Tenants will not pay rent

[jsprague]

My mother died last year and I inherited her 3 family house. Three years ago this coming November she rented an apartment that had been gutted and totally renovated. The apartment was rented to a women her husband and three children. Since then she has had several other people living in the apartment. She has never paid the rent on time and have been as late as an entire month when paying. This past weekend I put the house up for sale. Then yesterday I went to collect the rent for July and the tenants said that they would not pay the rent. The reasons for not paying the rent was as follows. There was a leak in the apartment upstairs (no longer leaking)that stained the ceiling in the bathroom and I did not replace the ceiling tiles in her bathroom. Also there are some cracked ceramic tiles on the kitchen counter and I did not repair them. She never sent me a written notice for any of these repairs to date. Does she have the right to stop paying the rent? The ceiling tiles can easily be replaced in the bathroom, in fact, I have already purchased the tiles and have them in the apartment upstairs. As far as the counter goes, I don't want to re-tile the counter if I don't have to. She is paying about half of the market value for rent. If I do re-tile the counter can I increase her rent to market value? She is a tenant at will.

 

[loudrich]

Give the stupid ***** tenant a 30 day notice to move and be out by aug 31st,

No she has no right to stop paying rent unless it is a MAJOR life or health hazard problem,

It is your house the tenant is a scumbag...and you are just a WUSS if you let her take advantage of you.

Be prepared to take her to court...file for back rent damages legal fees, get on the ball NOW!

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jsprague:
My mother died last year and I inherited her 3 family house. Three years ago this coming November she rented an apartment that had been gutted and totally renovated. The apartment was rented to a women her husband and three children. Since then she has had several other people living in the apartment. She has never paid the rent on time and have been as late as an entire month when paying. This past weekend I put the house up for sale. Then yesterday I went to collect the rent for July and the tenants said that they would not pay the rent. The reasons for not paying the rent was as follows. There was a leak in the apartment upstairs (no longer leaking)that stained the ceiling in the bathroom and I did not replace the ceiling tiles in her bathroom. Also there are some cracked ceramic tiles on the kitchen counter and I did not repair them. She never sent me a written notice for any of these repairs to date. Does she have the right to stop paying the rent? The ceiling tiles can easily be replaced in the bathroom, in fact, I have already purchased the tiles and have them in the apartment upstairs. As far as the counter goes, I don't want to re-tile the counter if I don't have to. She is paying about half of the market value for rent. If I do re-tile the counter can I increase her rent to market value? She is a tenant at will.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>