Entitled Tenants from hell....but my mistake for being "nice"

[Lisa Casey]

I have a small house on 18 acres.   We have rented it out 5 times with no complaints.  In the last 4 years we we have totally renovated it adding a sun room, new HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and refinishing floors, refurbished the buck stove etc. you get the picture. When the new tenants moved in July 2014.  I told them I have done everything but upgrade the insulation and that was on my list to get done.  A month after they moved in her boyfriend lost his job and since has not found another.  I have accepted late and partial rent ($750) with no late fees for the past 5 months.  I know... 1st mistake and been way too nice lending them things.   They have paid in full by the end of each month but then, I get this email from her.  I responded with an eviction notice, which I received another tenant email after that... just as long as this one as to why I was so angry and being unfair.

Hello Lisa & Billy,

Shannon and I write you today in a spirit of compromise and cooperation in hopes that there can be a consensus about the current situation at the Holsclaw House that we rent from you. Though it is understood from your recent email about your medical issue and current financial situation that it is not the best time of year for you to be fixing the weatherization of our rental, it is also law for you to upkeep your rental as duties of being our landlords. To be frank, no matter what is going on with your end, the upkeep and safety of the rental is your responsibility. We believe it is none of our business the personal decisions you are making about your own home or the business decisions of other rentals, if you are not able to upkeep the house we are renting, you are not able to charge us the full rent originally agreed upon. This is not personal, it is law. It was noticed, but not yet abundantly clear until the inspection was done to completion, the reasoning for our high utilities from the beginning. We were wondering why the house had difficultly keeping the cool air from the Air Conditioning in summer when we did run it. And now we know. I was sincerely shocked to understand that there are whole large sections of the roof from the attic ceiling that are just exposed tin---no wood or insulation at all, where it would be needed most. It is no wonder we are not able to keep heat in this house. Let alone the discovery that the insulation--or what is a crumbled mess left of it in the walls are at least 30-50 years old (per inspector)--so large sections of the house is as if not insulated at all. Billy also mentioned you have had the pipes freeze and burst under the house in recent years, and you can easily see why. Most of the pipes are exposed and not at all insulated, while the ones remaining with insulation have very old, half falling off foam. The gentleman from the first inspection in August mentioned the piles of filter material lay sitting in the attic-especially near the chimney area are a fire hazard and should be removed. This is all especially alarming with the knowledge there has been a fire in the house before. Though it may have been quite some time ago, there is little to no upkeep to the weatherization of this house, other than the working fire place and the option to run the Central Heat/Air full blast. It is simply not acceptable whatsoever that your answer to us is to "DIY" the house when it is not our responsibility. That is why we pay you rent. It is not our home to upkeep in that manner.

When you showed us the rental, and upon move in on more than one occasion, I (Julia) spoke to you both about the weather stripping needed for some of the older windows and both the front & back door. I asked if we should do it ourselves then and deduct the cost off rent. I said I was however afraid to do it ourselves anyway since it is a historic home and I don't want to mess up any of the paint and or moulding on the house. You said you planned on getting a weatherization/energy inspection anyhow, and that it would be taken care of. Now we are told to "DIY" and to just apply to utility assistance programs. It's not going to happen. There is also confusion on our end as to the problem of financial timing on your end. The first,though not fully complete, inspection was done on August 27th. We heard nothing from you two about it after until the scheduled appointment to actually do the work in November. Then all the sudden you cannot afford to do any of it? You had from August to November to prepare for the weatherization of this home.

I understand that this is a vacation home for you two, and that you may have not spent too much time there in the winter to understand how it is there, but we rented this house with your promise that it is a year round ready rental, and that you were going to do the weatherization inspection and follow through with it. We are already experiencing nights--and have been off and on for weeks now, where the weather has reached freezing and below. According to several sections of the Landlord Tenant Act, it is your sole duty to A) make all repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and maintain the premises in a fit and habitable condition B) Maintain in good working order and condition the all heating/ventilation C) Supply reasonable heat and running hot water between October 1st-May 1st. We would really really like to have the pipes insulated so that we don't encounter the problem of no water or hot water if they burst. It would be costly for you to repair as well.

We have made sure you have been paid full rent every single month, though the condition of the home has not been up kept (i.e. weatherized). We are also concerned about the safety issues of the attic. As stated before, writing with a spirit of compromise and cooperation, we would like this email to be considered a thirty day notice to please weatherize the house in accordance with the inspection given by Energy Savers Company on November 23rd. In the meantime, we would like to open up a written dialogue (via email here) as to the fairness of charging us full rent until the weatherization can happen. We would like to propose paying $500 for the month of December, so that leaves us a $250 window for the significant increase in the LGE Bill and the need to drip the water at night when it gets cold enough, i.e. the raise in the Louisville Water Bill, not to mention dealing with the situation for longer. If the job is scheduled for January, maybe we could do a pro-rate for the time frame until it is done. If you agree to these terms, we would like an amendment to the original lease drawn up and signed by you, and sent in the mail for us to also sign and return a copy to you. As stated, we are not trying to specifically cause any grievance or rift between you and us, it is simply a matter of what is law and fair. We feel the services that should be provided by paying full rent are not there as promised. Therefore we should not be charged the full rental amount of $750.00. Please let us know at your earliest convenience via email response as to your decision about the matters at hand at your earliest convenience.

Aside from the rent money and the weatherization, there are a few more things we needed to communicate about:

A) The old vintage fridge has still not been picked up by LGE. I know you said it would be two weeks at max, but that would be in two days so I wanted to give you a heads up about that.

B)We have noticed that there is not a fireplace rope seal for the door of it, which is not only needed for safety reasons, but also for proper usage of the fireplace.

C) We wanted to reiterate what we have requested and stated to you several times before which is that we not only highly prefer a 48 hour notice before coming to the Holsclaw House, it is also law. Shannon and I both shouldn't always have to be prepared on a dime to drop what we are doing because it happens to fit your schedule. We have a schedule as well. Shannon also suffers greatly from PTSD, high levels of anxiety, and it is very difficult for him to engage in unexpected encounters. As you know us fairly well by now as tenants, we keep the place well, and just prefer the privacy. It is part of why anyone pays rent for their home. You may email me here or text me at the number # which is my cell phone during reasonable hours.

D) We are confused about the issue of the chainsaw. When we first rented the place, Billy said he would provide a working chainsaw for free for us to use to saw the downed wood on the property that has been agreed upon. When given the first chainsaw that did not work (needed serious repairs) and was not safe since it did not have a guard/or a chain stop, you then repaired another chainsaw for us to use. It was not until waiting for then months on end for a working chainsaw that we were given one to use a few weeks ago. During those two weeks we have a had a major holiday (Thanksgiving) and several days of rain. Why is it that all the sudden we have a time limit on the chainsaw? Yet again, this is part and parcel of how we are trying to heat the home. Shannon has done a lot of work with it thus far, but we are running through wood fast due to the heating issue. It would help us out greatly to be able to continue to use the chainsaw through December so we can finish the work we started.

I know this is a rather large email and it will take some time to come to a few decisions and write us back. Please let me reiterate that being a landlord and renting out property is a business. You supply the house/property in good working order and we pay you rent. If I were to write you and say "sorry, we want to use rent on personal things so you don't get it this month" you wouldn't like that either. We want fairness in the situation, and that is all we are asking.

Thank you in advance for your time and efforts.

Sincerely, Julia & Shannon