Landlord Question and Answer Forum

Last month I made my tenants pay the past due bill for the window they had broken out. I had told them that it had to be paid or I would go forward with an eviction. Long story short they paid the bill. In retaliation they filed a teant complaint letter with the city. Long story short it came down to about three items. I am more then happy to fix anything that goes wrong in my properties. I want to keep them up, it's cheaper to keep things up, then to have major repairs later. My biggest concern is they had a window that has aparantly been leaking. There is alot of water damage around the window. I am very upset because they have not told me about this problem. They told the inspector that it had been going on for a long time. My lease states that the tenant must inform me as soon as they become aware of an issue. I have given them the 3o days to get out, these tenats carried too much drama. (see below, im running out of space)

Can I charge them for fixing the water damage? Under a circumstance that they would have notified me of the leak, it would have been fixed. They instead did not notify me. I am in the State of Iowa.. Thanks.. :)

Posted by Amanda H, IA on Monday, November 30, 2009