Enforcing Tenants to Pay Maintenance

[Alex Craig]

I am interested in hearing from property managers & landlords nationwide, but really interested to hear from Memphis managers and landlords.  Do you successful enforce tenants to pay maintenance under $150?  For the Memphis managers & landlords, how do you get around the TN Residential Landlord Tenant Act that says landlords must fix all items on the lot that they provide?  We recently had a investor ask why he had to pay for a couple of minor maintenance bills and not the tenant.  While it is in our lease for tenant to pay under $150, Memphis is a unique market where the tenants would either call code (which could turn into a very expensive experience), call the BBB or simply move to another house. I did call a 3 different large management companies and all are on the same thought process as me as that you try to push back on the tenant, but the slightest push back and we follow suite of the law.

@Douglas Skipworthinterested to hear from you on this since you are the most active Memphis PM on Bigger Pockets.

[Bill Hamilton]

This will probably sound harsher than I mean it too so please keep in mind I am not trying to offend anyone. I talked about this in another thread some time ago but.... Once when I was renting, I had a slow leak in the shower that kept getting progressively worse. I called the property manager to let her know about it. She indicated that it was probably just a washer and could I change it on my own. Trying to be a good tenant I agreed (I have changed many a washer over my life so no big deal. That weekend I got out my tools and went for it. Keep in mind these townhomes were built in the early 1960's. The hot water side was not budging so I applied greater force. That was when the pipe twisted and split. Ultimately what should probably have been a $50-$100 charge to have a plumber of their own choosing come out and do things the right way, turned into an emergency, weekend, nighttime call to a plumber. I have no idea what the charge ended up being, but I guarantee it was many, many times what it could have been. Point being, I would never ask my tenants to do any maintenance beyond changing an air filter on the furnace or changing light bulbs. I would only want a repair done on my house by the person I trust and choose. If a tenant is responsible for doing these things, they may attempt to do so without sufficient expertise or they may hire someone incompetent. Either could be a path to disaster.

And that is all without there being a law in place that says you can't do that. I can't imagine going against that. What happens when a tenant rats you out. And then whatever agency is responsible decides they need to look at all your leases. And then maybe they decide to fine the heck out of you for each one that is written illegally.