Just got an email from a tenant this week telling us we need to respond by this evening or they’ll be forced to contact their attorney. If you own rental property long enough, you’re going to get this exact same message. Different tenant, different complaint, same playbook.
So let’s talk about it.
First, About That “Attorney”
The first thing I always notice is the phrasing: my attorney. As if they have an attorney on retainer, sitting in a spare room somewhere just waiting to handle their legal needs. None of us have an attorney like that. We have attorneys we use when we actually need one.
Honestly? I’d love it if these tenants actually had an attorney. It would mean we’d get to talk to an adult about the situation. Not to be that way, but it would make things easier, not harder.
What Actually Happened
Here’s the backstory on this particular situation. The tenant set up their tenant portal to auto-pay rent only. The portal is robust — you can configure it however you want. Pay rent. Pay rent four days late. Pay all bills. Pay only certain bills. Whatever you want.
This tenant set it to pay only the rent, which meant the utility bills (which are their responsibility under the lease) just kept stacking up. And up. And up. They ignored every warning email and text message we sent. Now they’re staring down a giant utility bill, and they’re furious.
We offered a payment plan. We’re being reasonable. They brought this on themselves and we’re still trying to make it easier on them. Their response? Threats and the attorney email.
The ChatGPT Era of Tenant Threats
Here’s something that’s changed in the last couple of years: tenants are using ChatGPT to draft these threats. We’ll get giant paragraphs full of legal-sounding nonsense — referencing laws and statutes that don’t even exist, or don’t apply, or are flat-out made up. We don’t even read most of it anymore.
The pattern is always the same:
- Puffed-up chest
- An arbitrary deadline (“respond by this evening”)
- A threat to take legal action
- Demands that have no basis in the lease
If you own a rental property, eventually you’re going to get one of these. It’s just part of the business.
How We Handle It
If you’re doing everything right — and you need to make sure you’re doing everything right — then take these messages for what they are: someone trying to bully their way out of a situation they created.
Our approach: we don’t respond right away. Somebody who just fired off a chest-puffing threat email is agitated. They’re in an antagonistic posture. If we respond while they’re still in that mindset, we’re just adding fuel to the fire.
So we let them sit for an hour or two. Let them move on to their next task. Then we send the email — calm, factual, referencing the lease, confirming the charges are accurate and owed, and gently suggesting it’s in their best interest to pay or set up the payment plan we already offered.
The Property Management Advantage
This is one area where a property management company has a real edge over an individual landlord. We have preset email templates. It’s mechanical. And I know “mechanical” sounds bad, but in this situation it’s a huge advantage — it’s not personal, we’re not emotionally engaged, and we’re not getting pulled into a power struggle.
If you’re a self-managing landlord, this is one of the harder parts of the job. The tenant is making it personal. You have to actively choose not to.
The “Replace My Refrigerator” Tenant
The other version of this you’ll see is the as-is complaint. Tenant moves in. Decides they don’t like the look of the refrigerator. Sends a demand: replace my refrigerator by the end of this week or I’m taking legal action.
Here’s the rule: anything a reasonable person could have or should have seen when they looked at the property before signing the lease is as-is. If they saw the fridge and signed anyway, that’s on them.
Now, a reasonable person can assume a refrigerator will function as a refrigerator. So if they move in and the fridge isn’t cooling, that’s a legitimate repair request and we handle it immediately. But if they’re unhappy with how it looks? That’s not a repair. That’s a wish list.
The Bottom Line for Landlords
About 1 in 60 tenants will engage in this kind of behavior at some point during their tenancy. Maybe more, depending on what comes up. It’s not the majority, but it’s common enough that you need a plan for it.
The plan is simple:
- Make sure your lease is solid and you’re following it
- Document everything (emails, texts, warning notices)
- Don’t respond to threats in the heat of the moment
- Respond factually, referencing the lease
- Don’t get pulled into the power struggle
If you want to go deeper on the documentation side, I’ve talked before about how to handle tenants who consistently pay late and why proper tenant screening up front prevents most of these situations from ever happening.
As always, I’m just a humble Philadelphia property management company owner doing my best to answer your rental property investing questions. Happy rental property investing.
