One unit has yet to be worked on (inherited tenants still live there) and I've had no issue renting the apartments out. 

@Kirk Rubin As long as you're living there, there should be no issue renting a room out!

The issue really isn't whether you should cut this one tenant a break.

If it's old it has lead paint, maybe asbestos, clay pipes or pipes of cardboard like material orangeburg, the electric is going to be funky at best...

We can't take a house nor the money with us when we leave this planet and as long as I have one meal a day and a dry cardboard box to sleep in I don't worry about material things nor money.

If I were him, I would be upset, too.Go back to the original garbage cans and educate your tenants to not overfill them with cardboard or other bulky items and you should be fine.

I once chipped a tub dropping a tiling tool from about 3' because I used the cardboard to try to protect it and didn't tape up moving blankets. :( But I still like it more than fiberglass.

Keith MillerMissoula, MontanaHi Keith, OK--Vision a great topic.You might want to look into how to do a Vision Board.Some sites recommend cutting out magazine pics and pasting them to cardboard (welcome to 1950).A better way to do it is to use Excel and just grab pics from google and insert text boxes below them.Good Luck!

I ended up identifying the issue really late.

Gut feeling, you need to spend a LOT more time educating yourself before investing.If your market is truly white hot, you could rent a cardboard box.