Tenant refusing my entrance of property due to COVID

[Cole Fleishour]

My current tenants are both medical doctors and refuse to let me inspect my property. They say I can't enter due to state and federal regulations and their professions. 

I think they could be using COVID as an cover to not let me see the condition of the property and the extra 2 dogs. They should be paying $100 more per month for the dogs and I think have breached the contract due to not telling me about them. In addition to that, the neighbors have complained that one of the dogs wandering the neighborhood.

There is 7 months left on their lease and it states: "Expect the landlord to inspect the property approximately 1 time every 3 months. Landlord will agree to follow social distancing requirement including staying 6 feed distance and wearing masks or any other protective gear that tenant requires."...."No animals or pets shall be kept on the premises without the consent of the landlord"

If I go the legal route I am afraid they may damage the property more than the security deposit and cost me thousands in legal fees to pay for the damages. All that being said, I am leaning toward the more passive approach and waiting until they are done with the quarantine. 

In addition to that, they had the house tested for radon found the level is high so they are saying that I have put their family at risk and want me to pay for a mitigation system. This I may just pay for because I do care about the health of anyone in my rental.

Any advice would be awesome!

Thank you!

Cole

[Joe Splitrock]

@Cole Fleishour home radon tests are notoriously unreliable. They are often placed in the wrong location or left too long. Anyone in the radon mitigation business will have a piece of test equipment that they will place in the property at the right location. It tracks levels over a period of time to get an accurate reading. Any doctor should understand the concept behind using a professional versus self diagnosis. Self radon tests only tell you to bring in a professional.

Tell the tenant, you can meet the radon specialist there to place the equipment and do the inspection at the same time. The specialist will then need to come to remove the equipment a few days later. If a mitigation system needs to be installed, the specialist will need access into the property to install. This means the tenant needs to give permission for 3 visits to the property.

If they refuse, tell them in writing there is no action you can take on the radon. Without professional testing and without permission to enter the property, there is no way to remediate the problem (if there even is one). 

Even if they opt for no visits, I would take them up on the video walk through. I would also address the unauthorized animal. It is better than nothing.