Tenant demands that she is present during all repairs

[Vicki K.]

Hi Everyone,

I have a tenant who is becoming a royal pain in my neck. She does not allow anyone to enter the premises for purposes of making repairs or inspections (required city inspections that is) unless she or her husband are home. Our lease explicitly states that we have the right to enter with notice. I am based in Michigan where there is no specific requirement for how long in advance you need to provide notice. We have tried so hard to accommodate her and often reschedule visits numerous times.

We have had it. We gave them written notice that effective immediately we can no longer accommodate rescheduling requests. We will be providing 24 hours notice and will enter the property after that during regular business hours regardless of who is home. No minor children at the house. If they want to be present, we don't care. Take the day off and stay home.

There are other issues with this tenant as well. For example, she is mandating that we provide brand new AC and furnace units because the current ones are "on their last leg" and all we do is put band aids. In a written letter I also explained that as long as we restore them to operational condition, whether we repaired them or replaced them should be irrelevant to her. I do understand my obligation to repair any issues, but she shouldn't be the one to tell me what upgrades I need to make to the house. If the unit dies and I cannot repair it, I will replace it. Until then, band aids or not - not her problem as long as it works.

She doesn't agree with my letter and wants to talk (argue) about it. Can she legally tell me that I can't go in after I give her notice? If she continues to argue about this, can I tell her that I can evict her based on breach of contract? This is after all a clause in my lease which she signed.

[Michael Seeker]

Great outcome @Vicki K. ! I will caution that I had a similar experience with a previous tenant and face-to-face interactions always went better than expected, but things slowly went downhill afterwards until another altercation was on the horizon and another face-to-face was needed.

I hope that isn't the case for you, but if it is make sure to keep a level head and focus on the big picture. My rule of thumb is to not let other people's problem's become mine (excluding friends/family to some extent).