Tenant's Unit will be Inaccessible...What's my Responsibility?
Hi folks,
I'm wondering if people would be so kind as to share their opinion with how they would handle my current situation.
My homeowner's insurance (I'm house hacking) is requiring I fix the external walk-up stairs to my tenant's unit-located on the second floor of my 2 unit house. Its in rough shape (clearly something the previous owner tried to build themselves) and has been on the cap-ex list for awhile. So I'd like to bite the bullet, tear it down and replace it with a new set of stairs that I don't have to worry about falling apart. The company doing it estimates my tenant won't have stairs to her front door for 2-3 days if everything goes smoothly. There is no other access to the unit other than the fire escape balcony that doesn't have stairs going to it.
I asked tenant if she can find other housing for 2-3 days. no big right? she has two cats and a bunny and apparently no friends or family who will take her in for a couple of days(she cites the pandemic as an obstacle as well). Fair enough. Is it my job to call around and find housing for her and her animals? Do I tell her to figure out housing herself and I'll reimburse her? Do I say 'tough luck-figure it out'? (obviously probably won't do that, but you get the spectrum I'm laying out here).
I'm sure there's a state statute (I'm in Madison, Wisconsin, aka the most tenant-friendly city in the US) that specifies the landlord's responsibility and I'm going to seek out input from our local tenant resource center as well, but wanted other landlord's opinions on how they'd deal with the situation.
Thank you in advance!
Stephan