Got a call this morning from a 5 year tenant that the house was ruined! Water was everywhere!

(She has more than paid for the house in the past 5 years!).

She is 45 years old, makes decent money, and lives alone (boyfriends have come and gone - all nice guys to deal with, but, they are all using her). One bedroom is full of her clothes (on racks), and another bedroom is her TV room.

No extra people in the house.

In 5 years, I have never seen her this emotional an out of control.

She has been an easy tenant, paid on time, keeps the house cleaner than most, almost no wear and tear on the house, and no damage to the house.

I went over after she called and found an upstairs commode supply line that had a slow drip. She said the ceiling downstairs (under the upstairs bathroom) had been dripping since Friday.

I replaced the supply line and rebuilt the commode while I was there.

I put holes (1/8" diameter) in the downstairs ceiling to let the water drain out into buckets. I told her I would be back tomorrow to remove the buckets that are catching the dripping water and I would patch the ceiling holes next week.

She told me she was done with the house and was moving in a month or two!

I told her I was sorry to hear that and hoped she would stay. If she decided to leave, I wished her well.

Earlier this year a breaker was arcing inside the breaker box causing sporadic outages on that circuit. It took a couple weeks to track down and fix the problem.

Is there a better way to handle this situation?

5 years is about when a lot of tenants get itchy feet and move on.

She might calm down and change her mind. She might take a look at what rent is on a better house and change her mind.

How much updating do you have to do if she moves? Perhaps if you offer to do a little bit of decorating, like offer a new paint color in the living room, that might keep her.

I also applaud your speedy service, couple days ago I got a call from a landlady I helped when I was not in the health fit I tell into last fall, anyway she keeps getting calls from a tenant she put in couple years ago complaining about water overflowing the drive since that middle of January - the drain was jammed with grease and junk when they moved in and to snake and jet, that cost 600 and she doesn't know if the drain is clogged again because she has not gone to the house to see if the toilet flushed properly or the tub drains... She is waiting for the tenant to solve the problem, I remind her this will not go well if the tenant is in control, go put your own eyes on the problem and fix the leak or plugged drain, or maybe it is coming from the house on the driveway side - who knows?

You mentioned she was out of control. Hysterical. Just fix it, and let her know if anything else, just call. Don't mention her leaving. It will probably blow over. It's not like her possessions were damaged by the water.

When she notifies you of terminating lease, then you ask her what it takes.