Difficult, unhappy tenants on a 3 year lease?

[Eric N.]

Hi- I have a 2 part question about covering hotel expenses when the a/c isn adequate and how I can get a tenant to leave if I have a 3 year lease agreement with them. We ended up renting our SFR in california to an individual who requires a caretaker. We agreed to a 3 year lease at the time because they requested it for "stability" reasons. It's been 4 months and the tenant continues to complain about multiple issues that our previous tenants had no problem with. It is an older house, and the A/C is adequate for all but the hottest days. But, they said the heat was dangerous for the tenant and caretaker and have moved into a hotel until we "replace the A/C unit." My questions are: 1.what are we responsible for covering? 2. Is there a way for us to suggest that the tenant can break their lease without us getting stuck covering the payments? Thanks for any insight in advance!

[Dan Schwartz]

@Eric N.
1. You aren't responsible for anything more than what the CA landlord-tenant act requires. Given that it is such a large state with very diverse climates, I doubt AC is required by law. Your HVAC may need to be functioning property, which a sub-$100 inspection can likely confirm or deny.

2. Once you confirm that the AC conforms to whatever is legally required, and is functioning properly (even though it might not be strong enough for the tenants' taste), offer cash for keys. Like yesterday. And never sign a multi-year lease again. Anything beyond month-to-month protects the tenant far more than the landlord. A single year lease is a decent length in a good neighborhood. Never longer than that again. Never.

Good luck.