My guests come to ski all winter and to hike/bike/fish etc in the summer.

There is an easement for a lake front area that is owned by one of two other houses/properties at the end there (they have easement road to reach their property on this property), where you can fish, canoe, etc., with a couple of small docks.  

No reason for fear mongering.I would pass, no point in taking on their risk, there are plenty of other fish in the sea that don't stink.

@Steve Porcello,Another option you might explore is whether you can get a restraining order against this nut.

second , charging extra to take payment in person is nuts 

Mostly it feels like it's about about optics - and Option 1 (with the small rent increase + a small utility fee is easier to swallow than here's a $400 rent increase.I find it nuts that the last owner was eating all of those utility costs - but as I've learned everyone's finances are different and maybe he owned the house/didn't have a mortgage. 

I don't need $1000 bad enough to have some nut job hurt my family.

Perhaps a market you have some extra cultural interest, fish ,golf ,lake ,opera ,nascar, gamble ,food etc.

Facebook and text drive me nuts too.

After rounds of emails my wife the clinical therapist says she's nuts.