Tenant Wiring

[Keith N.]

I've been renting houses and duplexes for almost 12 years now, and this is the first time I've encountered this problem.

I have a 3BR/1BA SFH that 3 guys in their 20's-30's started renting about a year ago. When they first moved in, one of the guys decided he wanted to put his bedroom in the unfinished basement, so without contacting me, he painted the walls, put down carpet, and installed outlets, a ceiling fan, and a switch with romex. I discovered it when I went over there for routine maintenance, and told them that it was:
A) Against their lease to modify the property without my written consent.
B) Illegal to put a bedroom in the basement (insufficient methods of egress).
C) A bad idea, because the basement gets damp with heavy rains.
D) Improperly wired.

I read them the part in the lease that they had verbally agreed to and signed, told them not to try that again, and they agreed to undo their electric work and remove the furniture from the basement.  I thought the problem was behind us.

Today, we were over there replacing the water heater and discovered that they had run electric out to the detached garage.  They had hung track lights, an outlet, and a switch, all run in romex, which was connected to an extension cord that they ran through the door, across a walkway, and plugged into an outlet on the outside of the house.

My first thought was "I don't want to evict them, but they are blatantly disregarding the lease."  I'm concerned about fire hazards and code violations, and the fact that they were very aware that they are not to perform any wiring in the house.  I'm trying to decide how to handle this situation, and thought I would ask the opinions of the BP community.  Do I:

1) Tell them they have a week to restore everything to the way it was, or else I will hire someone to do it and give them the bill.
2) Hire someone to restore everything and give them the bill (without giving them the opportunity to do it themselves)
3) Evict them for willingly and knowingly violating the lease
4) Option 1 or 2, plus tell them there's going to be $100 additional charge per month to cover the cost of a monthly safety inspection to verify they have not modified the house, since they have done so twice.

My fear in having them restore everything without any penalties is that it sends the message that they can try whatever they want and just have to undo it if they get caught.  I want to send the message that posing fire risks is unacceptable.

What are your thoughts?

[Keith N.]

Just a follow-up to this thread, these tenants decided to move a few months later.  Here's what I've found since then:

During the move-out inspection, I found that they had re-installed the basement wiring after my electrician removed it. I had to have it removed again and billed them for it.

During the inspection, there were missing screens, which I billed them for.  When the next tenants moved out (they bought a house), I found these screens in the crawl space, torn. I don't know if they realized repairing torn screens would be cheaper than replacing missing screens.

Their new landlord has informed me that they're behind rent on her house and have made changes that she's worried about but hasn't confronted them on.

During the move-out inspection of the next tenant, several things were pointed out as "that's the way it was when we moved in", such as a broken countertop corner, broken cabinet hinges, holes in walls behind doors and conveniently placed posters that were left from tenant to tenant, and poorly repaired damaged window sashes.

What I've learned from this experience:

I now have an inspection form that I follow so I can be more thorough.  I'm looking into inspection apps to replace my paper system.  If I had this system in place back then, I could have charged the damages to the tenants.  I had been told to systematize my inspections, but kept putting it off.

When a tenant disregards the lease, warn them once.  When they disregard it again, consider ending their tenancy.  People make mistakes, but repeated disregard shows lack of respect.

Make it clear to new tenants that if something seems wrong, damaged, or questionable, we want to know about it.  The second tenants that just moved out kept saying "we thought you knew and didn't want to criticize your work."

Conduct bi-annual inspections for problems or damages that the tenants might not report.  A problem or damage that's obvious to you or I might not be obvious to them. For example, an outlet coverplate had a corner broken off (Their son could have stuck something in and touched wires).  A data rework box (coax and phone) had a broken tab in the wall and was loose (their son could pull the box out of the wall).  A very old doorknob had a missing screw, so the knob would come off sometimes (in an emergency, this could delay exit). The vanity was missing the stopper (easier to drop something in there and clog it). The tenants saw these as "it's an old house" or "it's a rental", not as safety issues.

Sorry for the long-winded post.  I just wanted to share what I've learned from this experience so others might avoid mistakes that I've made.