Roofing Leak and Tenants Unhappy

[Chris G.]

Hey everyone, I manage a large home that's roughly 4500 sqft and the tenants just moved in last month. The owner lives in a different country so it's quit difficult to reach him on moments notice. We've had a lot of rain recently and the tenants told me one of the rooms had 6-7 small leaks and have put down buckets. They also noted a separate room has started to leak. So I contacted the owner and let them know of this. At the same time I've had 3 roofing companies come out and see if they can repair it but due to it being an older home and double layered shingles they all said they'd have to replace the whole roof. All three of the estimates have been 21-23k. The owner doesn't want to pay this and wants to come fix it himself in about a month or two. So my only option was to have someone put a couple of tarps over the house to temporarily solve this. The tenants are very unhappy about this considering they're paying a lot per month. What would happen in this case is there anything I can do more or could they tenants break the lease due to the issue not getting resolved? Any ideas for feedback would help. 

[Greg M.]

You're the property manager and you need to make it clear to the owner that 3 professional roofing companies said the roof is beyond repair and waiting for him to come back to this country and attempt a half-assed repair job is not acceptable. If he doesn't budge, offer the tenants to break the lease and resign as the property manager. Sorry, but you should not associate yourself with owners who refuse to make repairs to make the house habitable. 

And tenants should not have to wait a month or two for a roof leak to be looked at and them attempted to be fixed. If a property manager/landlord told me that, I'd take the buckets away and let the water damage the inside of the place.