How to handle problem tenant

[Rehj Hoeffner]

I've got these two young kids that moved in and signed a 4 year lease. We had just completely remodeled the unit, new bathrooms, new kitchen cabinets, granite countertop, new microwave and fridge, sinks, faucets, plumbing (left the oven, washer and dryer from previous), new flooring throughout, fresh paint.

It's one thing after another. The disposal kept falling under the sink..I repaired immediately. 

Supposedly the washer went out and the maintenance man came out and said the dryer was on its last leg as well. I replaced them with brand new units. 

There was a smell from the return air that we went round and round about. Finally after 2 service calls and $300 later, it was a stopped up kitchen sink that they didn't tell the A/C guy about the gurgling in the kitchen when the dishwasher ran. 

The ceiling in the garage started sagging and they were afraid it would fall on their car, so I immediately replaced the entire double car garage ceiling.

The knob on the oven popped off and the whole top of the stove shifted somehow and it wouldn't go back on in order to turn off the burner. We had contemplated replacing the oven when we remodeled the house, so I purchased a brand new oven that I let HER pick out!

Then I find out she's running a bakery out of the house. Texas law is a little fuzzy about cottage industries, and the lease isn't specific about running a business from the home. I'm not happy about clients coming to my rent house and increasing my opportunities of liability. 

They never pay their rent on time. One month they were extremely late, past the late payment fee before she told me she had twins and one of them died. I wanted so bad to be compassionate about it saying don't worry, pay when you can, but I knew if I let her get behind, she'd never catch up. 

Then she had ants which she panicked about and called out an exterminator without my knowledge. They turned out to be Carpenter Ants which is my responsibility, but she wanted me to reimburse her for the $200 emergency call, however he did not do a full treatment so I had to have my exterminator come back out for another $300.  

September's rent is still not paid. Last night I got a text that the AC wasn't working. They replaced the filter, but still nothing. I called and made an appointment for today for the maintenance man. She texts 2 hours later and wants to know if they have an emergency number she can call because heat increases the likelihood of SIDS in babies!?!

I told her no, he'll he there in the morning!  AC repair just left and told me the tenants are running a humidifier in the house due to sick baby and the AC unit, which is a complete brand new system right before they moved in 3 years ago, is not made to have a humidifier run and it's freezing up the unit as it is basically working against the AC and clogging the filter.  Cost me $100 service call on a rental unit that runs a very very slim margin of profit to begin with.  I've not turned a profit in the 3 years they've been there. 

What do you do with these types of tenants who pay late and cost you money?  We have 7 rental units on the same street as we live, so they are basically our neighbors, but we strictly don't socialize with any of our tenants. We try to be very good landlords and fix anything that arrises immediately and usually go above and beyond. 

I'm really irritated with them this morning!  Can I legally add this bill to their past due September rent? Ideas or suggestions?