Can't afford repairs but tenant doesn't want to move

[Jared Lane]

Hello everyone. I have run into a situation that I haven't encountered before and was looking for some advice. We have been getting a lot of rain here in Ohio and one of my properties started having some pretty bad basement flooding issues. We have tried to rule out all the cheaper solutions that tend to solve the problems but this time it's more serious and will be a lot of money to repair properly. I don't have the money for the repairs right now so I am considering just telling the tenant they are welcome to break the lease and of course all of their deposits will be refunded, but they don't seem to want to leave. I don't want them getting sick and I also don't want to be liable for anything that can arise from mold if they continue to stay in the property. What should I do if I offer for them to leave with a refund and they don't want to?

[Account Closed]

@Jared Lane a real French drain would be installed below the height of the basement slab somewhere next to the footing just outside the basement walls. I’ve done at least 1 by hand and it wasn’t all that bad. No problem with the occupants because it’s all exterior. Honestly, you don’t want to do that kind of digging too much with an excavator anyways, and often there’s some decks you have to get under anyways. After I dug it up, I cleaned the walls, rolled water proofing on the walls, then, adhered 6mil plastic to the wall up to the grade and ran it down to the French drain area. When we backfilled, we also solved the slope issue by making sure the grade slipped away from the house for at least 6’ (12’ recommended). Usually the main problem causing water is the grade sloping toward the house, and lack of gutters that run the water away with the proper downspout. As far as walls in the basement, that stuff could cost you some significant time with all your slab drainage corrections etc. watch out for the lawsuits right now on mold etc. people are burning bridges and going for broke and you don’t want the chaos to take itself out on you for mold. Your best quick solution may be to make the basement off limits and lock it, put a dehumidifier in there (there should already be one) and find where the low spot is, bust a hole in the slab the size of a 5 gallon bucket and drop a good sump pump inside the bucket when you get it in the hole.