Slip on Ice Complaint received from tenant

[Jimmy Chao]

I have a property OOS. One of my tenants texted me and said he slipped on ice on the steps. This was very surprising to me as the temperature had been above 50 the day before and was already over 50 that day, so there may have been some kind of ice storm in the night? It was raining that night. I went right over after he texted me, there was a small amount of ice on the steps. Anyway I was very sympathetic to him, and gave him an extra two months to pay his rent since he said he was in the hospital and couldn't work. He never asked me for anything, and now over a month later he has a lawyer send me a letter stating they want my insurance info to cover all his bills, he has a permanent disability, etc. I suspect this is a result to me raising the rent 10%, but I'm not sure. His rent is VERY under market, so I raised it and this seems very much a retaliation.

Anyway, I googled as much as I could online and found this:

-a landlord is liable if he knew about the problem but didn't fix it [I was not notified by anyone about the unexpected ice on the steps] -a landlord has a certain amount of time to clear ice and snow from the steps, in Boston should be about 6 hours. The fall happened at 10am, so it was still very early and I could have been well within the 6 hour time window. -the letter says the owner's failure property to maintain or divert water run-off through adequate draining but this building has always been like this. There is nothing damaged, there is simply nothing above the steps. He moved into the building when it was like this. -There is a box of salt I provided for tenants in the front hallway area that was still filled when I went to salt the area. -The handrail is in perfect condition and completely useable.

Anyone ever been through something like this? I would really like to represent myself in court but as he has hired a lawyer I probably need to hire one too.

Also, I now want him out of the building since he is now a problem tenant with the extremely late rent. Can I use the fact that his rent is always late to remove him without getting in trouble for retaliating myself?

[Greg Scott]

When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.  I would not make one more move until I had spoken to an attorney.