Tenant withholding rent due to minor maintenance issue

[TaRa Mehta]

Hello all,

I've a tenant who has been paying her rent late each month (along with the late fee). This month, however, she has not paid the rent so far.

Here is the sequence of events that happened.

1. Issue #1 - a rat entered the house and caused damage to the pipes which caused a massive leak - This issue was addressed properly and promptly. The rat was trapped, and the leak has been fixed.

2. Issue #2 - She lodged a maintenance issue asking for the ceiling tiles to be replaced which had water stains from Issue #1. We have not yet addressed this issue since we incurred a lot of expense from issue #1, and don't consider this as urgent.

After several attempts to contact her, she replied back saying that she has "taken" some of the money from the rent to pay and get the ceiling tiles replaced herself. She says she will pay the rent late. There's no indication of when, or how much of it she is going to pay.

We have been very courteous with her and been very reasonable and patient with her so far. What is the best approach to handle this situation?

Thank you in advance ! 

Tara