Contractor damaged tenants bed, I am having a hard time finding a solution....

[Ben Gleason]

A note: I own the home, live upstairs, and rent the lower apartment.

I hired a contractor to replace some windows, and and repair the damaged frames.   I gave my tenant a 30 day heads up on the repairs, I then gave him a reminder two weeks out, and then I stayed in constant contact with him the week of, and the day of the repairs.

In this time, the tenant did not move any of his furniture out of the way for the contractors to do their work.  When myself and the contractors went into the apartment to look at the windows, we noticed the tenant had his bed  situated  roughly 32 inches away from the window.   Contractors informed the tenant they the bed would have to be moved in order to do work on the window.   The tenant let them know the bed was fragile, but agreed to have it moved.

While moving the bed the slats on the bottom came loose and came off the bed.  

By now the windows were fully installed.

The tenant informed me about the bed, and offered photos. I contacted the contractor who immediately apologized, and offered to repair the bed that day.   The tenant refused to let the contractors repair the bed, and refused to let them back into his apartment.   I asked i'm what he thought was the best, most straight forward path forward and he declined to offer a solution.   I then said I, myself, would pay for the repairs and then deal with the contractor solo to get my money back.  He still did not offer any monetary value or solution.

I reached out again to the tenant and said I would give him the contractors information if he wanted to file a claim, and have the bed repaired, or replaced.  He declined and instead mentioned contacting a lawyer, and made a few vague comments about how the contractors were people of color, which surprised me.  He said to have the contractor "do whats right", which is both subjective, and not clear at all.

As soon as I hear lawyer speak I tend to stop talking and prefer to keep everything in writing.

I am at a loss here.  I offered multiple solutions, the contractor offered a solution, I offered to pay direct, and still haven't seen a monetary value and he keeps mentioning lawyers.   At this point I feel like telling him to call a lawyer, although I am sure they're going to suggest the same thing I have been suggesting for over a week, which is "find a solution".

Any help? Any tips? 

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Ben Gleason, I would do nothing.

There is no dispute for them to take to court at this point because they haven't even asked for anything. You made multiple offers and they declined. So, nothing more to do at this point in my opinion.

If on the off chance they hire a lawyer, I suspect the lawyers first step will be to send you a letter requesting something specific like a money amount. At that point you can make a decision.

For something as small as a bed, I don't see how any sane person could justify hiring a lawyer. They will spend more on the lawyer then they would stand to recover in small claims court and a lawyer isn't needed at all for small claims cases.

So, they just sound disgruntled and wanting to be miserable. They sound more concerned about taking their miserable feelings out on you than they are about the damage to the bed. So, I would just leave it alone and see if anything more comes of this. You have done everything you could up to this point.