Tenant damage to my property
Hello all,
Let me begin by saying thank you for any advice on this subject.
I am new to renting property as the landlord. I have rented in the past and never have I ever come close to this issue.
My tenant moved in Oct 1 2014. so not long. I put in new contractor carpet a week prior to her move in date. The kitchen has been update and so has the bathroom.
Thanksgiving apparently she had a problem with the toilet where it began to back up into the tub. She tried the plunger, her step father tried a snake. Neither worked so they dug up the pipe outside. Mind you I have not been called on this issue yet. The step father breaks open my sewer pipe. As a result it breaks in more than the one place that he was not aware of. He then snakes it again and noted that there was concrete in the pipe blocking the pipe. Still I have not been called. He then makes a make shift patch and calls it good. Leaving the pipe exposed, the access cover off of the access hole.
A day later the toilet backs up into the house and is allowed to run for several hours flooding the entire house with dirty water. Still I have not been called for now either of these two major events. Mind you this was the weekend after thanksgiving. My neighbor and lawn service called me yesterday Dec 28th to notify me of the issues that they seen over the weekend. I called the tenant and she said she did not want to bother me at first and then she said she tried to call but dialed the wrong number.
Flash forward to today I have estimates over 10K for tear out of all portions of the house that were effected by the dirty water, and the replacement of the pipe. No estimate on the replacement of carpet, baseboards, or other misc items that need to be replaced.
I want to evict and I think I am allowed to under my agreement with the state (HUD Home). I have an attorney helping me with the legal end of that. However, I am at odds with this because I will not get any money out of her if I do evict. The house is section 8. She has a job that pays minimum wage and she owns nothing. If I remove her then I may end up with a vacant property and the bills. If I keep her I am still collecting rent. By the way the house is still mortgaged as it was my families home until I was transferred out of state, and like many I am upside down in the house due to the date of sale in 2005.
So My question is have any of you had similar issues with tenants, if so did you toss them or keep them? Keep in mind if I toss her I get nothing. Even if the courts awarded me 100% I still get nothing as 100% of zero is still zero.
Any ideas would be helpful. I know that the estimates are just that and I can mitigate much of this work myself rather quickly for much less as I am very handy and have experience in this area.
Thanks again for your input.
Phil