Last month a good tenant asked if he could move from his 1BD unit to the vacant 2BD unit in front of him. Since he is always paying on time, never called for repair, so I was happy to let him moves to the unit that just got new carpet installed, after he signed a new lease. Then came the terror!
I received many abusive text messages from his next door tenant that has always had some problems all the time since they live there, starting from AC to almost every thing in the unit.
To make the story short, I got a list of all the minor repairs that were needed for their unit, after they saw me talking to the neighbor. I then just sent the maintenance guy to fix all these problems. They were angry since the neighbor got a unit with new carpet.
Well, the next thing, Friday night around 9:30pm, I got a call that the water heater was leaking. Hell, no! But I managed to call a plumber, and his advice was, ‘just go to shut the valve off, rather than spending $75 to have him drives an hour to go there but could not get a new water heater, since no one would have a new unit available at that late hour’.
I went to shut off the valve. They were very unfriendly. There was some water in the hall way and they have placed a big towel, but that was it.
As promised, the plumber came in the next morning with a new water heater unit but he found that the living room, dining room were all flooded.
I was at work and could not check it out myself. I really don’t understand, as the plumber said, there was no pressure, and the valve as well as the breaker had been shut off, but the water damage was so severe.
In the meantime, I kept receiving the harassing text message from the wife of the tenant.
When the plumber finished installing the water heater and they had not known that I planned to replace the carpet, they sent a text message saying the plumber slam the door and their TV fell off and was not working. I told them, that was their problem with the plumber not me. They said someone needs to pay for their TV, I didn’t care and asked them to talk to the plumber’s manager on Monday.
I talked to the plumber and the plumber said he didn’t slam the door and didn’t want to have anything to do with them. His suggestion to me was, get rid of them.
I asked my carpet guy to check and his suggestion is, it would be much cheaper to replace the carpet than dry it out. I then asked him to go ahead to remove the carpet.
As soon as he started to remove the wet carpet, I got a text message saying that the TV was okay and I didn’t need to worry!
After work I went to check, and my carpet guy was running 3 fans by pulling power out from the laundry room next door. Carpet guy had told them that it would be today to get the new carpet installed. When he went to pick up the fans, the fans were off, since they said they could not stand the cold.
When I got home I received another nasty text message saying the concrete floor causing his/her eyes itching and it was a health hazard. Next day I made a copy of the contract concerning the inconvenience they agreed to endure in case such a repair was needed and went to slid into their door then text message them to check my note.
Still received few more text messages from them but I simply said, I will let my lawyer answer you.
I went through the lease but I could not find any option that you can terminate their lease simply based on the abusive text message.
What puzzled me more is why a leaking water heater with valve off could cause such a wide spread damage in one night? What type of leak was that that all 17 - 30 G of water just leaked out? Any suggestion on how to find this out?
I would like to see them go, since I could not stand them personally and they have caused so much repair in a short few months that has surpassed the rent they paid so far. They always paid on time. Is there any way to get rid of these tenants from hell? They have caused very stressful days with all their text message and it costs a lot of money to me too?
Yes, I know, this was the fault of not doing the screening properly. I checked mrlandlord.com and they will take almost a week to approve my credit check application. I just then went to the link suggested by Brandon, and next time I will do my due diligent in screening.
I’m really looking forward to suggestion on how to get rid of these tenants from hell when they paid rent on time but always came up with some request to repair, either a leaking faucet, a door that fell out of frame, etc. Could I just give them a note that if there is anything breaks this time, they have to find another property since I don’t have fund to repair?
Thanks,
JJT03
