Pest control liability, judgments and eviction

[James Conaway]

I have a tenant who brought bed bugs into their unit. I paid to have it remediated to prevent it spreading to other units. The lease agreement states tenant is responsible for pest control. The pest control cost was divided up over multiple months for the tenant. The tenant is refusing to pay for the cost associated with the pest control. My property management company's approach is the only way to force a tenant to pay for the costs is to refuse to accept their rent payments, if they do not include the pest control payment as well and take them to court.

The tenant is refusing to pay it, so my property management company is refusing their rent payments and is filing for a judgement.

This situation is heading towards a judgement and eviction. Which I am not optimistic about getting the rent payments or pest control costs back after a judgement. I am also concerned about how long this could drag out with multiple months of payments missed.

This strategy seems to be a losing proposition for me the owner. Part of me feels that a fast nickle is better than a slow dime. Take what I can get in income and just eat the rest, but I am getting tired of tenants causing problems ($$$) and then I have to pay to fix them.

How do you approach these situations?