Our members-only forum is the ideal place to share experiences with other landlords and seek advice.
In our forum spotlight this month, we look at a recent question a landlord posted on our forum around whether to offer compensation to their tenant after the pipes at their property froze.
The situation
The situation our landlord found themselves dealing with can be quite a common occurrence for landlords during the cold weather months.
During a recent cold snap, the water pipes at their rental property had completely frozen.
Thankfully, our landlord was able to deal with the problem quite quickly, and while there was no water they provided bottled drinking water for their tenant, as well as buckets of water to use for washing up and cooking.
There was no loss of heat at the property as this is electric, and because the landlord lived close by they even offered their tenant the use of their own shower should they wish.
The landlord said the issue with the frozen pipes was dealt with quickly, but they wanted advice on whether to offer their tenant compensation as well for the inconvenience. They took to our forum to ask for advice.
The responses on our forum
The first member to respond to our landlord’s question said that in their view, the landlord didn’t need to offer any compensation, however if they offer a token gesture then this could be appreciated by the tenant.
Another member agreed with this, saying they should not offer compensation, because they did everything they could to help the tenant at the time and that the issue was dealt with and resolved quickly. They shared that if the whole situation was resolved in a day or two then no compensation was needed, but if it had dragged on for more than a month (hypothetically) then it would have been a good idea for the landlord to offer the tenant some compensation as a gesture of good will.
Then, an advisor in our team responded to the thread.
They agreed with most of the other forum posters, again advising that this landlord didn’t need to offer compensation because they had resolved the issue quickly and did everything they needed to do - and could do to support the tenant.
To read the original forum thread click here
For more information about what landlords and tenants can do to avoid frozen pipes watch this video: