral/lesson learned:
The Landlord must make it clear to the tenant that tenant must report problems at the time, in time for landlord to claim missing items, or change broken items with the supplier.

Problems With Curtains (Singapore)
The second problem was the curtains in the bedroom. They did not overlap nor even meet. They were just a centimetre short, and unless you spent ten minutes pulling both curtains to meet the sides and touch exactly, they let in light which woke you. The looked skimpy.

Problem With Curtains (UK)
My agent orders new nets and overlapping heavy curtains for the short bedroom window and the full length lounge patio doors. My agent sends back the first set which are too small and orders larger ones. My agent says the larger ones are fine. The tenant says the curtains are fine.

Near the end of the let when the tenant is going to vacate, I go to take photos for the property. From the outside the windows look awful, because the curtains are not hanging straight but leaning to one side because they are too long and pile up on the window of the bedroom and the floor of the lounge.

When I go back to take pictures indoors, again the windows look awful because both sets of the curtains don't hang straight. The tenant is not bothered about the lounge curtains, but admits the bedroom curtains droop in the middle, which means light comes in at the top.

Looking up I can see the problem is quite simple to solve. The curtain wire just needs a hook in the middle to hold it up. Either the central hook has been lost, or the curtain hanging system has changed from a fixed rod to a wire.

I phone my 'agent/manager' who says, a hook in the middle won't work - is it one curtain or two?

Either way, if I'd known about the problem, I could have taken over a curtain hook and bradawl or gimlet for making a hole. Or I could have asked my handyman on a previous job to add this little job to his list.

Long Curtains
The long curtains long wrong from the outside to prospective tenants, and in photos, and from the inside to prospective tenants, and in photos. Given notice, I could easily have taken up the nets myself, given an hour, with a needle and cotton. Not a perfect job, but looking neater, also better than having them on the floor collecting dirt.

Bathroom Light Not Working
The strip light over the bathroom basin is not working. Now it's not working to brighten the room for a photo. If a prospective tenant comes along and tries it, the light is not functioning. She has not had the use of it. Her visitors have not seen the property in 100% good, well serviced condition.

The tenant hasn't bothered to tell me because she never uses it. (Of course not, if it has never been functioning.)

But the electrician was supposed to have checked all the lights, before she moved in several months back. If I had known earlier, we could have called him back to finish the job, or taken back the faulty strip light if it was defective when installed.

I can now see the point of having an agent doing a routine check every three months to check everything is working correctly. It makes for a happier landlord and a happier tenant.

Less to worry about, putting right small problems when they arise, rather than having a long list of jobs when you are facing the major time-consuming tasks of finding a new tenant.

References
I now have a vacating tenant who has written saying she hopes I can provide a good reference. I would like my tenant to reciprocate with a good reference for me as a landlord/landlady.

Lessons Learned
To ensure that both parties are happy and there are no disputes at the end of the tenancy, make it clear to the tenant that it saves trouble later if tenants give feedback at the time.


Checklist
I have learned that it is better to have a list of items to be send, a checklist with ticks and crosses and initials would be enough, ideally with photos.


Angela Lansbury, BA Hons, author, writer, photographer, speaker.
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If you need a speaker for landlords and tenants, property seminars, or other meetings, please contact me through LinkedIn, Facebook, Toastmasters International, here or direct to my email.