Tenant demands that she is present during all repairs

[Vicki K.]

Hi Everyone,

I have a tenant who is becoming a royal pain in my neck. She does not allow anyone to enter the premises for purposes of making repairs or inspections (required city inspections that is) unless she or her husband are home. Our lease explicitly states that we have the right to enter with notice. I am based in Michigan where there is no specific requirement for how long in advance you need to provide notice. We have tried so hard to accommodate her and often reschedule visits numerous times.

We have had it. We gave them written notice that effective immediately we can no longer accommodate rescheduling requests. We will be providing 24 hours notice and will enter the property after that during regular business hours regardless of who is home. No minor children at the house. If they want to be present, we don't care. Take the day off and stay home.

There are other issues with this tenant as well. For example, she is mandating that we provide brand new AC and furnace units because the current ones are "on their last leg" and all we do is put band aids. In a written letter I also explained that as long as we restore them to operational condition, whether we repaired them or replaced them should be irrelevant to her. I do understand my obligation to repair any issues, but she shouldn't be the one to tell me what upgrades I need to make to the house. If the unit dies and I cannot repair it, I will replace it. Until then, band aids or not - not her problem as long as it works.

She doesn't agree with my letter and wants to talk (argue) about it. Can she legally tell me that I can't go in after I give her notice? If she continues to argue about this, can I tell her that I can evict her based on breach of contract? This is after all a clause in my lease which she signed.

[Vicki K.]

Wow, well let me just say... I did not expect things to turn out the way they did. As I said previously, the tenants asked to meet with me as they didn't agree with many points of my letter. I spent 1.5 hours with them and I there was nothing that they disagreed about. After I explained everything, they were even apologetic and told me how much they like the house and how appreciative they are of everything we do. I was ready for a "fight" - instead everyone was pleasant and relaxed. I was friendly and stern as all of you suggested and I think that most importantly I made them feel heard. Meeting in person and talking things through was definitely the right thing to ease the tension that was building between us and these otherwise perfect tenants - house is immaculate, rent is always on time, they don't cause trouble for neighbors and report issues timely.

They agreed that nothing will be replaced on demand. We will decide the course of action based on professional judgement. If it works, they should not have any objections. I think they realized they crossed the line on that one and simply backed off saying to me " we just want it to work; you do what is best".

They still would like to be present during repairs and inspections, and we agreed that if it is not an emergency we will work out a mutually convenient time. If there is an emergency or urgent repairs - they will be done. I also told them that I cannot keep sending contractors on weekends because that's the only day that works for them, because it costs me extra. They apologized profusely about that saying that they did not even think about those implications and said that going forward they will do what is necessary to be home during normal hours when things are scheduled for repair. Good compromise. I think the most important thing was for them to hear that they are not in charge. There are legal rights I have as landlord and that they have to cooperate. They took full responsibility for that.

I did give myself a pat on the shoulder for sticking to my agenda and my key messages. I was very nice but firm. I couldn't have dreamed of a better outcome.

Thank you all for your support in getting me prepared for a bad situation. Glad it never got to that and instead, I get to keep a good tenant for another year and hopefully have a lot less hassle going forward. Phew!

You guys /gals rock! Thank you!