Your Problems Solved | 25 September 2004

Dear Mary…

Q. I own a house in Cornwall which I rent out. This August it was taken by a couple who had a constantly changing retinue of guests each week they were there, and kept the cook and cleaner working around the clock. At the end of their four-week tenure, and having told me they had had a fantastic time, they moved out. Trouble is, they did not leave even a penny in tips for either the cook or the cleaner. Of course tips on top of wages are not obligatory, but they are the norm and the cleaner is a local woman whom I have only just been lucky enough to find and did not wish to disgruntle at this early stage. The cook, who is a friend of mine, told me that she and the cleaner both feel demoralised by the experience. There was not even a note of thanks for them. They also feel faintly cheated. They cannot believe that of all the people who came to stay not one of them would have left something for them. Personally I can’t help wondering whether tips were left but were somehow stolen. But I do not like to ask in case these tenants did not know the form. They might then be embarrassed at my exposure of their gaucheness — the added complication is that I am now working for them myself, although not in a domestic capacity, and do not wish to lose my job. How can I get to the bottom of this, Mary?
B.M., Dorset

A. Mention to the couple that you have another potential month-long let lined up for next summer but the people concerned live abroad and won’t have time to view the property before then.