An argument with tenant

[Masha Alferova]

Hello Bigger Pockets Folks. My very first time writing in a forum, so please bear with me. I am leasing out a condo to a lady. She is a single mom, employed full time and has a busy schedule. The lease started in May of 2015, we signed for 2 years, so it will expire in May of 2017. First things first, she has never skipped a payment. In that regard, everything has been perfect. The issues I am having with her are:

1. Her complete lack of flexibility accommodating other people's schedules when any maintenance related issues come up. Most recent example: we have a water heater that is still under warranty that went out on Thursday, Jan 26th. She only reported it to us the following day after 5 pm (Fri, Jan 27th). I spoke with the technician right away and he gave her 2 separate windows on Sat that she was unable to accommodate. My husband went to check it out instead when she was available that day and with the technician on the phone determined that something more serious than lighting the pilot switch was going on. The tech came in on Sunday 1/29 at 7 am as she couldn't make Sat, and uncovered that one of the parts needed to be replaced but suppliers are closed on Sunday, so he couldn't get it that day. Unfortunately, none of the suppliers had the part on Monday, 1/30. We had to overnight the part and tried to install it today on 1/31. She was unavailable all day, so I had to have the tech go there at 8 pm today for a 3 hour job. Which obviously will cost me a lot of $ due to the fact that it was after hours. She refused any kind of flexibility. I would have let that go, but in 2016 she violated the lease twice when she installed the security camera outside the home and replaced the lock without notifying us. I found that out from neighbors. When I contacted her to get it removed, she kept giving me the run arounds for a month until I was served with an attorney letter representing HOA that this is a privacy violation. Eventually, my husband went there and removed it himself. Per the lease she cannot alter premises or replace the locks without approval. She also hosted a dog for a while without getting our approval. So at this point I am not inclined to renew the lease and my question is, would you experts out there say as long as she pays on time, its all that matters? Should I renew? Sorry its a wordy post, but this is all very new to me and I want to be a fair landlord. I love that place with all my heart and it is very upsetting.

[Thomas S.]

You simply need to learn how to landlord. As stated you have the right to manage your property at your conveyance. You do not cater to difficult tenants and to be completely honest landlords that define a good tenant as one that pays on time are clueless to the business.  All tenants are expected to pay on time, they do not get gold stars for doing what is expected.

I do not think you need a PM, you do need to learn how to better operate your business, I defiantly believe you should not renew this tenants lease in April and get a fresh start training a new tenant properly.

You do not need to put up with crap from tenants and piece of mind having a good tenant is well worth the time money and effort to replace any tenant. Landlords that make decisions based on the cost of tenant turn over are not operating a efficient business. Do not be at the mercy of difficult tenants, rid of her.