Tenant making trouble for showings

[Nick Bennett]

Anyone running in to this over covid-19?

I have a 3 unit in Providence RI and the second floor has found a new location closer to work and is moving. They gave me 30+ day notice as it speaks to in their month to month lease. I discussed doing showings/tours and they were all good with it, now their mind has changed.

Has anyone found any kind of ruling or law pertaining to this that benefits the landlord? I know each state is different, I own in MA and RI. Can I still impose the 24 hour notice and go? I gave 4 days notice and was shut down- I reluctantly agreed to put it on hold- shes been great up until this point.  I don't mean to be insensitive but shes obviously citing covid-19 factors as to why she wont in her words "permit" me to do the showings when I know for a FACT she grocery shops on the weekends- difference is, during this showing nobody will be aloud to touch anything, and the windows/doors can remain open! how is that worse? I understand it is your living space but really? I've even offered to pay for a nice meal out that they can have wherever they want and to sanitize all touch points after the tour is over.

I had to essentially give an ultimatum just to get a video tour scheduled- which I don't feel confidence will yield any different result.

That is my rant- thoughts? Any creative ideas to make it still happen? 

I have about 17 folks ready to sign, 3 willing to prepay who've paid for their applications already- I've got 0 need for this to sit vacant for a day- I don't want to put anyone unnecessarily at risk and don't feel we will when following the local guidelines along with added precautions that exceed the local standards.

Look forward to the engagement on the topic

[Oscar Miguel]

My $0.02:

I just had my favorite tenant move out because they bought a home.  They have a newborn and were worried about handymen/prospective tenants coming to the property.  I agreed, so I send them a link to a Craigslist ad that had all the pictures I would want in my ad.

I asked them to clean up the house and please mimic these photos in exchange for no one visiting while they were there.  They agreed and I had pretty good pictures within 48 hours.  I took those pictures and posted them on a Craigslist and Zillow rentals ads and it was a hit.  I even tried my luck with higher rents.  Long story short, I have qualified renters in place and the unit was only vacant for 2 weeks.  With the higher rent, I hardly felt a difference during the vacancy.