Tenant added own washer and dryer...

[Sameerah Baker]

Hello fellow Landlords and Property Managers...I have a SFR w/a Section 8 tenant. She's been in the house since Sept. I went to the property the other day to collect her portion of the rent and change out the furnace filter and found that she has added a washer and dryer. I mean the whole kit and kaboodle - plumbing/hoses, water line as well as electrical connections. Ironically enough, my husband and I had been considering adding hook-ups after the New Year as an added benefit to her since she is disabled and has mobility issues. The property had the hook-ups previously but someone broke in, in between tenants, and stole all the copper, so we just never added the hooks up back when the repairs were done. So continuing...as I was discussing with her that I was going to add the hook-ups, my husband proceeded to head to the basement and noticed the hook ups in the utility room off the kitchen (this is where the prior hook-ups were so not an issue w/the location of where they are although I would have put them on a different wall in the room). We go to look around in the basement and could see where the work had been done. The tenant does not speak English well so she called her DIL who explained that her husband (tenant's son) is an electrician and put the connections in.

We provide the stove and fridge and my lease is VERY specific in that no extra appliances shall be added and no alterations to the property shall be made w/o our written consent. Clearly, there is a violation of the lease here!!! I know that I can demand that she remove all of this or face eviction, BUT I was thinking of a different approach - give her notice of a lease violation and then as for curing it, give her options - A) connections to be removed at her expense or face eviction; B) LL will allow connections to stay, however, LL will have connections inspected by a licensed professional (plumber and electrician) at tenant's expense and tenant will be responsible to make any corrections to ensure that installation is proper (safe) and in compliance with local building codes. Also included will be a blurb about any connections that remain will become a part of the property and shall not to be removed when she vacates and also mentioning that she is responsible for any and all damages to person or property caused by her installation and use of these appliances. 

Any thought that seasoned LLs or PM could provide would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks in advance...