Recourse for non-payment of utility charge?
Recently, my basement tenant requested and agreed to pay $10/month for me to add an additional set-top box to my cable service so she could have a box in her apartment. This $10 was due on 3/1 with her March rent. (The box was provided to her on 2/27.)
She has yet to pay the $10, and is now ignoring emails from me. She works opposite shift of me so we rarely cross paths, but she's always been responsive to email in the past. I emailed to remind her about the $10 on 3/10 and got no response.
Separately, she's had a futon frame leaning against my fence for about two months since I asked her to call for a large trash pickup. So yesterday morning 3/21 I wrote her another email telling her to have the futon picked up this week and pay the $10 this week, and to reply to the email to let me know she received it. About 36 hours have passed and I've received no reply.
Because I almost never see her I'm honestly not even sure if she's been home in the past few weeks. I do see her boyfriend (who is on the lease as an authorized occupant, but not a signatory to the lease). I am beginning to fear she might not even be living there anymore and I'm going to get into some weird common-law tenant/squatter situation with the boyfriend and I've been debating whether to wait til her lease runs out in September and decline to renew it, or go through the hassle of trying to terminate her lease and possibly have her fight it, but either way I don't plan to keep this tenant on very much longer.
For now I'd like to send her another email notifying her that I plan to enter her apartment tomorrow (24 hour notice) to repossess the cable box since she has not paid for the service. I'll just put it on one of my other TVs and as long as she keeps paying her rent on time then I'm happy to kick the can down the road til her lease expires. But I'm a little shaky on whether I'm legally permitted to do that. Here's what her lease says:
"18. a. The Landlord/Agent may enter the dwelling unit after giving due notice (24 hours) to the Tenant and the Tenant has not unreasonably objected, to: make necessary repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements; supply services only by mutual agreement during normal business hours, except in an emergency; or exhibit the dwelling unit to prospective purchasers, mortgages, or tenants only during normal business hours, including weekends, except as the Landlord/Agent and Tenant otherwise agree. Landlord/Agent may enter the dwelling unit immediately without notice to Tenant in an emergency situation.
b. Landlord/Agent may enter the dwelling unit after providing due notice to the Tenant (24 hours) when the Landlord is required to allow access to the Department of Housing and Community Affairs for an inspection; or when the Landlord has good cause to believe that the Tenant may have damaged the dwelling unit or may be in violation of County, State, or Federal law. Any requests for service from Tenant will be construed to mean that permission to enter the unit has been granted for the purpose of making requested repairs."
It doesn't really say anything in there about repossessing something in default. Would I be within rights to do so, giving proper notice? If not, what would you recommend doing in this situation?