Landlord Question and Answer Forum

I have a new tenant, moved in 5/13, that has contacted me several times about minor issues that we have fixed immediately. Not only do I want to keep a good tenant happy, but I also want to keep up on the maintenance of the property. However, none of the issues were pointed out by the previous tenant or the contractor that just renovated the place. One "issue" we fixed immediately was "the shower head (that the tenant changed) does not have enough water pressure". Long story short - $500 later she's happy. Now, she is complaining that just her kitchen faucet has recently lost some pressure and she wants a new faucet. Doesn't make sense to me. The sink and faucet are new and why just her kitchen. I went by to check on it and the pressure seemed perfectly normal to me, not at all poor pressure. As I told her, I would be fine with it in my own house. I even offered to bring her in to the unit directly above her to see the water pressure in that kitchen to compare. She became very irrational and irate and was screaming...threatening to call her lawyer (I'd like to see any lawyer take that case on), etc. I stayed calm and told her she was welcome to change the faucet at her own expense, but I did not see any problem with it to justify our changing it. Her reply was that she was going to have it changed and deduct it off of next month's rent. To that I reminded her that she could only do that with approved repairs and this was not approved. If she didn't repeatedly have issues with minor things, I might have changed it just to make her happy, but I think it's getting out of hand. To try to head off her taking a deduction from her rent, I was thinking of sending a letter reiterating the denial for repair and reminding the tenant that late fees will be applied if the rent is not paid in full on time. Any other advice or suggestions?

Looks like you've got the right idea. I would just add a copy of the lease w/ the clause about repairs highlighted to emphasize your point of something being in 'disrepair' and a copy of landlord tenant rights which speak to when a tenant can withhold rent for repairs.

Posted by Claire S, CA on Thursday, September 26, 2013

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Posted by Akash D, NY on Monday, March 16, 2015