Specifying Tenant Appliances

[Deaven Brown]

Hello there BP community. Last year I purchased my first rental property and am self managing (Professionally, I'm a people manager so I knew I could do it) and house hacking a triplex in the Central PA area. Over the year I've had to replace tenants, complete repairs, the normal landlord stuff...and now I am facing, what may be, delivering my first 'Notice to Quit'.

Because this is a house hack I've installed a separate washer and dryer hookup (about $2k to have the electric ran and water lines installed) and machine (washer/dryer combo that I bought for $120 from a friend) in the basement for the 1st floor tenants to use since my spouse and I bought our own for our first anniversary together in the property, which is also located in the basement. Recently my spouse discovered the first floor tenants are using our machines and were incredibly disrespectful when speaking about her while explaining to me their side of the story, stating she "had an attitude", though she was simply reminding them that they should be using their own washer and dryer. She then left without doing the laundry and didn't even have them transfer the load over to their own machines which I find to be incredibly kind since they have already been told of the significance behind these machines and are fully aware which machine they are to use.

My question is "what now". I've sent the tenants a message that reminds them of the significance and says, "moving forward our machines are not to be use under any circumstances" and asking them to inform me if there are any problems with their machine. Their lease does not specify a specific machine they should use, but does say they have one available. These tenants also have a "therapy dog" that they have yet to provide a doctor's not confirming it's active service. Am I being played? What next steps can I take?