Tenant Will Not Vacate Property After Fire

[Kyle Haney]

Hi Biggerpockets, 

I recently had a tenant that caused a fire by knowingly leaving their apartment while she had items on the stove with the burners on. While they was gone, one of the items they had on the stove caught fire. Fortunately, one of the other tenants (this unit is a fourplex) smelled the smoke, busted in the door, and called the fire department. This caused about fifteen thousand dollars of damage to the kitchen area but with the exception of the kitchen area the apartment is still livable. We had a contractor that is specialized in fire remediation review the damage and he has informed us that the tenant cannot be living in the apartment while repairs are underway which is estimated to take about four weeks. While working out arrangements with the tenant for repairs, they have become very unwilling to work with us and is trying to put as much of the cost on us even though the fire was caused by gross negligence on the tenants part. For example, the tenant is wanting us to pay for all utilities that the tenant is responsible per the lease agreement during the duration of the repairs. After a period of time, it became clear that we were not going to be able to work through the repair process without putting ourselves at risk of having future issues or disagreements. After that determination, we informed the tenant that we will be terminating their lease and asking them to move out completely due to their actions being a violation of the lease agreement (i.e. causing damage to the property due to gross negligence).  

The tenant is now refusing to leave the property which is preventing us from being able to make the necessary repairs to the property. Has anyone been through a situation like this and do you have any recommendations or advice on how to handle?