Arranging repairman access to property

[thesaint]

Simply tell them that the cooker is waiting to be fitted, and that they can either wait until the landlord next comes to the UK, and they will arrange to let the trader in, they will give the electrician the key, and he will let himself in, or they can arrange to be in during the times when the electrician works.

[LesleyAnne]

Simply tell them that the cooker is waiting to be fitted, and that they can either wait until the landlord next comes to the UK, and they will arrange to let the trader in, they will give the electrician the key, and he will let himself in, or they can arrange to be in during the times when the electrician works.

And do so in writing, so if the T later starts shouting about the LL's lack of attention to their repair reuqests, you have proof you have done everything in your power to replace the cooker!

[jamesvince26]

I totally agree with this....

Yes the LL may have agree to furnish the property and therefore has obligations to maintain the appliances in the house. They haven't questioned that and bought a new cooker.

If the tenants are that bothered about having a cooker then they should make the time to allow for access. You need to have a working relationship between landlord and tenant as well as a contractual one. It's fairly unreasonable to expect your parents to cross the channel for a door opening exercise. Although I do take the point that really if you are overseas you need a point of contact (may that be an Agent or Maintenance guy) that can deal with these issues.

Ultimately it's not the tenants problem that your parents live abroad, maybe with hindsight this should have been disclosed to the tenants before they moved in so strategies for these events could have already been pre planned. The responsibility to fit that cooker around the tenants working hours is resting with your in-laws. I'm presuming that the T was around to take delivery of the cooker in the first place. They should see if an electrician can visit on or around a similar time.

For future reference most major retailers offer a delivery and installation service which might be best for them. It is a premium cost but at least the problem gets resolved at one time when the tenant is around to take delivery of the new appliance.

It seems like a really ridiculous problem to have in this day and age. Have you tried contacting an electrician - explaining the situation to try and get them to do an out of hours appointment one evening. The charge may be more but would probably offset the flight costs for a return to Paris?!