Tenant's health issue

[Mohammed A.]

Bigger pockets:

One of my new tenant’s son seems to have allergy and asthma problem. My tenant is claiming it might be from carpet or dust. They are requesting it we can replace the carpet to vinyl for his sons room and/or clean duck.

We had the duck cleaned in 2016 and carpet was replaced in early 2016.

I would like to help them and make their living enjoyable there. This issue is more crucial as it is related with kid’s health issue. However, I would like to set the precedence we can not effort to do everything they ask in future without raising the rent. This is there second month at the home.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your response.

Thanks.

Mohammed.

[Patricia Steiner]

Don't step in this...first, allergies and asthma have many triggers; you could do all that is requested to have them come back with more requests.  I would recommend that they:

1.  Purchase an Air Purifier for their son's room and main living area.  

2. Dust and vacuum often as recommended by allergists.  

3.  Consult with their child's doctor as his medication may need to be adjusted.

4.  Expect a period of adjustment when the child's environment changes.  The solutions they are recommending are not supported by scienc:  Cleaning air ducts can produce more dust and is not recommended on a regular basis (per www.epa.gov). And, vinyl flooring may be an important source of children's exposure to BBzP via indoor air (per www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).  

The tenant has many options for helping his son's condition without putting this "monkey on your back."  There is no cure so whatever you do will only open the door for more changes.