Driveway Oil Stains

[Mike B.]

Hello, Bigger Pockets community. I would appreciate some expert, experienced landlord advice from you all. 

This property was new when the tenant moved in three years ago. Shame on me for not doing a property inspection sooner. After three years I did a formal inspection and found all this oil. I hired a professional cleaning company but the stains aren't coming out. 

Questions: 

1. What should my expectations be regarding oil stains as a landlord? This is a newer $400,000 house in a nice suburb. 

2. What action would you take with the tenant? 

3. How can this be fixed? Concrete resurfacing or coatings? 

Thank you in advance.  

[Helen McGarvey O'Brien]

Hi Mike.  We had this problem at our rental.  We bought a product at HomeDepot (I forget the name) and we DIY'd the cleanup.  There are quite a few products on the market that can help with this, but you'll probably have to do a little research.  The one we used came in a bag, and we poured it on the stains and let it sit.  I'm not sure any of this will work now since the professional cleaning, but worth a shot.

Like Henry suggested, get some sheets of plywood or those metal oil catchers.  

Not sure you can evict for this.  I'm from California; it's tough to evict.

Good luck!