We have a disgruntled tenant who has had some maintenance issues that we promptly repaired. These are of routine items. This tenant is now trying to get out of their lease early and using these maintenance items as their reason. Our maintenance team will sometimes take pictures of the issue or their work to show the maintenance supervisor. These pictures were taken in front of the tenant so she is aware and not of any personal items.

The question is, should we give the tenant any of these pictures as she is demanding them? Do we have any obligation to provide these pictures to her? Are there any issues with our maintenance team taking pictures of the issue or their work inside of a tenant's apartment?

is the tenant disputing that the items were fixed? If all items were fixed then she has no grounds for breaking the lease.

Are these really BIG items that caused the tenant not to have quality of life in the unit? You mention leaky pipes and bugs in your reply. I suspect you need to let this tenant out and make your property more inviting.

I'm a landlord now but was a tenant in my younger years and escaping a no heat situation or a buggy apartment is no picnic.

You own the property: take as many pics as you want. Tell the tenant to step aside if they don't want to be in the photos.

For future reference, you can't put everything in the lease. It could be 10,000 pages long and not cover every situation that could potentially arise. So we operate under the "if we need to do something to run our business properly we do it unless we find a law that says I can't."

Now is a good time to get get informed about your state's land lord / tenant laws. My guess is you will find nothing in them to support the tenant's position. Land lords needs to know the law better than tenant and communicate clearly to them the purpose behind what you're doing...politely, but firmly. "Mrs. Doe, I understand you say you don't want us to take picture of these pipes, but our maintenance supervisor needs to see evidence that the situation was handled properly to protect our property and ensure your residence is well-maintained. We appreciate your cooperation."

Then if they refuse to cooperate, evict them /non-renew their lease. I don't tolerate uncooperative tenants, contractors, etc.

Cara,

What does your lease say? My lease is clear: Res allows photos, images, videos, sound recordings, online postings, etc of any type may be used by management.

From the intergoogles regarding SOUND: West Virginia – Recording a wire, oral, or electronic communication, or disclosing its contents, is legal when the person recording is a party to the communication or has obtained consent from one of the parties.

(YOU are the "one party")

Me? No.

1. These are MY photos for recordkeeping and not for distribution.

2. I don't supply ammunition to people who want to attack me.

Stay strong. YOU are the only person who will protect your business. Just because they asked does not mean you have to jump.

Probably time for the Happy Clause.

BRAD

PS I'm surprised THEY do not have tons of pix showing how horrible and life threatening the problems were.

PPS I have my guy take before and after pix as defense if they attack us. "Your Honor, The hole was HUGE!" Photo shows a 2" hole with the res' hammer still stuck in it.

Run your business.

I always have a small camera or my smartphone tucked out of sight in my tool bucket. But I never take pics with the tenant in the room if I can help it, as I always felt that the practice could come to haunt me - apparently, I'm right.