“Can we put a bouncy castle on our penthouse roof terrace?” and other strange requests from tenants

Tenant requests are usually reasonable and typically extend to repairs around the property or that improvements take place before the start of the tenancy. Some tenants, however, seem to think that a property management team can deliver the impossible. Although Benham & Reeves Lettings strives to keep tenants happy, the line must be drawn somewhere.

Take, for instance, the tenant who requested that his bedroom was soundproofed. As this would have involved creating another set of walls in front of the existing ones, his request was politely denied as was the request for all the timber sash windows to be replaced with uPVC ones. Those were not the oddest requests, though. That has to go to the tenant who wanted to permission to put a bouncy castle on his penthouse terrace although the tenant who complained that his shower tray needed replacing because it was slippery when wet has to rank up there.

Some other memorable requests from tenants:

• Exterminate local foxes in case they would enter the ground floor apartment at night and attack the tenant’s children
• Recommendations for high class call girls
• Change the microwave as the tenants own plates won’t fit
• For all the furniture including the washing machine, dishwasher and fridge be removed from a fully furnished flat
• For the sofa bed to be removed and a new wall bed installed… on a plasterboard wall
• Install a new kitchen and window dressings following a minor leak since it was an insurance claim.
• Viewings only on a Sunday when the tenant is at church
• An urgent call to come to the property as “the carpet isn’t working”. Turns out a rug was shedding slightly.
• Replace the oven as it wasn’t big enough for their Christmas turkey
• A shower to be installed on the balcony

“We do our best to keep tenants happy but some take it a little too far”, explains director Marc von Grundherr, “We never grumble when a tenant calls us out urgently to inspect a shedding rug but we do have a giggle when we return to the office. It’s all in a day’s work!”