Tenant Wiring
I've been renting houses and duplexes for almost 12 years now, and this is the first time I've encountered this problem.
I have a 3BR/1BA SFH that 3 guys in their 20's-30's started renting about a year ago. When they first moved in, one of the guys decided he wanted to put his bedroom in the unfinished basement, so without contacting me, he painted the walls, put down carpet, and installed outlets, a ceiling fan, and a switch with romex. I discovered it when I went over there for routine maintenance, and told them that it was:
A) Against their lease to modify the property without my written consent.
B) Illegal to put a bedroom in the basement (insufficient methods of egress).
C) A bad idea, because the basement gets damp with heavy rains.
D) Improperly wired.
I read them the part in the lease that they had verbally agreed to and signed, told them not to try that again, and they agreed to undo their electric work and remove the furniture from the basement. I thought the problem was behind us.
Today, we were over there replacing the water heater and discovered that they had run electric out to the detached garage. They had hung track lights, an outlet, and a switch, all run in romex, which was connected to an extension cord that they ran through the door, across a walkway, and plugged into an outlet on the outside of the house.
My first thought was "I don't want to evict them, but they are blatantly disregarding the lease." I'm concerned about fire hazards and code violations, and the fact that they were very aware that they are not to perform any wiring in the house. I'm trying to decide how to handle this situation, and thought I would ask the opinions of the BP community. Do I:
1) Tell them they have a week to restore everything to the way it was, or else I will hire someone to do it and give them the bill.
2) Hire someone to restore everything and give them the bill (without giving them the opportunity to do it themselves)
3) Evict them for willingly and knowingly violating the lease
4) Option 1 or 2, plus tell them there's going to be $100 additional charge per month to cover the cost of a monthly safety inspection to verify they have not modified the house, since they have done so twice.
My fear in having them restore everything without any penalties is that it sends the message that they can try whatever they want and just have to undo it if they get caught. I want to send the message that posing fire risks is unacceptable.
What are your thoughts?
