Tenant cut the lally column in the basement!

[Maggie H.]

I live in Southeast Michigan and my SFR is back home in Upstate NY. When I was there back in mid May, I went to inspect the house and the tenant told me that the lally column had rusted out at the bottom, so he cut it and put it back up with boards to support the difference in length. He told me he had noticed changes in the door frame on the main floor, he said before he cut it, but I doubt that. He's always done small repairs for me after telling me about it and I would pay for materials. I'm in the middle of a divorce, so can't afford to do any major work right now. It could be a matter of six months before I can do anything costly. There are a total of three columns in the basement. I didn't know until just recently that they are used temporarily until a more permanent column is put in place. Any suggestions? I can't even afford to evict and find new tenants.

[Sean Pincus]

First, the repair should not be that costly. You can get a pump jack and a qualified contractor to jack up the house with little effort (under $1,000) to patch everything and put in the new column(s). The door frames will fix themselves once the joists are level.

Second, please have a rules and regulations section in your lease amended to include absolutely no "self help" or no repairs, renovations or alterations without written consent FIRST.

I hope that helps. It's stories like this that make me what to modify my own leases to include every possible detail.