Tenant Killed the Lawn - Options?

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BP Friends,

I was hoping you all could provide some guidance. I drove by my property a week ago and the front and side yard grass is dead. We have had a couple very warm months in Southern California and my suspicion is that the tenant turned the irrigation off. I contacted him a week ago and let him know I saw the dead grass and that the situation needs to be remedied. A condition of the lease is for the tenant to maintain and irrigate the grass and plants on the property or I hirer a gardner at cost to the tenant. I contacted him after I saw the damage and he responded generally positive. He told me that he is hiring a gardener. I plan to meet him this weekend at the rental to go over the options. My Question: What are my options?

A gardener is nice but the grass needs to be replaced. Also, I am hesitant to let him contract with a gardener if he did not take care of the yard in the first place. He has been a fine tenant to date, and other than this issue, I would like him to keep renting to him. However, can I fix the grass and force him to pay? Should I give him the option to fix it first and in a month if its not fixed give notice for him to move out? I hesitate to take a portion of his security deposit now to fix the damage because then I'm chipping away at any leverage I have when he moves out. Thanks for any input. If you need any further information to assess, please let me know. 

[Chris Vail]

We are also in a serious drought out here in California, not sure of the regulations where your rental is in SoCal but I know up here in NorCal certain counties are requiring a minimum 20% reduction in water usage or fines could be assessed. The drought is not going away anytime soon so might want to rethink the grass option and possibly replace (if you were thinking of replacing the grass anyways) with a more drought tolerant landscape option.