Repair charge due to tenant error

Thirsty

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Tenant notifies me that appliance is not working. Contacted repair company and arrange for call out.

Turns out there was no fault on appliance, tenant had turned it off. It's not possible to turn it off 'accidentally'.

Not unreasonably the repair company have sent me an invoice for their time on the call out. Have spoken to repair company and confirmed comments on invoice.

Would you expect tenant to pay this invoice?
 
Tenant notifies me that appliance is not working. Contacted repair company and arrange for call out.

Turns out there was no fault on appliance, tenant had turned it off. It's not possible to turn it off 'accidentally'.

Not unreasonably the repair company have sent me an invoice for their time on the call out. Have spoken to repair company and confirmed comments on invoice.

Would you expect tenant to pay this invoice?
Happened to us a few years ago, claiming high carbon dioxide levels due to very expensive gas fire, had closed vents and was drying clothes on a close horse. It wasn't carbon dioxide just stale air......paid callout charge and wrote it off as maintenance costs.
 
Tenant notifies me that appliance is not working. Contacted repair company and arrange for call out.

It's not clear from your initial post whether the tenant or you contacted the repair company. I think that whoever did will be liable for the callout charge.
 
Whatever about the rights and wrongs, RTB would support the tenant 100% on something like this.
I don't know why you think this.

Tenants are not children, of course they should pay.

If the OP has a clear communication from the repair company that there was no fault with the apparatus and it had simply been switched off then I would expect the RTB to support this. They follow the paperwork.
 
If the tenant was responsible then he/she pays. I would inform the tenant and invoice the charge to them. If they refuse to pay you still have their deposit and personally I would take it from that. If the tenant wants to take it further, that's fine, let them. Too many people prepared to let things go because others tell them they'll find it difficult to collect this, that, and the other charges from tenants.
 
If the tenant was responsible then he/she pays. I would inform the tenant and invoice the charge to them. If they refuse to pay you still have their deposit and personally I would take it from that. If the tenant wants to take it further, that's fine, let them. Too many people prepared to let things go because others tell them they'll find it difficult to collect this, that, and the other charges from tenants.
Is a deposit held for this reason? To be retained in part to cover a disputed debt?
 
Is a deposit held for this reason? To be retained in part to cover a disputed debt?
Well, it helps explain why some landlords give the industry a bad name the same way some taxies give their industry a bad name,

I say this as a landlord,I meet people whose main gripe with landlords is they experienced first-hand Landlords withholding Deposits they should have returned to the tenant,
I have seen landlords taking their frustration at Government policies out by withholding Deposits in the wrong when tenants move out to make up for the amount of tax and regulation they have brought on themselves,
 
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If the tenant was responsible then he/she pays. I would inform the tenant and invoice the charge to them. If they refuse to pay you still have their deposit and personally I would take it from that. If the tenant wants to take it further, that's fine, let them. Too many people prepared to let things go because others tell them they'll find it difficult to collect this, that, and the other charges from tenants.
This isn’t a ‘charge’. It’s a claim that a debt exists. If the tenant refuses to pay, it may be a matter for the small claims process. Best negotiate.
 
It's not a charge that will break the bank; I'm more irritated at having to call out a repair engineer for what was basically user error.

And I want to get the message across that its not acceptable; money has the effect of focusing the mind in my view.
 
Tenant notifies me that appliance is not working. Contacted repair company and arrange for call out.

Turns out there was no fault on appliance, tenant had turned it off. It's not possible to turn it off 'accidentally'.

Not unreasonably the repair company have sent me an invoice for their time on the call out. Have spoken to repair company and confirmed comments on invoice.

Would you expect tenant to pay this invoice?
Where is the manual for the appliance?
And does it cover this?
I say this as modern manuals can be fairly useless and appliance design not intuitive.

Or is it completely obvious?
 
All the appliance manuals are in a folder.

It wasn't, for example, a switch that could have been accidentially knocked in passing; an action had to be taken to access that part of the appliance.
 
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