Landlord rights: Tenant's rights to self repair door jambs from wheel chair damage

[Sara Kumar]

I have multiple rental properties but am asking with this situation as it is my first time encountering this.

The facts are: I have a management company who manages a single family home for me. The tenant while living in the home had one family member who became wheelchair bound during their occupancy. They did not request anything needed, and the home was not advertised as ADA accessible upon their move in. It had standard doorway widths. 

They resided in the home 2018 to present, and are moving shortly. During a final walk through, management sent photos of doorway damage that was extensive on 3 doorways, and will require a full door and door jamb replacement. As a landlord, I verified the work needed by pictures being sent, and arranged for a contractor to go in person who is licensed and insured to give an estimate for the work stating to management company this would likely have to come out of a security deposit.

The management company was initially asked prior to me arranging this appointment with contractor, to have someone professional quote the damage, and they disregarded my wishes and without my knowledge, or notifying me, granted consent to the tenant to fix the door " in any way they see fit, and to attempt to fix it themselves to the degree of their liking." 

When I inquired about what the contractor said that they should have scheduled, they then notified me (which was almost 2 weeks later) that they gave this consent to the tenant. They told me that they did this because they felt it was " fair " based on the fact that the tenant moved into the house, then had a wheelchair, and did not request from me to change anything within the home such as wider doorways for wheelchair, and under a specific law I would have been required to make such changes and " didn't have to." So based on this, the tenant is allowed to take a shot at fixing the door jambs any way they feel is acceptable, and if it is not to my liking upon their exit, I can then hire someone to remedy the situation and fix it to my liking.

what is this nonsense? She is saying this is legal based on the fact that under the "Equal Housing Act" I would have been required to make any requested changes to the home and so in that regard, this is "fair." Her attempts to become a lawyer in moments like this are hair raising stupid. While I do not know the exact laws around what she is quacking about, I do know that the way she is portraying her opinion is clearly... not the law. 

I responded with a legal notice saying that I cannot be left vulnerable for legal reasons to someone doing structural repairs on my home, because in the event they are hurt, I can be sued. I also stated that if they harmed the home in the process of these repairs, by not using a licensed and trained professional, it would cost me extra.

They responded saying they don't feel I can unilaterally request that a tenant not make these repairs, and they would not notify the tenant to cease work.

As it stands, I am allowed to have a contractor who is competent look at the job, quote it, but I am not allowed to do the work with that person, until the tenant has had a shot at it.

I cannot believe how basically unprofessional, and dangerous this situation is for all parties involved and want confirmation as the woman who works at this management company has no legal degree, and is constantly attempting to wave the legal flag like an expert. I have at this stage handed this over to an actual attorney, but wanted to check here on anyone else's experience with this. I am located in the state of Florida.

Many thanks!