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Updated over 6 years ago,
Renew Lease or Not (Early Payer, Bad Tenant)
I am a newbie, just converted my primary residence to a rental last summer. We're nearing the end of our first lease and have a bit of a problem tenant but they pay rent early or on-time every month. We're on the fence about whether to renew the lease or not and figured folks here could be helpful. There is no month to month, it's sign a new lease or leave. I don't have to give any notice legally.
Primary reason to renew is that they pay their rent well in advance and that has never been an issue.
However, the tenant has been responsible for two major plumbing issues resulting in flooding. One was backing up the disposal and continuing to run the dishwasher, flooding entire kitchen and crawl space and destroying hard wood floors. The second is that somehow they froze a "freeze proof faucet" in the crawl space. Tenant denies he knew anything about it until he went to connect a hose, but the evidence suggests otherwise. It's clear as day that for one, he left the faucet pressurized in a freeze, and two, he was aware of it weeks ago and shut the faucet off because the flooding wasn't substantially worse. Neither time, did he inform me of the flooding when he became aware of it, which is what I really have a problem with. There are a number of other minor lease violations and the house and yard is in terrible shape.
I am concerned about losing a month of rent, Im also concerned about potential damage if I dont renew the lease and he has another month living there.
So BP community, extend another lease or not?