Poor Housekeeping Could Cost Tenants

by Janet Portman, Inman News

Dirty houseQ: We own a house that we rent to an elderly woman and her son. We were called to repair a leak under the kitchen sink. The house was filthy: the rug had large food stains; the kitchen floor needed washing; the kitchen appliances were all food-stained; and two containers of food on the kitchen table had mold in them.

Worse, there were cockroaches scurrying everywhere.

When I mentioned the condition of the house to the son, he said that he sprayed. I told him the house also needed to be cleaned. He asked me who was I to come into his house and tell him what to do?

I would appreciate your advice as to my landlord rights. –Christine L.

A: Most states require tenants to keep the rental reasonably clean, and some go so far as to list the tenant’s specific duties, such as maintaining appliances in a way that does not damage them. Smart landlords will repeat these duties in a lease clause that tells the tenant what his responsibilities are — and that if he fails to live up to them, he may find himself on the receiving end of a “cure-or-quit” termination notice. If your state does not directly address tenant behavior in its codes, there’s nothing stopping you from writing your own lease clause, setting forth reasonable property-care practices and consequences for noncompliance.

No state legislates (nor should you impose) floor-washing schedules and refrigerator purge cycles, and no state makes moldy food on the table an evictable offense. However, when poor housekeeping habits result in unsanitary conditions that threaten the structure or the health or safety of other residents, landlords can step in. For example, if your tenants’ refusal to open the windows or use the fan in the bathroom has resulted in mold, you can insist that they begin using the ventilation options or face the consequences (a bill for the cost to remove the mold and repair the surfaces it’s grown on). Similarly, no one would argue that if you can trace the roach problem to your tenant’s kitchen, you are within your rights to demand that the practice be stopped (and you can bill the tenants for any eradication efforts you may have to undertake, too).

Janet Portman is an attorney and managing editor at Nolo. She specializes in landlord/tenant law and is co-author of “Every Landlord’s Legal Guide” and “Every Tenant’s Legal Guide.” She can be reached at [email protected].

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Copyright 2009 Janet Portman

See Janet Portman’s feature, Are Landlord’s ‘House Rules’ Illegal?

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