Built-in oven woes

[John]

I want to be a good landlord and I want my tenants to be happy, but equally so I don't want to have to spend money and change things if it's not completely necessary.

I only have the one property that I rent out and a new tenant moved in today. The letting agency contacted me to say that they are happy and they like the place but that the oven has a problem in that there are no markings on it.

The previous tenant was in there two years and never complained about it so I don't know how long it's been like that, but the new tenant says it's unusable because they wouldn't know if they have it on 50 degrees or 500 degrees and so they can't use it to cook anything.

Yes, it's a few years old but otherwise working perfectly and very clean and I really don't want to have to replace it for the sake of a few missing numbers. Am I being unreasonable? What would you do?

[Andy Burns]

pop-round with a thermometer and a permanent marker pen ...

[critcher]

[harryagain]

I would engrave numbers on the dial and rub some paint in.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Where were the markings? Perhaps a link to a pic might help.

Quite reasonable, I suppose. Although it sounds like they're not experienced at cooking.

Without seeing it, difficult to say. Might be possible to replace/repair the markings, might not.

[Tim Watts]

Write (Sharpie) or stencil some numbers on.

I am all for being a good landlord, but this is taking the piss - the tenant could easily do the same.

[JimK]

Presumably you still have the receipt in your accounts from which to glean the make & model?

Quick Google, grab an image, scale, print, superglue et voila:-)

Or print out, get letraset, relabel cooker?

Or print on self adhesive paper and apply?

Jim K

[Andrew Gabriel]

If you had the kitchen professionally cleaned between lets, it might have been done by the cleaners.

IME, many tenants have no experience of fixing anything, and on the rare occasions they might try to, you really wish they hadn't.

You need to mark it in some way that won't clean off, in the very unlikely event they ever try cleaning it. I cleaned the front of my stainless steel microwave a few days ago with IPA, and it took the cat D printed marking clean off the door.

[Tim Watts]

I've had IPA do that too.

[Peter Parry]

Yes.

Buy a set of replacement knobs.

[JimK]

pop-round with a thermometer and a permanent marker pen .../q

Or better give them a £2 oven thermometer - the type that hangs off a wir e of a wire shelf in the oven

Ebay 360708993298

Jim K

Gg

EBay

[john james]

Those don't set the oven temp.

[Roger Mills]

They provide the feedback part of a closed-loop controller, the other component of which is a human being.

[John Rumm]

Or find a closeup picture from the web / user manual and use it to recreate the markings.

[john james]

But it's a lot more viable to set the knob which still has the marks on it to the temperature you want the oven to run at.

[Richard]

Why should the tenant? Do you buy stuff and then expect to do modifications? Remember, the landlord in this for profit.

[Brian Gaff]

Get a new panel for it with the numbers on?

Use bump ons, little dots for the markings and provide a key chart for the tactile markers. This should be possible from a manual. Brian

[Tim Watts]

Because it's called "a sense of proportion".

My landlord, a fine fellow, left with with a s**te washing machine that never washed very well.

I was actually glad when it threw its bearing - I rang him up, told him and said: "please don't replace it, I'll buy my own and move it when I leave".

Did he do anything wrong? No.

Would I rather have a s**te but technically working washing machine, or an oven that was 100% working but missing the marks? The latter.

It's stupid to expect someone to pay 200 quid because some numbers fell off - when either the landlord or the tenant could just mark it up with a washing machine.

People near me will happily moan about road drain being blocked with mud and watch the rain water cascade down the road, instead of just picking up a bit of branch and poking it clear.

There is a time when a bit of self help is the order of the day.

[Tim Watts]

WTF? Sorry, middle button paste on linux...

a pen...

[john james]

Not if the landlord's cleaner is the one that removed the labelling on the panel behind the knob.

This isn't one of them.