All Forum Posts by: Jessica Murray

My tenant, who lives in the unit above me, complained of mice earlier this month. When I had the pest control guy over, he could see no signs of an "infestation" and explained to her that in old houses it's common for there to be a mouse or two. She refused the offer of snap traps and glue traps, and only allowed him to put out one poison box. 

I live in the downstairs unit, and while I've noticed a mouse or two, I put poison and glue traps before the pest control guy even came (I basically had him come to appease her and legally cover my arse). The glue traps in MY unit so far have not caught anything, and I occasionally smell a dead mouse, and occasionally hear one. In my opinion, this is just a normal winter and the poison has kept the mice under control.

I'm not sure what to do about my tenant. I want to keep this from escalating. Her lease states that after the first 30 days, she was responsible for dealing with pests (although I think that MO law requires the landlord to keep the building "habitable" http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natur... ). 

Do I buy her some d-con and glue traps and tell her to put them out in her apartment? Do waste money and have the pest control guy come out again? Do I remind her that a few weeks ago she refused, in front of me and the pest control guy, to use snap and glue traps and only allowed him to put out one poison bait station? 

Just an update: She paid at the very last moment, after being reminded *again*, after basically chewing me out for insulting her honor for reminding her! She has said that she'll get this bill in her name after an expected bonus this week. I HOPE that she follows through on that, or I will be confronting her again when the next bill comes in. Because she did the renovation work up front, my "worst case" is not too bad at all - just annoying AF! 

I really appreciate all the advice here - the notice to quit is a good legal tactic to be aware of. 

I let A__ move into the upstairs unit of a duplex in exchange for doing a years' worth of renovation work (which she did in the first two months). Even though her lease states that she was to get gas hooked up by October 17, she has not. She told me she needed some time to pay down her gas bill but promised to put it in her name "soon". I sent her the invoice for her unit in November and she paid within 2 days. 

Now it's coming up on the December bill getting due on January 5, I sent her the invoice and page from the bill with her unit on it on December 28, and she has not paid yet. 

The lease states that "nonpayment or disconnection for any other reason during the term of this lease is considered a violation of this lease agreement and shall be cause for eviction". 

What should I do? I sent her a reminder via Venmo and have drafted this email to send tomorrow morning:

This comes out of my account tomorrow. This is cutting it too close to comfort with the time needed for bank transfers from venmo or even a check deposit to go through.

Please get your gas transferred to your name for February, per your lease.

thanks,

What else should I do? I realize it's the holidays and she's probably financially tight (but with no rent to pay, not as tight as I am). Do I have legal recourse if she doesn't pay or doesn't get the gas transferred? I just want her to get this transferred to her name since I am anal about paying my bills on time and she obviously is not. I made a big mistake letting her move in with just a verbal agreement that she'd pay me back for the gas and connect it in her name "soon". I don't have her social # because she is a former coworker.