This takes a LOT of my time.If I went to get a judgement against this tenant for the balance of the lease (if I could even find them to serve court papers), the judge would tell me to go pound sand, absorb it as a business expense, go re-rent the apartment, move on with my life and quit bothering him with this "nonsense."

However, I'd exhaust all financing options before you're left putting buckets in the top floor of the property to catch the rain water coming in :) 

It went quiet for a little while with no door and lock rattling but it was raining and hard to tell. 

Tennessee has gotten a significant amount of rain over the week but this seems to be a bigger issue.

I assume you are trying to collect on your rent judgements from former tenants.

If someone sues you and the property is in your personal name, they can go after every other asset that is also in your personal name to pay off any judgements.

I don't know how small claims works in TX, but when I had to chase a deadbeat for unpaid commission in Mass, he kept failing to show for hearings.I was finally able to present my case and evidence to the Magistrate who said I could have both a capias (civil arrest, where the defendant is forcibly brought to court) and an execution (sheriff or constable can seize assets and sell them to satisfy the judgement).What finally got me paid was when I gave him a hard deadline and told him that if I wasn't paid in full by X date at Y time, I was going to have his WIFE (also a named defendant) civilly arrested at work.As you might suspect, that got the deadbeat moving very quickly and yes, I was paid in full.

Working on an addition, had the footers dug and called them in , it was a week for an inspection , it rained on day 4 and there was some cave in and mud , we had it hand dug out , it then rained the day the inspector showed up and failed , had to dig again and waited 3 more days for inspection , had to shore upsides with plywood and bring in 5 tons of stone ( per inspector ) .

An Issue that might pop up is if you have lived there less than a year following the HELOC at which point they could close the HELOC.Other than that it is a judgement call on the part of the lender as the loan was made as a Owner occupied and if they want to they can close it.

Flat roof homes are common in the SW US, even in areas with significant rain/snow.