Tenants refusing to pay rent

[Hannah Dean]

Our tenants are refusing to pay the fee they are being charged and are now refusing to pay the rent. Per the lease agreement the fee is now part of the rent, so fee and rent are on the same invoice. The issue that incurred the fee was due to plumbing. The email they sent said that the dishwasher was full of water and leaking, the garbage disposal was not working and the toilets were overflowing. They also sent the same message to our Maintenance man. As soon as we both saw the email we worked on getting someone out. (orig email was sent on a Sunday). Two plumbers were supposed to go out neither of them showed up. So, our Maintenance man went over to do the work.

What we didn't know until the fee incurred is that they called a pluming company out. Which they are not supposed to do. We had to call the company to find out what services they did. They told us that the lines were backed up due to rice (and other rubbish) clogging the disposal/lines. We were also told that the tenants refused to let them finish their job and also refused to pay what they owed them. Had we been made aware that company went out they would have finished the job and our guy would not have had to be sent out.

Our guy told us that he dug food out of the lines as well. He also had to fix the supply line because it was leaking. We paid for that service to be done. 

They have argued with us for days now and won't pay. I sent them pictures of the lease with the sections highlighted showing that they are responsible for this issue. The told us "if you insist on not changing the amount, we are going to consider you as delaying the payment intentionally and we are not going to be responsible for this". We informed them after 3 days of non payment, per the lease, they will have a late fee added daily. On the 7th day we will take further action .. eviction process.

We are just wanting to be reassured that we are doing the right thing. This is our first time as landlords. On the 7th day do we just contact a lawyer or do we send them more warnings? These people have acted as if it is their home since they moved in and we are fed up! We have been as nice as possible to them thus far but refuse to be walked all over. 

Thank you in advance for any input-help with this!

[Nathan Gesner]

I'm not familiar with your state laws but generally speaking, the tenant can only withhold rent if you fail to address the maintenance issue. Even then, there are clear steps the tenant must take, like providing you written notice and giving you a set amount of time to address it.

I recommend two things:

1. Separate the repair charge from the rent. Advise the tenant they must pay rent in accordance with your lease or face late fees and/or eviction.

2. Consult an attorney regarding the maintenance. It may not rise to the level of justifying an eviction but it definitely needs to be addressed because your tenant caused the problem, they hired their own plumber that they refuse to pay which may result in a lien against your property, and they are refusing to pay your charges even though they are responsible.

These sound like tenants you don't want to keep. At a minimum, I would consider giving them a 30-day notice to see if they will leave. You can take the maintenance charge out of their deposit after they vacate.