Tenant painted original woodwork

[Kathy Hacmac]

Our tenant, without permission, painted original shellac woodwork in her apartment. We are restorers and this was original untouched woodwork in a 90 year old house.

We are of course furious; she is non repentant but willing to try to fix it before she moves out.

That's the last thing we want as the best options for restoring it will involve using a heat gun.

Can I charge her for this? What might be reasonable? She says she will take us to court to get all her deposit but that really doesn't worry me.

Any suggestions or similar experiences?

[JD Martin]

Whatever ends up happening with the woodwork, the biggest takeaway here to me is this: some homes are not that suitable as rentals. You can never rely on tenants to not do things that might irreversibly alter something in the home. Yes, you can charge them, and you can sue them, but you can't recover 100-year old woodwork original to the home if someone decides to tear it down and replace it with new plastic foam board molding. To combat this, I simply pass on homes that I don't feel will be suitable for a transient population.