I have a tenant, a young woman that has been a PITA in a number of ways,

But mostly she had a small roof leak and it took a while to get a roofer out ,.. not for lack of trying, he fixed the leak but now she claims it has caused mold that has caused her big health problems claims a "Dr" said so,.. (inc cancer,..not sure what type/where)

Anyway she wanted her ceiling area cut out and replaced,..

We had a guy willing to do that but now she is telling him , not right now as she "wants to talk to someone for legal advice" I'm guessing she wants to leave it as it is to show how neglectful we are,..

Not sure what to do here,..I had her stay at some friends place and ran a powerful ,Ozone machine for 2 days straight, with a fan to mix it up to hit the whole unit,

Another problem is that she has become a hoarder and you can hardly move in her unit esp to get where that leak was to fix the ceiling,.,..

We have offered to help her move things but she declined the offer.

One of our guys trued a while ago to take a picture of her ceiling and tried to take a picture of the general condition of her unit, she caught him at it and ripped the camera out of his hand and deleted those .

Yes I would love to get rid of her but I feel sure that she will resist moving and say that its in retaliation to her mold complaints.

(We have suggest that she move 2x a while ago but she doesn't want to leave the area and there is very few rentals that she can afford here.) Says she will not move ,..

Also eviction seem to be stalled now until after Jan,

Any ideas?

One thought is to send her a letter and a email stating we tried to fix herb ceiling and help her move her stuff several times but she has refused and we will offer one more time, (don't know how to follow up on this though,...) but at least its something to possibly bring to court if she peruses that.

She's has some real life issues of entitlement. file for eviction even if you have to wait till January. No matter what you do it will never satisfy her.

There might be a problem,,I didn't tell my guy to take the pictures, and I understand that taking unauthorized photos of tenants stuff is against the law,..

Believe me,..she knows all "her rights" and she would use them.

Pay her to move? Tried that. she claims she still could not find a place to move in this area that she could afford.

I have friends that own condo's as rentals. One rental unit was on the second floor with a unit above and below. The bathroom ceiling began leaking water. The owner reported it to the HOA (Home Owners Association) and a year passed with no one taking action. By then the part of the bathroom ceiling caved in. Mold started to grow on the ceiling still in place.

At this point I took a look to asses the problem.

I began getting resistance from the tenant, he didn't want anyone in his unit. The owners who wanted the HOA to pay damages and effect repairs. Also the owners wanted to report this claim to their insurance. All of these people were dummy's.

So I informed the owners they needed to be proactive and solve the problem quickly to limit possible liability. The owners said they reported it to the HOA so they aren't liable.

I had to set them straight. ONCE AN OWNER KNOWS A PROBLEM EXISITS, THEY HAVE A RESPONSABILITY AND DUTY TO DEAL WITH IT IMMEDATLY. No procrastination, no tip towing around, deal with it.

So in the case of my friends bathroom, I gave the tenant a 24 hour notice to leave and not return for the next 5 days during the "repair" process. I returned the next day with the police in scaring the tenant to leave. I then did the remediation of the existing "mold" and surrounding area. I pulled a test and when the negative results came back, re-drywalled the bathroom, primed and painted.

I also built a plastic barrier so any future leakage wouldn't touch the ceiling, instead would drain down a shoot caring water down to the parking garage, saving the first and second floor bathrooms.

This process took only three days but I kept the tenant out for 5 days, allowing the dud, primer and paint to dry.

Another unit in the complex had the same problem. Not owned by my friends. No one fixed that problem so the tenant got an attorney and sued. Sued the owners, sued the HOA and both insurance carriers and won a multi-million dollar verdict.

Well, a happy clause will not work with her, she has says, she doesn't want to leave (its a nice apt in a nice neighborhood at a very good price) its true, not much for rent in this 15,000 person city, esp at near this price.She says she loves the area and won't leave.

What do you think about sending a Certified letter about us trying to fix this problem w/o her cooperation.

(Maybe) Also there is a problem with over crowding of her unit being unsafe,.(??)

Would this possibly help in court if needed?

She has contacted free legal services in the past and costs her nothing to engage them.

She claims being totally disabled and uses that as "feel sorry for me" to these agencies.

MAP, I feel for you LL, living in those blue states where the government wants to ruin your livelihood.

Seems to me the simplest answer is to post a 24 hour notice that your repair person will enter to cut out the damaged ceiling and repair it. In the process they will carefully remove any of her items that are in the way of reaching this damaged ceiling area.

Failure on her part to allow a needed repair may result in termination of her lease (if she is a month to month tenant) due to her lack of cooperation regarding this repair issue.

BTW; your tenant may have some type of cancer but any mildew present (do not use the word mold) didn't cause this.

Written notice that you will be sending a repairman for the ceiling at x time on y day ( give several days advance notice) and if she cannot be there you will accompany him in. Make note in the letter that she refused a prior attempt. You have a right to take pictures of the repair.