Am I being suspicious

[Lancs]

Hi,

I was passing the property that I rent out this morning and I noticed a local glass repair firm's van parked on the drive. The firm is a local firm, so I gave them a call and asked who had called them and what for. The woman said they'd been called by the tennant to fix a broken pain of glass in the garage door.

I've not been a landlord for long, so was wondering if any of the more experienced landlords among you could give me their opinion on this.

1. Would you find it strange if one of your tennants arranged a repair themselves without contacting you (the tennants have mobile and office contact numbers for me so there is no reason they couldn't get hold of me)?

2. Should I ask the tennants about this.

3. Am I being too suspicious in wondering whether there might be other things they are hiding from me?

Thanks

Martin

[dazalock]

Easy to be paranoid when you start out, but they should have told you, you will want to ensure the fitters are doing a good job. Depending on the status of the property (i.e. leasehold ect) you may need to ensure they are covered by third party liability and the likes. I would contact the tenants and enquire about the situation and give them a friendly reminder that you should be told about any problems like this for future reference, you may want to inspect the work and incorporate a 3 month "safety check" of the property, make sure you gain thier permission to do this and dont demand.

[P.Pilcher]

I suspect that your tenants didn't want to tell you as they are embarrassed that for some reason they have caused damage to your property. They are doing the decent thing and getting it fixed at their expense using (I assume) a reputable company. The reason for the damage need not concern us - it may well have been an accident and it is being fixed at no cost to you. You have almost certainly got a good set of tenants there (and we rarely hear about these on this board!) so Dazalock is absoloutely correct in his advice. Enquire and inspect if you feel you have to as tactfully as you can.

P.P.

[MrShed]

Pilcher is absolutely correct. I think this shows a good set of tenants, they have not left it, nor have they asked you to do it at your cost. I wouldnt worry about it at all

[Lancs]

Thanks for the advice guys. I guess my only real concern is that they have used a reputable firm.

I think I'll follow dazalock's advice and just check the work has been done properly and remind then that in future I'd like them to advise me first so I can ensure they are using a reputable company to do repairs.

[MrShed]

That would probably be fair enough....but I would perhaps just say that you appreciate them getting repairs done promptly