Landlord Commisseration Thread

[mkvh]

Hello all, quick question. Renter is asking about getting out of the lease, I told her she's responsible till the end of her lease term to pay. But that we'd let her out if we found another renter. Do you do anything different?

That's what we'd do as well. We had tenants move out but continue to pay us for three months until we re-rented. (They were wonderful tenants!)


NotDesperate--If she went to the expense and trouble of suing them, I absolutely would pursue wage garnishment. $10k is a lot of money, not to mention what she's spent on court costs and attorney's fees.

[Pookie]

Honeygirl You can definitely tell the renters they need to pay until the end of the lease or until you find other renters. Of course it's illegal to collect rent from xtenants while you have place renter to another. However,(I believe we live in the same state), our state is NOT landlord friendly. Meaning if they choose to move out and not pay, it probably wouldn't be worth your $hile to go after them in court for 3 months rent.
NotDesperate I would also pursue wage garnishment. However it can be hard to make someone pay even with a judgement.

[diam124]

I'd like to get some opinions from other landlords on a situation...our first tenants moved out recently after living in our townhouse for a year. The townhouse is 6 years old and we were the original owners so everything was in great shape when we moved out. A few months ago we stopped by to do yardwork and the tenant said a couple burners on the stove weren't working. I checked them out and someone had basically broken the burner coils (electric stove). I don't understand how a normal adult did this damage so I'm guessing it was one of the kids, but the connection points where the burners plug in were all mangled. They also broke the feet off the coils so even if they were working they would be lopsided. The tenant had put foil over the drip pans (which were replaced by us when we moved out). I suggested to them that they go to a hardware store and buy replacement coils and to let me know if that didn't work. They never said anything.

At the move-out inspection DH asked if the burners were working and the tenant said he didn't know. Then he said something about spending over $100 on new coils. After they moved out I looked at them and the only thing they had replaced were the drip pans.

I have a service guy coming today to fix the stove and I'm going to take the $ out of the security deposit. My feeling is that these were intentionally broken by them so they need to pay for them. If they broke out of normal wear and tear I would pay for it. They left the place quite dirty and messed up the paint so we had to repaint entire walls. We did that work ourselves so we're not charging them, but I don't feel comfortable trying to fix the stove ourselves. Does that sound reasonable? This guy is super defensive and I know he's going to flip out when he sees that we're charging him. It's also stated in the lease and the move-out letter we sent that they have to notify us promptly when appliances break. I'm sure they didn't because they knew this was their fault.

[mkredhead]

Diam - That is more than reasonable. Stove coils breaking is not normal wear and tear at all. When my most recent tenants moved out under the cloak of darkness, I went to do a walk through and the garage door opener was broken, the screen door was ripped and one of the doorknobs was completely broken. I did not return their security deposit. Then 1/2 of the duo sent me a sweet email asking when she could expect the check, and I (again) detailed the issues and the cost for repairs, which exceeded the deposit. She was very rude with her response of "Well, I didn't realize we'd be responsible for things like that." but didn't challenge it further.

Ridiculous.

[Scooter]

Diam, that is very reasonable. We're renters and one of our coils got messed up--totally my fault. We replaced it ourselves. If we break something, it's our own responsibility to fix it or pay for it. As it is, not charging for paint (not even supplies?) is kind on your part. They were only in there for a year, you shouldn't have to repaint already.