Reply to Tenant interfering with repairs

Tenant interfering with repairs (Score: 1) by Broken hot water heater landlord on Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @18:40

Hi,

I'm the lady who wrote about a week and change ago about our sfm in which the hot water heater leaked. Tenant (in violation of lease) waited weeks to tell us about leak until carpet was completely ruined along with lower portion of baseboards and sheetrock.

I was asked here about contents of locked rooms in basement they would not let repair people enter. It just had household stuff, no meth lab there.

Problem: tenants want workers there only when they are home, which is late at night and on weekends. Contractor would charge more because he has to pay overtime, and we would be stuck with overage because insurance would not cover excess labor costs.

Can we force the issue? Must tenant be home for repairs, or do I have the right as landlord to go over there myself and open house for repair people? Not that I am happy about taking 4 days off of my own job for this....

Problem: I really don't have time for this. Can we insist that tenants meet with repair people during normal working hours so that *tenants* take time off work, instead of me? After all, they created unnecessary damage in the first place.

Problem: Tenant has a dog left loose in fenced back yard. Repair contractor tells me today that on a previous day tenant's dog "ran off his crew", and so they had to leave instead of working on job. He did not charge us for this, but does want us to tell tenant to lock dog up during repairs.

Tenant does nothing but whine about how "patient they have been", when they created mess in the first place. They have already asked for a break on the rent plus compensation for "excessive electric bills" because the repair people had to use their electricity to clean the basement mess *they made*.

As much as I hate the idea of having to go over there and supervise the repairs myself, especially as my husband is working long hours and I have two small children out of school (could they not have pulled this stunt during the school year?) -- I may have no choice but to go over and supervise repairs myself.

Can I get in trouble for this? The emergency is over, now we're fixing sheetrock, baseboards, painting, and putting down new carpet. I don't want to be accused of stealing or breaking anything being in their house without them.

The contractor has suggested putting a lockbox on the door, coded for his regular subcontractors to go in and out. He says this is what they usually do. Has anyone out there done this?

Thanks,

K

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