Tenant holding landlord liable for personal property

[tnan]

TN- We currently have a tenant who has rented a house from us for about 4 years. About 3 months ago, she informed my father about the roof leaking, and he did not tell me until a week later. My husband asked her live-in daughter to remove all items from the room(an addition to the house-one back room) in order for him to remove the ceiling and roof. He waited an extra day to do the work, since the tenant works long hours. Well, the roof leaked two days later (after my husband removed most of it and attempted to cover it with plastic) and she had left a few items in the room. She and her daughter were supposedly shocked by electricity when they were removing their items from the room (days after they were asked to remove them), now she is taking out of the monthly rent the cost to repair the sewing machine (supposedly an antique) and yard work (I dont know why she did that).An aside: she did not pay Aug rent and only paid less than half of Sept. I have written her and talked to her answering machine several times (I cant reach her on the phone) that we are not liable for the sewing machine or the yard work (I also gave her the name of our claims adjuster to tell her), but we are worried since they got shocked (even though they were told to remove all items from room and given days to do so). Are we liable in some way and if we are not, how do we legally get her to pay the remainder of the rent? Thanks and sorry so long!!

 

[Tyrone]

Notify your insurance company about the so called shock -- and they'll handle it. It's likely a phony claim.

Tell the tenant that as she has not paid anything, she is in violation of her lease, tell her to leave immediately and that you will be filing suit for eviction, and then (after speaking to a lawyer) be prepared to follow thruough! Remind her that this may have very significant impacts on her credit rating, and in any event when the next prospective landlord comes to you for credit and other references you'll simply tell the truth, that she has become a "problem tenant" who doesn't pay the rent. But ask advice from a local lawyer who does dispossess cases.