Tenant bathroom floor needs to be redone

[Chris A.]

I have a tenant (2 adults, 2 children, 1 dog and 1 car). So they have been living in this 3 bedroom 1 bath home for exactly one year. 2 weeks ago the tenant texted me saying they want to renew the lease for another year, so I renewed with a slight increase in rent. As soon as I and renewed the lease the tenant wrote me this long message with all these thing wrong, including drain smells bad(she’s been putting bleach down the drain to kill the odor, the lights in the kitchen and bedroom are flickering(this ones easily fixable) & the bathroom floor is in-caving because of water damage(she suggested a new shower door). I feel like they withheld that information when they signed the lease and now Im in this situation where the floor needs to be possibly replaced in their only bathroom while they are living there. I don’t know why the drain pipes smell, the flickering lights are easily fixable, but this bathroom floor situation has me thinking about what I should I do. Any suggestions on how I should approach this?

[Alan Pederson]

First, I would say you need to fix the problem before it gets worse. Second, why are you just now hearing about these problems? When did they notice the problem? Was it a pre-existing problem that has just gotten worse in the past year? The lease I have in place (and I'm sure you're says the same thing) states that the tenants need to report any problems immediately so they don't cause further damage to the property. If this is a new problem that they knew about and didn't inform you I would have a long talk with them. I would  explain to them that by them letting this problem go, they have caused the problem to get worse and the repairs will now be more expensive. I would inform them that you will be charging them X amount to cover part of the repair.

I have a tenant that doesn't want to bother me with stuff. Every time I go over there to do something she tells me "well as long as you're here" and then tells me the stuff that's needs attention. It's never anything big but I keep telling her that I live close by and have no problem coming by to fix things. I would rather hear about a problem asap instead of hearing about something after it causes lots of damage.