Tenant pays, but has become unreachable... worry?
I am in my first rental property, in Pleasant Prairie, WI (about 26 miles from where I live). The tenants are a young couple with kids, and the place backs up to a good school. All seems right, but at the same I am uneasy-- so I'd like a sanity check.
The tenants are a young couple, the man is a tradesman and the breadwinner and the woman stays at home with the kids. The woman did all of the arranging, finding the house and being first to look, etc. and was clearly the domestic decision-maker. Both are signatories, but all communication has been through her. They have been in for 3 months, and always mail a cashier's check for the rent. She has said they love the place.
About 3 weeks back the woman sent an email with some maintenance concerns (I had sent a note to ask if everything was OK, so this was a response to that). Nothing major, but I need to do have them addressed. That same day I got a call from the local Humane Society asking if I was the landlord for the address, and that the woman had been in there to adopt a cat and listed me as landlord. Hmmm... yes, a cat is allowed, but she already has a cat, with the extra rent and one cat permitted in the lease with extra rent; the humane society person just wanted to know if there were requirements to declaw, etc...
So I sent a note back to the tenants and gave them information on a local handyman they should contact. And I mentioned the call from the humane society, asked if everything was OK with their cat and reminding them that if they had more than one pet we would need to re-negotiate the lease.
I have not heard from them since. I did get the cashier's check for rent check on the 1st of Aug, but both of their phones ring to system messages as "this number is unreachable" and no response to any emails.
So I put a regular letter in the mail today, just telling them I've been trying to reach them to address their concerns and please contact me with updated phone numbers or contact me by email.
Am I missing something? Too paranoid? My Spidey-Sense is tingling.