Damage to Rental property by Tenant

[SCA911]

Hi

I am looking for anyones opinion on the following:

We have rented out a property for the last 3 years and have been lucky with tenants so far. Our current tenant is in the house since Feb 2013 and hasn't contacted us too much and pays rent on time. Of late though he has contacted us about a few things, e.g. broken hoover, small heating problem, etc. which we have promptly fixed. We have always been of the opinion that if we mind the property they might to.

Yesterday he contacted us to say a curtain had fallen down. When we checked, the fitting into the wall, holding the curtain pole, had been pulled down bringing a chunk of plaster with it. The tenant said "it just fell down" but I am of the opinion it required a bit of force to come away as it did. He then showed me a similar problem in the other bedroom where the fitting for the blind had also come away bringing some plaster down too.

The tenant has three small children and I reckon one of them pulled at the curtain/blind and that is how it really hapened. It's not a big deal but we are starting to wonder if these tenants will start ringing us to change their lightbulbs for them soon as we have been quick to respond to previous requests from them in the past and they might think we're a walkover.

Does anyone think that this damage is in excess of "normal wear and tear"? Should we fix it or tell them they have to?

Any feedback would be great.

Thanks

 

[commonsense]

If there is clearly chunks of plaster out of the wall then I ould inform the tenant that this is their responsibility. Kids can and often do pull out of curtains whilst playing, that's not the issue, the issue is that their father wants to use you as a handyman - when in fact he should have repaired it himself.

 

[SCA911]

Thanks for the reply commonsense. This was my feeling too.