@Natalie Schanne -- absolutely fantastic comments. I am so impressed. Yes, this is my real name. I'm not terribly worried about her finding this thread. She's not the type of person to spend time looking me up on google (she's stressed out with child and an apartment that ONLY heats to 66 sometimes) and honestly, she doesn't have the funds or wherewithal to get into a knock-down fight. She is the sort of person who wants what she wants when she wants it, and when things don't fixed as quickly as possible, she bitterly complains and sends rude texts.
She's an intelligent and educated woman, and yes, she knows her rights, apparently. I'm not trying to engage in nefarious activity. The boiler is old, and we have been working on figuring out the problem, and it just takes time. She can use space heaters if necessary. That she would go so far as to call the DOH for this is astounding, and has ruined our relationship.
However, I'm not interested in retaliatory behavior. We have a sick mother-in-law, we need the space, and I had spoken to her about needing the space a month before any of this occurred.
I'm interested in a proration formula. Perhaps with the next tenant we might talk about how to organize this. I love this idea.
Air bnb has its drawbacks, but I respectfully disagree with you. We have a finished apartment in our basement and it's gangbusters with Airbnb. I don't have a problem with guests because I'm really clear about the rules. Certainly you get the occasional lemon, but I've been doing bnb for a long time and it's a pretty awesome community. You're right about the time spent on it. I do spend time emailing and connecting with people, but most of it is streamlined at this point with automatic emails and lockboxes. Still, a conscious tenant, as you say, really can be the better way to go for some people, and my spouse and I have a continuing discussion about whether to hard-core Airbnb the place in the summer, or to just have someone all year long. You make great points.
Lastly, we are beyond the point of sitting down and having a friendly conversation. While there are many nice things about this tenant, she is ultimately a fussy and difficult person, very much the victim. My spouse and I feel we have gone over and beyond for her. She has a beautiful apartment with her own garage and washer/dryer, plus a full attic for storage as well as all utilities paid at well below market value. She adopted a child this year, so we wanted to be kind. It's an old house, and problems come up, and she is always very entitled-acting about it. We always make repairs, and if we can't do them as quickly as she would like (we have three children of our own), we encourage her to call someone and deduct if from the rent.
It was my failure to not put a new lease in writing after the first year. We went with a de-facto month-to-month oral lease for the last few years, and to some degree I regret this. But, she knows that the law serves tenants over landlords generally, and if she wanted to stay and drag it out, she really could.
Yesterday, she said she wanted in writing that she had ninety days notice, and that she would leave probably before then if she could. She is waiting for adoption paperwork to complete. I don't think she wants to involve lawyers any more than I do, but nothing is for certain.
Mostly, I can't stand having a tenant in the house that seems litigious and will call the dept. of health for insane reasons. This is disturbing and outrageous and could have been handled in so many different ways. She ruined the relationship by doing so.
But, like I said, we need the apartment, and we needed it long before this started.
Thank you again for your incredible advice. Truly grateful.
