tenant is locked out refuses to call locksmith. how do I handle?

Question

I have some tenants who live in the upper of a duplex. The basement is shared with a separate outside enterance. I asked the lower tenant (daughter of upper tenants) to move out at the end of August which did. I just finished 10 days of completely rehauling the lower unit.

At 7pm tonight upstairs tenant calls and says they blew a breaker, which they also did yesterday as it has been hot. They apparently lost the basement key a while ago and have just been leaving the basement door unlocked. When the tenant called today I explained that I am at work until 10:30pm and can't come over until then. He explains that his wife needs it on as she has asthma and cannot wait that long. I tell them they then need to call a locksmith per the lease. Then the tenant hung up on me and has not responded since.

The next door neighbor calls to tell me that someone is trying to break in the basement door. I contact the local authorities and they said they would have the fire department come out and use a spreader on the door to unlock if the tenants call and request it. What is my recourse here. They have been problem tenants to begin with, drinking and neighborhood issues ( both in there mid to late 50s). They already have a health code violation that they remedied in the 7 days, so by damaging the door instead of calling a locksmith should be grounds for termination. There is many more stories so this snapshot may sound hard but what is your take on ny position and options here?

Al Williamson · Answer

@Kyle Hipp you're doing great! I feel for you - we all go through it.

1) Don't miss this opportunity to tune up your lease.

2) I place keyboxes at all my properties and change the code each time I give it out. This tip has saved my marriage as tenants always seem to get locked out while we're on vacation.

Best to you.

Dawn Anastasi · Answer

If they purposely cause damage to your property, that sounds like grounds for eviction. Especially when you gave them an alternative.

Mike Franco · Answer

Those 4 digit combo locks take much less than 9999 seconds to break into.

Best to tell tenant to buy their own lockbox or keep a spare key well hidden somewhere. There are thousands of places to hide a key.

Steve Babiak · Answer

There are lockboxes that are fastened to walls or door trim or porch railing with screws, for roughly $30 at the local big box.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Lock-Wall-Mount-Set-Your-Own-Combination-Key-Safe-5401DHC/100176033#.UjEtpdK1Hjs

then there is this for a door knob:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Lock-Portable-Set-Your-Own-Combination-Key-Safe-5400DHC/100124915#.UjEte9K1Hjs

Ramon Jenkins · Answer

@Kyle Hipp , FYI

Lowes, Home Depot, and Menard sell your basic lockboxes.

Jack Bobeck · Answer

@Al Williamson That is a great idea! Now I just need to get me a 50 or 100 unit apartment building!

Steven Hamilton II · Answer

@Kyle Hipp ,

Yes, like a Realtor's lockbox.  You can often find a random out of sight place to hide on attached to the building.

-Steven

Kyle Hipp · Answer

Dawn - thanks for the response, I didn't wanna leave you out. Sometime I get surrounded by crazy and I doubt my common sense, so it is nice to hear I am being rational.

Al - my lease is always in a state of revision and it is goofy situations like this that seem to prompt further clarification. New tenants might wonder why this or that is in there but if they only knew ;) As for the lock box, are you talking like a realtor lockbox on the doorknob?

Kyle Hipp · Answer

I think that I will be asking them to move out if there is damage to the door. I can't help people who don't take some basic steps in that direction. They apparently lost the key a while back and "didn't think it was a big deal" to leave the house unlocked all the time. My other concern is that it is obvious that the breaker has blown regularly when it gets hot so that means they are overloading the breaker and causing a fire hazard and did not inform me of that either.

This is a nice updated home for the area and should not be having these types of problems and the last 6 years of tenants in that unit didn't. I just recieved word from the neighbor that the police and fire departments are now there and using the spreader on the door.

Elizabeth - I do have a labor charge referenced in the lease but not a priority on rent payments. Wisconsin law requires 7 day notice for either a rent infraction or any other lease violation and another one within a year and landlord can issue a 14 day termination notice. So if I just keep it in the lease violation that works by state law. Fun fun

Elizabeth S. · Answer

It might be course for eviction based on your lease but if it isn't clearly than the other option is that you let them damage the door, you pay someone to fix it and you send them a letter outlining the cost and give them 2 days to pay it. Let them know that rent will be considered late until the bill is paid in full (hopefully you have a work clause in your lease so you can add extra expense for your time too) and then once they are in violation of the lease with "outstanding rent" you can take them to court for that.

Re-read your lease and follow it to the T. Sometimes we let things slip because people are good people but when they aren't that is what the lease is for.

tenant is locked out refuses to call locksmith. how do I handle?

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