Need advice on Rental Property damaged during hurricane-

[Justin Summers]

I need some advice on what is fair. 

I have a property in NE florida that had minor Hurriance damage. There was  leak and several pieces of drywall need to be replaced in the ceiling of the property.

The city declared the unit unsafe because the drywall might fall down on the tenant and made him move out of the property and is required the interior drywall work be preformed by a general contractor. I have contacted over 6 general contractors and they are all too busy for a small job to do the work.. I did find one that went out to assess the project and said that he could do the work for me but it's been like pulling teeth to get an actual estimate from him..  It's been a bit over a week since he went out and looked at the project.. He is not answering my calls and only replies to text messages after a few days.. with I'm working on getting you the quote.. I don't want to push him too hard because he is the only GC that I called that would be consider taking the work. 

So, here is my dilemma  the tenant had to move into a hotel after the city declared the unit unsafe.. We thought this would only take a few days to get him back into the unit but this week will be a month that he is the hotel.  He has not paid his rent for October but has been paying his hotel bill.   What is fair in this aspect? He is in a hotel which is of course much smaller then his 2200 sq ft 3 bedroom that he rented for $4,000 per month (the damaged condo)   It's just him and his dog.

I'm thinking that he should only have to pay the lesser of either the hotel bill or the monthly rent.. Meaning if the hotel bill is $3000 he should pay that for the month and not his $4,000 rent..  Or if the hotel bill is $5000 for the month I should require that he only pay the $4,000 he would be paying for rent... 

The lease really don't spell out what happens in the event the property is declared uninhabitable after an act of god. 

I assume I could simply end the lease but the tenant REALLY loves the condo and wants to get back into it ASAP and I really want to keep him as a tenant I guess I'm wondering what everyone considers is fair in this situation..

Thanks for any input

Ray "Justin"