Hello,
I just received email from tenant that has me torn between laughing and screaming. I have tenants, a young couple with 3 children living in one of the units (renovated 2015) of my 4plex. They have been there for 2 years. For the first year and half everything went well. In the last six months they have been late with rent 3 times and incurred late fee they were slow in paying, but they did Pay. At present they are current with rent. During the last six months also noticed they are not the cleanest of my tenants. Take the following example:
1. You can literally follow a trail of bits of candy wrappers and bits and pieces of plastic to the front door of their unit.
2. On several occasions they put their big black trash bag into the hallway and let it sit there for hours. ( I PUT A STOP TO THAT).
3. My Super has expressed commented on their clutter of dishes in sink and days old food left on the stove and sticky residue on radiator covers ( believed to be jam). Not to mention occasional hairball and dust balls on hardwoord floors.
Again,not the worst housekeeping but definitely not the best either ( Mind you I have sent tactful letters to all tenants reminding them of the importance of keeping the property clean).
I provide to all my tenants extermination service ( free of charge) on a bimonthly basis( no pest problems just want to make sure it stays that way). For the last 3 exterminator visits theses tenants have not taken the service ( to be honest part of the reason I have the exterminator come so often is because of them). The last time the exterminator serviced their unit ( 5 months) he kept asking them if they had seen any pests ( roaches). They insisted they had not. To which he responded to me he found that hard to be believed considering the way kept the unit.
Anyway, move on to today. I get email from tenant saying their are hundreds of pests ( roaches) under her kitchen sink and her son has asthma. She brought a can of Raid. And she wants me to do I do something about this immediately.
It's time I had a hard talk with these tenants. I'm not very comfortable telling someone in a tactful way that they keep a nasty, dirty apartment. Hence my question, how do you begin a conversation like that? What does and how does one say that? Thank you for any and all advise.
