State Specific Question About: SOUTH CAROLINA (SC)

I prefer landlerd since I don't like to talk about religion and landlard makes me sound fat...

But seriously, I don't think this person can afford an attorney.

Get him off your property and get on with your life.

You should have paid someone else to install the heater as it could be dangerous if not installed properly.

Tenants have the right to heat. He should have contacted you about it, before now, if he had no heat, but it is your responsibility to be sure that the plumbing, heating, electric, etc is working before you rent out a property.

Be careful that what you do after getting told they are suing you, so it does not seem like retaliation from you. I personally think that they had to have had some type of heat if it gets very cold there. I do not know how cold it can get there. People would not survive here in Wisconsin without any heat. They would freeze to death.

If you go to court, be sure that you have pictures of the heater and duct work in the yard, Dated written eviction notice before he mentioned the heat problem, etc. Do you have anything in writing about his agreement to install the heater. Be sure any agreements with tenants are IN WRITING. Oral agreements mean nothing. Bring lease, and other paperwork to court.

You should have contacted him, when you did not hear anything about getting the heater installed. I would guess that if he was getting a rent reduction for getting it installed, he would have notified you as soon as it was installed and since you did not hear anything, it was probably not installed yet.

Go into court confident, ready to roll, and don't let the tenants intimidate you.

TO XX....let's be nice, no need to insult someone coming here to get answers.

Hope this helps.

Cat

He has to win in order to get a judgment against you.

A picture of the ductwork he took out showing he started the work.

The fact that he stayed for 18 months without heat. Judge will ask why he did not just move out.

And he did not complain until you started eviction.

These will allow the judge to see there was some type of agreement that he agreed to install the new unit and did not.

Yes you should have had a professional install the unit in the first place. But you really don’t have much to worry about.

Plus as soon as you knew he was not going to install the heat you took some action. Because you agree you need heat for this tenant or the next.

Of course continue with eviction and get them out.

But call a professional and explain the problem. Try to get them to deal with the current tenant to setup an appointment and fix the problem.

A few thinks could happen but they all will make your case stronger.

Tenants could refuse to let them fix the heat.

You took action and had the heat fixed and the service person can write you a note verifying that someone had started work by removing ductwork.

It may cost you more if the tenant started the work and did some damage to the ductwork. Also get this in writing and add to your claim against tenant.

You need to follow through w/ the eviction.

You need to document everything that you can so that if he follows through w/ his threat of suing you-you have something to show the courts.

Your question is not completely clear so I hope that you will clarify what has transpired so that we can help you better.

He's making noise.

Follow through with your eviction papers.

If he really sues you, have your documentation in order.

We've had Tenants threaten to sue when they were about to get kicked out, they thought the threat would "magically" let them stay

As a side note as indicated above, always do your own work/contract it out, for repairs.

Helps to avoid these type of problems