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So my renter is almost gone, almost completely moved out, just the garbage on the back porch and the garage still has quite a bit of stuff left (she's promised to have it gone by tomorrow).
Anyway, walked through it yesterday with the buyer...and I have some questions/concerns about planned deductions.
Damaged laminate floor. There are two boards that have significant water damage dead center in the middle of the living room, to the point the laminate is peeling up and you can see the "cardboard" inside. This was beside the sofa so I'm thinking drinks (or repeated drinks) were spilled and not cleaned up. This was pergo that was installed by lowes in 2009, 30 year warranty. I would assume I can charge her for the cost of having a flooring person come in and replacing those two boards without needing to prorate? Its in the middle of the floor, and a locking floating floor so its going to need to be a professional fix and the buyers want it done.
Ceiling in extra bathroom. Its old popcorn ceiling, but not the kind that falls everywhere...more like a texture. Its also been painted over in the past. She had bunkbeds in there, and there are large patches where the ceiling has been scraped/peeled free revealing huge white patches (paint is a light tan). I did notice it during my inspection but didn't say anything since I just chalked it as wear and tear...its now substantially worse. The paint isnt' bubbled out or otherwise inviting it to peel...I honestly can't figure out how they did it. Just want to repaint it and ignore the lack of texture, but waiting for the buyers formal feedback, they seemed a bit bothered by it.
Other extra bedroom. First, they received permission to paint with an approve color, provided they removed the wallpaper boarder. This was all via text/verbal. They did not remove the boarder, and painted right over it. I'm now going to have to strip the paint (although I thought about scoring it on the top and bottom then trying wallpaper remover), remove the boarder and repaint. Can I charge them labor/materials and do it myself, or at least try? Or does that need to be done by a pro to deduct from the deposit. I'm pretty livid, we even discussed how easy it is and I offered her a bottle of spray since I had some on hand. (yes I know that's the risk of allowing a renter to paint...and at least the trim and ceiling aren't too terrible).
Other issue with 2nd bedroom....previous owners had kept a dog in there, which damaged the trim on the door. I had sanded it to make it less noticeable and repainted it. There's now additional chew marks, and the whole bottom of the door trim has been ripped off..not sure if they caught it moving furniture or a dog bit it off, but its split/broken off, then just stuck back on. Is it fair to charge her half the cost of the trim/labor? I wouldn't' charge anything for the chew marks other then the fact its broken off.
Living room closet - bifold door ripped out and the entire top of the door broken out. Originally thought it was just off the track, but ended up being too damaged to rehang and I just left it off.
Pool - hole in liner/bent down rail from people standing on sides and jumping in. Gave her the option of paying to repair it and she couldn't afford it, and I've been very careful when she's texted me asking me to fix it to stress that it was damaged not maintenance.
Cleaning. The house is FILTHY. She claims to have cleaned, and it does smell like lysol. BUT the tile floors grout is black and gross (beige grout). Around the toilets in the boys bathroom is splashed urine...and the whole bathroom smells like urine and air fashioner. Master bath is the same situation (less urine), and the shower is gross with soap scum and hard water stains. Cabinets are filthy (inside and out), fans dont' look like they've been dusted the whole time she's been there, cobwebs everywhere, lights switches have fingerprints and dirt all over them windows are disgusting. Kitchen/laundry room floor is gross and black in the corners/around the appliances. I'm looking at an easy 6 hours worth of cleaning. The house was SPOTLESS when it was given to her, I scrubbed everything top to bottom and have the pictures to prove it. Would it be untoward to charge a $150 cleaning fee?
Motion spot light on garage - before she took possession, we installed LED halogen light bulbs, which weren't cheap, but we reasoned they would last a while, that way the renters wouldn't have to get up on their ladders to replace them since its REALLY high up. Those have been removed.
If there's enough time, I offer my departing tenants a "prelim walk thru" to go over anything that will need addressing. Usually they desire this and often make needed repairs. At least they understand my charges when I send them the final security refund.
You can charge full price for floor repair, bifold door replacement, pool liner repair, and ceiling spot repair. Take pictures and get invoices.
Hire someone to clean the place if dirty when she surrenders the place and charge for that. Don't steam clean the kitchen floor; the new owners can deal with it since you are selling the place.
Ask the tenant to bring back the removed bulbs or buy new ones for you during your final walk-thru.
Damaged laminate floor. There are two boards that have significant water damage dead center in the middle of the living room, to the point the laminate is peeling up and you can see the "cardboard" inside. This was beside the sofa so I'm thinking drinks (or repeated drinks) were spilled and not cleaned up. This was pergo that was installed by lowes in 2009, 30 year warranty. I would assume I can charge her for the cost of having a flooring person come in and replacing those two boards without needing to prorate? Its in the middle of the floor, and a locking floating floor so its going to need to be a professional fix and the buyers want it done.
When you make repairs like this you should still prorate the material cost, not the labor, just to avoid arguments. You should still have some spare planks so all you would have to charge for is the labor anyway. Problem is this isn't a simple repair as those locking floors have to be taken apart from the end to get to the middle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jumper_girl221
Ceiling in extra bathroom. Its old popcorn ceiling, but not the kind that falls everywhere...more like a texture. Its also been painted over in the past. She had bunkbeds in there, and there are large patches where the ceiling has been scraped/peeled free revealing huge white patches (paint is a light tan). I did notice it during my inspection but didn't say anything since I just chalked it as wear and tear...its now substantially worse. The paint isnt' bubbled out or otherwise inviting it to peel...I honestly can't figure out how they did it. Just want to repaint it and ignore the lack of texture, but waiting for the buyers formal feedback, they seemed a bit bothered by it.
I would charge to have it patched, textured and painted right, by a professional.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jumper_girl221
Other extra bedroom. First, they received permission to paint with an approved color, provided they removed the wallpaper boarder. This was all via text/verbal. They did not remove the boarder, and painted right over it. I'm now going to have to strip the paint (although I thought about scoring it on the top and bottom then trying wallpaper remover), remove the boarder and repaint. Can I charge them labor/materials and do it myself, or at least try? Or does that need to be done by a pro to deduct from the deposit. I'm pretty livid, we even discussed how easy it is and I offered her a bottle of spray since I had some on hand. (yes I know that's the risk of allowing a renter to paint...and at least the trim and ceiling aren't too terrible).
Have the guy that is going to do the texture fix this issue and charge it. Document the conversations you had regarding removing the wallpaper.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jumper_girl221
Other issue with 2nd bedroom....previous owners had kept a dog in there, which damaged the trim on the door. I had sanded it to make it less noticeable and repainted it. There's now additional chew marks, and the whole bottom of the door trim has been ripped off..not sure if they caught it moving furniture or a dog bit it off, but its split/broken off, then just stuck back on. Is it fair to charge her half the cost of the trim/labor? I wouldn't' charge anything for the chew marks other then the fact its broken off.
It was damaged before they moved in so it is not their problem. If they had caused all the damage you could get away with it but just eat this one, trim is so cheap and you are planning on having painters anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jumper_girl221
Living room closet - bifold door ripped out and the entire top of the door broken out. Originally thought it was just off the track, but ended up being too damaged to rehang and I just left it off.
If you can't repair the door, glue and clamps work wonders with most doors, then charge it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jumper_girl221
Pool - hole in liner/bent down rail from people standing on sides and jumping in. Gave her the option of paying to repair it and she couldn't afford it, and I've been very careful when she's texted me asking me to fix it to stress that it was damaged not maintenance.
Simple charges no question about it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jumper_girl221
Cleaning. The house is FILTHY. She claims to have cleaned, and it does smell like lysol. BUT the tile floors grout is black and gross (beige grout). Around the toilets in the boys bathroom is splashed urine...and the whole bathroom smells like urine and air fashioner. Master bath is the same situation (less urine), and the shower is gross with soap scum and hard water stains. Cabinets are filthy (inside and out), fans don't look like they've been dusted the whole time she's been there, cobwebs everywhere, lights switches have fingerprints and dirt all over them windows are disgusting. Kitchen/laundry room floor is gross and black in the corners/around the appliances. I'm looking at an easy 6 hours worth of cleaning. The house was SPOTLESS when it was given to her, I scrubbed everything top to bottom and have the pictures to prove it. Would it be untoward to charge a $150 cleaning fee?
Typical vacancy cleaning is $250 but that wont include grout so your $150 is very reasonable. Your time is worth more than $25 an hour.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jumper_girl221
Motion spot light on garage - before she took possession, we installed LED halogen light bulbs, which weren't cheap, but we reasoned they would last a while, that way the renters wouldn't have to get up on their ladders to replace them since its REALLY high up. Those have been removed.
You wont win on this one, you can charge for a new bulb if there isn't one there but that is just asking for trouble with the rest of the problems. You have some large issues you don't want to come off as if you went through the house and nitpicked every little thing. Goal is to recoup as much as possible without wasting time in court and tiny things like light bulbs drive people nuts.
You can't paint popcorn texture by brush or roller; you have to spray it or the texture crumbles away.
You can charge them for pretty much everything you've listed. They may protest, they may even threaten suing but most of the time they won't. Be fair with everything. Anything that was existing damage, do not charge them for. Anything that is truly wear and tear, don't charge them. Everything else like laminate floors that have water damage, unprofessionally painted walls that have to be repainted, cleaning and all that other stuff seems reasonable to charge for.
And just make sure you take really good pictures of everything that you will be charging for prior to repair and/or cleaning, including the dirt/filth.
AZ Manager, I'm going to look at my lease to see what I specifically put about the cleaning charges and go from there as far as the cleaning charge...I'm not totally thrilled with having to clean it end from end but really its quite nasty. I'm sure seh's going to claim its spotless etc, but obviously they just pushed a mop around and didn't bother to actually "CLEAN".
I found two planks in the hall closet, they weren't there before, and were in a box in the attic of the garage so I'm thinking she was trying to figure out how to replace them and pulled them out for that. The labor is going to be a killer though, which is what i'm concerned about.
The door wasn't fixable, and a new one is under $100, so its really not worth gluing, its a very small door. The whole entire track mechanism was ripped out, and its not a 'real' wood door, so not really anything you could glue. My biggest concern with this is I notated it on my 6 month inspection report with a resolution of "landlord will rehang". I didn't realize it was broken until I tried, and I did say something to her about it being broken and needing to buy a new one, but did not specifically say at that time that I would be charging her.
I was planning on including before and after pictures with my letter about the deposit so that its right there for her, but hadn't decided completely.
She's section 8 so who knows if she'd sue, I know she has access to legal aid...but half of her $1400 deposit was paid by a local church group so it wouldn't be "her" money that gets withheld.
I will be providing/keeping receipts for everything, but I don't think I'm required to provide those in NC.
If there's enough time, I offer my departing tenants a "prelim walk thru" to go over anything that will need addressing. Usually they desire this and often make needed repairs. At least they understand my charges when I send them the final security refund.
You can charge full price for floor repair, bifold door replacement, pool liner repair, and ceiling spot repair. Take pictures and get invoices.
Hire someone to clean the place if dirty when she surrenders the place and charge for that. Don't steam clean the kitchen floor; the new owners can deal with it since you are selling the place.
Ask the tenant to bring back the removed bulbs or buy new ones for you during your final walk-thru.
I would really not have to meet with her if I don't have to. She's not requested it (and I'm not required in my state), and just the dramatic texts about me 'putting her children out in the street and they've been crying all day in fear of being homeless' after the notice of non renewal makes me really prefer to just do it myself even if I can't fully charge it back to her.
I hate to be like that...but this is the most dramatic, complaining, "interesting" person I've ever known in my life.
AZ Manager, I'm going to look at my lease to see what I specifically put about the cleaning charges and go from there as far as the cleaning charge...I'm not totally thrilled with having to clean it end from end but really its quite nasty. I'm sure seh's going to claim its spotless etc, but obviously they just pushed a mop around and didn't bother to actually "CLEAN".
Why do you have to look at your lease to see what it is there for cleaning? You have state statutes that allow you to deduct for cleaning if it was left unclean/filthy. Again, take good pics of how it was left and then just have it cleaned and deduct the charges.
I was planning on including before and after pictures with my letter about the deposit so that its right there for her, but hadn't decided completely.
She's section 8 so who knows if she'd sue, I know she has access to legal aid...but half of her $1400 deposit was paid by a local church group so it wouldn't be "her" money that gets withheld.
I will be providing/keeping receipts for everything, but I don't think I'm required to provide those in NC.
It is always best to document, have all receipts and have good clear pics or video proof no matter what your state statutes say or require. It is much better to always be overly safe than very sorry. Damage caused by the tenant is damage. Dirt/filth is dirt/filth which is also considered damage. Security deposit laws allow it so charge for it and be done with it.
It is always best to document, have all receipts and have good clear pics or video proof no matter what your state statutes say or require. It is much better to always be overly safe than very sorry. Damage caused by the tenant is damage. Dirt/filth is dirt/filth which is also considered damage. Security deposit laws allow it so charge for it and be done with it.
The reason I need to double check is I believe that the lease specifically addresses the unit being left clean and what will be charged, its home in my files so I don't remember the specific wording, but I do know there is something there about the unit being left clean and the requirements and what the penalty is.
Thank you! I appreciate it! SOOO glad to not be a landlord any longer!
What state are you in? Follow your state laws. In CA, for instance, you couldn't charge her for anything that wasn't on your pre-move-out inspection, unless the damage was hidden or happened after the inspection, and none of it could be normal wear and tear. And normal wear and tear covers more than you might think.
You know what I'm thinking? Just give her her deposit back and make a deal with the buyer on anything that needs fixing.
If she's a complainer, and she has free legal aid, and she loves drama, you'll end up in court. And even if you "win," you'll have gone through a huge hassle. I suggest you just save yourself the hassle, and just give her her deposit and move on.
And if you don't feel like cleaning, either give the buyer a cleaning break on the asking price, or just hire people to clean. I'd be leaning toward just giving a break on the price for everything. Get the deal done.
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