Tenants left house trashed, damaged, and infested.

[stone608]

I was hoping I could get some advice. I am new to the rental business and I need help. My previous tenants were "good" tenants in the fact I have received my rent on time every month; however, they informed me not too long ago they were breaking the lease and moving out 6 months prior to the expiration of the lease citing financial difficulties. In these economic times (by the way, the rental property is in Yankeetown, Florida) I sympathized with them and decided not to challenge. After inspection of the home I found it completely unrentable. The carpet is damaged and stained beyond repair and cleaning, there are broken windows, holes in walls and doors, major appliances not maintained, broken plumbing fixtures and valves, and a cockroach infestation. Upon moving out my prior tenants have not inquired about their security deposit or last months rent. Damage is in excess of $5,000.00. Do I have legal recourse or should I chalk it up as a learning experience?

[Rental Landlord]

It may be worth taking them to court, but only if you don't have to spend money on tracking them down to serve them or paying for an attorney.
That said, it's worth mentioning that you will only receive a judgment, even if you win, and the tenants probably won't pay you for years. At some point, they'll probably want to lease a car, or buy a house, or some other activity where the lender will demand they pay their judgments, but that could be five years from now.
Going forward, I highly recommend that you inspect lease applicants' current residence, to see how they currently live. Sure, they can always lie about where they live, but generally you can get a good sense for the tenants this way, and it's also worth asking their current landlord about how well they've treated the property in addition to asking how well they've paid the rent.
Best of luck,

_______________________
Brian
Lease Agreement (http://www.ezlandlordforms.com/documents/lease_agreements/)

[Debbie]

I was hoping I could get some advice. I am new to the rental business and I need help. My previous tenants were "good" tenants in the fact I have received my rent on time every month; however, they informed me not too long ago they were breaking the lease and moving out 6 months prior to the expiration of the lease citing financial difficulties. In these economic times (by the way, the rental property is in Yankeetown, Florida) I sympathized with them and decided not to challenge. After inspection of the home I found it completely unrentable. The carpet is damaged and stained beyond repair and cleaning, there are broken windows, holes in walls and doors, major appliances not maintained, broken plumbing fixtures and valves, and a cockroach infestation. Upon moving out my prior tenants have not inquired about their security deposit or last months rent. Damage is in excess of $5,000.00. Do I have legal recourse or should I chalk it up as a learning experience?

Do you legal recourse? Perhaps. It depends on what your lease says and if you have taken "before" and "after" pictures & videos.

As you have learned, receiving monthly rental payments on time does not make your tenants good tenants.

As an experienced landlord (plus my hubby is the president of the landlord association), I strongly advise you to contact your local (or nearest) landlord association. Tell them what has happened and get the names of attorneys. Plus, you also need to get yourself familiar with the landlord/tenant laws. That includes the city/county/state & federal. All of which your local landlord association can help you with.

Brian's (aka Rental Landlord) post gave you good reply.

Welcome to the dark side of landlording....:SM119:

[stone608]

Brian, Jeff, and Debbie

Thank you very much for your response, they are most appreciated. I have been in contact with an attorney and she advises me I may be "throwing good money after bad." I do not believe they have anything or care about their credit rating at this point. I have sent them a "demand letter" but do not expect a response. Only until they are served should I expect a response. So much for trying to be a nice guy, I was advised to treat this soley as a business. Thank you again.

Joe

[BSH]

Stone608, I'm sooooo sorry you had to go through this. So far, I've not had this kind of problem, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

I'm with the others regarding your recourse options. If it's not going to cost you much (time/money), go head and get a judgment against them. But you probably won't get your money. Of course, the deadbeats are probably counting on the fact that you will feel downhearted and assume you can't collect. So you never know. It can't hurt--as long as you don't spend much time or money pursuing it.

Otherwise, move on. Lick your wounds and pick up the pieces and learn from it. Here's what I do with new tenants (and this assumes that they've only earned the privilege of borrowing one of my houses after an exhaustive background check, which includes a visit to the applicant's house):

At 60-90 days into the tenancy, I do a site check with no more than 24 hours' notice. I do another at 6 months and another at one year. In beetween those inspections, I frequently drive by each of my rentals (of course, I live near them, so it's easy--no long-distance landlording for me) to look for anything susicious or unusual. I check the house itself for my sake, as it is my bread and butter, as well as check for how well the tenant is taking care of the place. I inspect HVAC filters--I'm anal about these things because I've had major damage to a system as a direct result of dirty filters. As I find things that the tenant needs to remedy, I bring them to his/her attention. That way, it's not a list of things that come due at the end of the lease--things that the tenant finds are easier to walk away than deal with. This makes lease renewals easy: If I don't like what I've seen during my inspections, I don't renew the lease. It's that simple.

I chat with neighbors from time to time--I don't bug them, but if I see them out when I'm passing by, I always try to stop and chat a moment. By now, they know me well, for I've long since introduced myself even before we purchased the property. They already know I want them to call me if they have any problems or concerns with the tenants. (These very neighbors are also some of my best bird-doggers: I've acquired 3 properties directly from their help, and I reward them for it!). So during these chats, if there's a problem, they're going to say something. Also, I outright ask how things are with the tenants. I learn a lot that way.

I know that does not help with your immediate problem, but it will help you moving forward, I hope. It's easy to sit back and collect a check, but these houses are your bread and butter--or at least I hope one day they will be. They're your #1 priority. Do not be shy about frequently inspecting your houses. Remember: they are your houses. You are lending them to these people, and in return they're paying you a monthly fee. If you think of it that way, you won't feel you're stepping on anyone's toes.

One thing you could do about these deadbeats: I would post something on my local real estate investor group networking site alerting people that there are deadbeats on the loose. So as not to cause any legal trouble for yourself, simply post something like, "FYI, if you are considering renting to Joe Smith or Mary Smith, please call me before you sign the lease." Basically, that raises red flags without your having to publicly call them deadbeats. And any landlords who would foolishly sign a lease with these people before checking references might think twice before doing so. You could be doing a fellow landlord a big favor.

(Wow! Sorry this got kinda long, huh?) =}