If you caused accidental damage to a property, would you tell your landlord? 27% of those asked in a recent survey said they would not.
One in four tenants said they would not inform their landlord if they caused significant damage to their rental property. Over 10% of those asked also said they would attempt to fix the issue themselves.
Damaged Property
58% of those asked said they would report any damages to their landlord, but 27% said that they would not.
Of the 27%:
• 11% would attempt to fix damages themselves
• 15% would consult a professional
• Fortunately only 1% would hide the problem and hope for the best!
Of the honest 58% of respondents:
• 24% would offer to the pay for the cost of the repair.
• 7% would contribute to the cost of the repairs.
• 27% would wait and see if they were required to pay.
When the results are filtered by gender, 13% of men believed they were capable of repairing the damage themselves, compared to 9% of women. On the other hand, women were more honest, with 26% saying they would tell their landlord as opposed to 21% of men.
Accidents will happen
Nick Marr, co-founder of TheHouseShop, the company who performed the survey, said: ‘While the vast majority of tenants will not actively try to do damage to a property, accidents do happen, and even well-meaning and reliable tenants can end up inflicting significant damage during their tenancy.’
The research gives an example of the potential pitfalls of trying to hide a problem and attempting a DIY fix. Emma Bannerman explained that her household in a rented property in London which suffered from water damage when a tap was broken during a party.
‘Unfortunately the DIY fix did not go to plan and we ended up almost flooding the entire kitchen. It was impossible to hide the water damage from the landlord so we owned up to our mistakes and ended up paying several hundred pounds more than we would have if we’d reported it straight away. Suffice to say we learnt our lesson and now report any and all damage, no matter how small,’ she added.
It’s better to report the issue to your landlord. Ignoring a small problem can lead to it developing into a full-blown disaster.
