Oh, boy. I stupidly broke our rule of not renting to ANYONE who came with an agency's assistance. NEVER, NEVER AGAIN, I swear. We're getting paid nicely, but they have created many nuisance violations, overheat the place to 80 degrees by using space heaters, even though there is perfectly adequate and working gas baseboard hot water heat, thus blowing circuits in a 120 yr old multi building, and calling us in the middle of the night to come reset a breaker because they don't have power in part of the unit, for having overloaded the circuit with space heaters. I tried to explain to them that the space heaters are unsafe, and that there is excellent, and cheaper to use, gas heat. I bet that they are on one of those programs where they only have to pay a certain amount for electricity all year round, and so they prefer to heat with electricity because it's "all you can eat", rather than with gas, but I don't know. It's certainly not that the gas heat doesn't get the place warm enough - it most definitely does.
But the crowning joy was that when we went in for another purpose, we found that they had not 5 but 7 children living with them, AND THEY HAD BROUGHT IN GRANDMA, (who is most definitely NOT on the lease) too. She's handicapped, uses a walker, is on oxygen, and would have a great deal of difficulty getting out of the building WHEN they set the building on fire with their space heaters. So, what we thought would be 7 human beings in a 4 bedroom (a couple and their 5 children) has now turned into ten human beings stuffed into a 4 bedroom unit, with seven children in two bedrooms.
I can just see this when we get to court - we'll be considered monsters, trying to kick out an old lady with a walker and oxygen. But she's not on the lease, I seem to remember that they asked at the time of renting whether she could come with them at some distant point in the future, and I specifically said, no way, no how, never, and they still brought her in. She really belongs in a nursing home, with fire safety and an evacuation plan if there were to be a fire. I don't think that I can do anything about the two extra children - they're probably children from a previous relationship that they'll claim only visit every other weekend, even though it sure seems that they live there all the time. But the extra adult there is most definitely a violation of the lease, plus it's not safe for her. They have an infant, a couple of toddlers, nursery school age, and young school age. They're using electric heat in an old building with old wiring, overloading circuits, when there is perfectly good gas heat, thus greatly increasing the risk of a fire. How in the world are they going to get all those children out, plus immobile Grandma, WHEN they cause a fire?
Do you think the judge will rule against us? It's a clear lease violation, and honestly, I'm thinking of safety, not the extra wear and tear and water usage.
Do you think if I were to ask the fire marshal to come in and speak with them about the fire danger of using the electric space heaters it would help? The unit just passed inspection. There are no fire violations there, we are sure.
Do you think that the judge would agree with me that Grandma would be safer in a modern nursing home, than on a second floor (alone - the rest of the family sleeps on the third floor) of a multifamily unit, unable to get down the stairs on her own?
I'm hoping that the Kappa letter will be enough to scare them into getting her into a nursing home, or move her to live with another relative.
