Tenant Interfering with Contractor

[Chris G.]

Been trying to get new metal roofing, gutter system, and outside building lights on commercial property for a long time now. Due to county permits, the property being in a historic district, and delays on specific materials required by the historic board this job has been ongoing for the past 3-4 months. The property consists of 5 commercial stores, 2 are vacant the other three occupied. This job requires the stores to be closed since the contractor will rope off the sidewalk out front for safety and will take 2-3 days for everything. The tenants did not want this to occur during the weekends since that's when they get the most business, I spoke with he contractor and we agreed it would be done during the week. I let the tenants know that the job would be starting today both over email and phone.

The contractor was working this morning before one of the tenants showed up and started yelling at them to leave and getting upset that they couldn't access their business. Because the contractor didn't want to start anything they left the job and called me. I went over there and confronted the tenant and they did the same thing too me, yelling and getting upset in front of their customers saying they only want the job completed during "so and so" days and hours. They aren't a bad tenant and always pay on time but are upset we're making them be closed for 2-3 days. I told the tenant that's too bad we'll continue the job tomorrow and Friday. I'm not sure what to do though, if the tenant shows up again do we try to ignore them and block them from going under the roped off area to their shop? Or if they try interfering do we call the authorities? The contractor has a tight schedule so they can't keep changing the days to complete the job. I'm just not sure what authority we have from not allowing the tenant in their shop during this work which we're allowed to be doing. We also don't want to give a rent reduction only because the other two tenants have no issues with being closed it's just this one.