Tenant playing tricks?

[Val J.]

I have a dilemma. I had a hot water heater to flood my floor in my property .  The flooring was laminate. I decided to remove the floor and replace it.  I've purchased the new flooring but I've just had a big problem getting an installer. One guy wants to charge me $3.50 sf to install 360 sf of laminate. I'm considering him just so that I can put this issue in my rear view but I think that price is a little high. And he can't do the job until next week.  My tenants (who haven not paid their rent this month) or the female texted me this a.m. with a picture of herself stating that the dust in the house caused her face to swell. I apologized for the inconvenience and asked if she could sleep upstairs (all the bedrooms are upstairs) until the flooring is installed. She texted back that when her lupus and fibromyalgia flare up she has to sleep downstairs. I haven't responded to that. I wanted to send another guy to the property to give me an estimate for installation. Hopefully he can go tomorrow. I have the property with a management company that I'm (to say the least) dissatisfied with because they have allowed this tenant to go this long without paying and haven;t filed an eviction.  The tenant also asked if she could give me the rent $ so that it would help to get the floor done. I replied No. Pay your rent as you've always done.  When the tenant mentioned the rent she didn't include the late fees that are due too.  She also didn't mention why they haven't paid the rent. By the way, this tenant is ALWAYS late and has paid rent+late fees the entire time they've been in the property. Red flags are going up in my head because I'm wondering if the tenant is trying to use her health issues as a reason to not pay rent due to the flooring not yet being installed. Give me your thoughts.  I'm not being a slum lord by not doing the floor. I've had a difficult time getting someone to install this darn floor. Please give me advice as to what you would do. 

[Steve B.]

Post an ad on Craigslist offering a dollar a foot. It should take a handyman about 6 hours to finish that job unless it has a lot of weird angles. Get rid of that tenant ASAP an unfinished floor isn’t a health hazard

[Christine Kankowski]

Get the flooring done asap so that is no longer an issue or rental payment or health concerns. You can call sevral people once you have the square footage and send them pictures rto get bids over the phone and see when they can do it. 

After that, do what you want with the tenant.  If she doesn't pay, issue a 3 day notice and evict.  Very simple, but get the flooring done asap since it's such a small area. This should be done by next week no matter waht.  Hire that guy and get it done. 

[Steve B.]

Post an ad on Craigslist offering a dollar a foot. It should take a handyman about 6 hours to finish that job unless it has a lot of weird angles. Get rid of that tenant ASAP an unfinished floor isn’t a health hazard

[Thomas S.]

Once you get the floor done get rid of the tenant to avoid any future problems. Their rent payment should be enough grounds to evict. If they are M2M (perfect) just non renew and move on.

You should also change management companies if you do not think they can be trained to do th ejob properly. Their inept management is actually due to you not properly managining them. When a tennat pays late they should immediatly recieve a pay or quit notice. If they are late a second or third time they should be evicted. It is a very poor business practice to train tenants to pay late which is what your PM has done..

[Lauren B.]

My local lowes will install laminate for about $.80/sq ft. Check with your local big box store.

[Val J.]

Lauren B. I already have my flooring , I just need an installer. I haven't contacted Lowe's but I called HomeDepot and they informed me that they don't install what the don't sell. I'l call Lowe's to see what they say.

[Colleen F.]

where did you buy the flooring they may reccommend installers. Or we used to have a local hardware store that had tradespeople they reccommended and would give a phone number for them.

[Val J.]

Colleen F. I got a great deal on it from the site OfferUp.  I bought it from an individual who was selling it at a discount. Her installer was too busy to take on my job.

[Jasmine B.]

Evict this tenant for not paying rent when it's due. Then make the upgrades you need to make. Fire this management company. It sounds like you're already managing it yourself. I had a tenant purposely breaking stuff in order to not pay the rent. They (gratefully) broke their lease before I could evict. But this sounds like a similar situation. It worked out for me because I was able to list the house for rent and maximize the tax benefits of remodeling while it was vacant vs occupied.