Tenant Broke the Fence with her Car

[Nitanth Vangala]

Hey everyone,

One of my tenants drove her car through the wood fence of our rental house and it requires work. What have people done in this situation? Here are the possibilities I could come up with:

1. Just pay to get it fixed on owner expense

2. Try to see if the tenant can get it paid for through her car insurance

3. Take cost out of the deposit

Im leaning towards number 1 purely for the hassle part of it. Im open to other suggestions or possibilities that people may have. Thanks in advance!

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Nitanth Vangala:

Hey everyone,

One of my tenants drove her car through the wood fence of our rental house and it requires work. What have people done in this situation? Here are the possibilities I could come up with:

1. Just pay to get it fixed on owner expense

2. Try to see if the tenant can get it paid for through her car insurance

3. Take cost out of the deposit

Im leaning towards number 1 purely for the hassle part of it. Im open to other suggestions or possibilities that people may have. Thanks in advance!

DO NOT take money out of the deposit. Ever. The security deposit is your only security that the tenant will faithfully comply with the terms of the lease and should never be touched until the tenant has vacated and you have complete control of the property again.

The best option is to give the tenant written notice of their responsibility to have it professionally repaired within XX days and pass your inspection. If they fail to complete it within the timeframe or to your satisfaction, then you should consider hiring someone to have it done and pass the bill on to the tenant along with a penalty for failing to comply. If they fail to pay, then you should apply their next rent payment to the repair, leaving the tenant short on rent, and you start the eviction process for failure to pay in full.

If it were a really minor repair and their lease is going to end soon, then you may consider waiting until they are out and deducting the repair from the deposit, but this should be your last resort.