Repairs - Who should pay Tenant or Landlord?

[Shawn M.]

I have a good tenant in my unit for the past 3 years. Lease is up for renewal. On recent inspection of the unit I noticed the screens on the back patio are all ripped. It appears the damage was caused by their cat, which they did not have at the time they first leased the unit. Cost to replace screens is $140. Would you pay for the cost to replace or would you ask tenant to pay? My initial reaction is to ask the tenant but on the other hand I have only needed to do minor repairs to the unit over the past few years. The tenant rarely bothers me for anything.

Then again, I just had to have ac coils cleaned for $300 because they were not putting in the ac filter. Man of the house previously handled but he is no longer living there so the lady said she did not realize their was a primary filter for the unit. She was changing the filter on the register. I went ahead and ordered 6 months of filters for them to keep on hand.