Landlord Question and Answer Forum

Tenants saw a small mouse a few days ago...we'd never had a mouse in the house in the over 31 yrs we lived there, I know with the frigid temps we had the ext co's told me they're getting lots of calls. Anyway, husb went over rt away,,,put down bait and traps, ,called exterm. co. next day, they came and put their stronger bait out , coudln't see any holes, no 'droppings' ..so told us there prob won't be any more . . leave everything for 30 days , do NOT seal off anything ( no holes found anywhere as i said) . . ..the tenant was upset since she wants a 'hole' sealed, i told her they do NOT WANT us doing anything ...i had her call the guy. he obviously calmed part of her fears and i didn't hear anything else . . til today. Got another email from her . . 1 of the many packets /boxes that the guy put around is laying on the basment floor . . . i thought, ok , 1 ,,out of of a bunch he put there in the rafters, that could mean maybe her kid ran across the floor upstairs and the reverberations caused it to fall...i don't know . . i didn't email her that . . fig she wouldn't believe m.e . She' uncomfortable' and don't know if they'll stay. The co. is coming back out again tomorrow to check. (mind you, the guy doesn't know why they're so freaking , there's just 1 , haven't seen A THING since).....she even said she hasn't seen anything . But the fact she's soooo freaking over everything we're thinking we should just get new tenants who aren't so upset ...even tho we're doing all we can and have a contract with the exterm co. She said they haven't made a decision to move or not . . they love the house . . they're great tenants but i don't want to have to deal with them being frightened at things . I can't help but thinkk what if there's a spider there?? i dont' know. Anyway , to cut down on the phone calls ,,even if they NEVER see anything , we don't know if we will renew their lease. I don't want this to go on . . they initially were going to 'sleep in their car' so they didn't have to return to the house . They decided to run upstairs to the 2nd floor and slept up there . It's ridiculous. They obviously don't seem to think we're doing enough and we know we are. Can we keep their last month's rent and let them leave now if they want??? and are we expected to give their security deposit back if they leave earlier . I'll have to re read our lease. They only have 1 month left on the lease and the guy told us not to touch anything for 30 days anyway. They're just too afraid. and between all her emails , i'm tired ot this.

It sounds like there is a lot of overreacting going on, with both sides. Don't be freaked out ever if a tenant leaves and the tenant is freaked out by something they shouldn't. Mice are so, so tiny they can get in anywhere. When it's cold outside there is a greater chance that they will get in.

Posted by Dawn A, WI on Thursday, January 31, 2013

Thanks Dawn . . actually we're not freaked out , just tired of hearing the 1 lady complain. they're making a big deal over nothing ...they haven't seen anything , in days, she's just afraid since she saw one , and has emailed us 3 times already about this . The exterminater has already talked to her, twice , trying to calm her fears . We can't help it they have a phobia about a tiny little thing . and we already have a guarantee from the exterminating co. -. so it's just a situation where she will freak over anything . I was just asking about the last month's rent since they're lease is about up and we're just going to tell them they can find another place . I'll check our lease, thanks.

Posted by D and B U, OH on Thursday, January 31, 2013