Tenant leaves a message,.."Our door was kicked in" They have broken in their unit 2 other times,..I suspect this is another that they don't want to pay for.

What does your lease say? Mine says tenants are responsible for damage to the unit: period. That's why they are strongly encouraged to purchase renter's insurance so that when "stuff happens" they can file a claim.

To be clear, I coordinate and pay for all repairs, then submit the bill to the tenant. Sometimes they pay, other times they argue and refuse. Doesn't matter if they refuse...they already agreed to it in our lease. If they refuse, they get evicted.

Btw, our lease also says that any money received from a tenant is applied to damages and fees due first and rent last, regardless of whatever notations appear on the form of payment. So what happens is when the refuse to pay the full amount due (rent plus damages), we apply the money to the damages, leaving them short on rent. It's relatively easy to evict for unpaid rent.

Ann, they are responsible and renters insurance should cover.

Three times seems excessive to me. Are you sure they aren't up to some kind of illegal activity? Especially if they keep living there.

If this is a SFH in a rough area and you are SURE your tenants arent drug dealers, I'd put a metal security door outside of the primary door to reduce future headaches.

Make them call the cops and file a report.

If it's not them, good chance it's someone they know.

Meet the cops there just so you know they came.

We "just" had this happen to one of our rentals last month. Tenant (woman) called saying her back door window was broken (middle of the day). Supposedly they got in but nothing was taken.

I didn't "buy" it but she was a tenant with us for 2 years with no other history so I chalked it up to "I guess it could happen" and had the window replaced.

The very next day she calls and says "my door just got busted in half - they just tried to get in again". She did call the police. The thing was that she claimed to them she didn't know who it was AND the fact that she wasn't home when this happened (it was like 5am) and she was at the neighbors house (which happened to be her sisters). When I asked why she wasn't home she claimed that she stays at her sisters "a lot" ... just a coincidence. Yeah, right.

Police say that it's her ex (which I then find out that is who the "boyfriend" was that I saw a few times - WAS NOT living there though) and he just was released from jail a few months ago. No, I didn't do a background on him since he didn't actually live there (sorry but just because someone is visiting you can't run backgrounds on them).

So yeah - charge her for it. Unless of course, the police "buy" her story that it isn't someone she knows/ causing the issue herself. Most likely it is though.

Charge them, and remind them to file a claim with their renter's insurance.

This same thing occurred in one of the rentals that we manage. Of course thousands of dollars were taken. Resident claimed that they had renters insurance but

Is the house in a rough area?

Three times during their tenancy? Sounds strange.

I had a pair of tenants who kept claiming people kept breaking into their house (and yes, it wasn't in the best of neighborhoods but prior to that NO ONE had ever tried to break in).

Once they claimed that someone came in through the bathroom window at 3 am just when they happened to go out (at that time of night) to Walmart to shop. In order for that to occur that person would have had to go through the yard of a second rental we own, climbing a privacy fence, climbing their chain link fence and forcing open a 70 year old window. Not likely.

Another time we were working on the second rental and my electrician had his truck tool box open as well as the back double gates when this next door tenant left for 10 minutes and her partner claimed someone "tried to break in" while she was gone. She stopped by and called out to me that "someone tried to break in" and since this was about the 7th time I had heard this I just said "call the police". I was tired of this nonsense and figured if someone wanted to steal something my electricians tools were far more valuable and accessible than the junk these tenants had. I told the police who showed up to take the claim of a possible break in with a large grain of salt with these two.

I was so glad when they finally moved out and I no longer had to hear the terrible tales of break ins.

I would say it is a low crime area. No one else has ever had anything stolen, never a break in. THEY have admitted (after someone saw them, break into the back window and break the window in the door to reach the doorknob,...they seem to lock themselves out despite we telling them to hide a spare key in their car or give it to a trusted friend,..I doubt they sell drugs but these days who knows,..

They do get drunk I am told by other residents,..

I told them that this is on them,...(of course they didn't report it to the police because "the police don't do anything"

I had multiple breakins only for a pair of tenants I felt were dealers. My Tenants always refused to call the Police. I finally moved them out because of a third or fourth breakin.

Another time I had police call because of a kitchen window smashing at 1AM. It was March 1, but I did not show up until daylight. The cop spent the night tracking down the absent tenants and found out they had had a break up and the male was without keys, so he broke in to get his stuff. It was all in the Police Report! The window was a utility slider and very expensive. With labor it was almost as much as rent. I told both the male and female they had to pay me for the window he broke and he got nasty, but she called me some really bad names. When they paid rent several days late/later I used the money to pay for the window and served them a 10 day pay or quit and a 30 day notice to vacate in case they came up with the money(which they did).