rutted up yard, wear and tear or damage? (lease, tenants, renter)

[jumper_girl221]

Went to a wedding this evening at my old neighbors house beside my previous house which is now a rental. All beside the drive way is extensive ruts, both just driving in, and where she turns to the parking space and where she turns to the garage. Deep 12"-18" ruts that will take quite a bit of sand and spreading to fix (some of them are over the property line and into my neighbors yard and she was "commenting" about them.

We are responsible for exterior maintenance (ie yard care, mowing etc) per the lease. Would driving through the grass outside of rhe pretty good sized driveway qualify as damage or would that fall under wear and tear. I will preface that during the 8 years I lived there, we drove and backed trailers into that driveway and never had an issue with crossing into the yard, it's wide enough to put two cars beside each other..

After watching someone walk into the house with a lit cigarette (lease states it's non smoking) I am scheduling an insection for early next week and want to bring up the yard at that time as one of the listed issues I find if it would qualify as damage.

Lease is up September 30th and is not being renewed.

[STT Resident]

Originally Posted by jumper_girl221

... Would driving through the grass outside of rhe pretty good sized driveway qualify as damage or would that fall under wear and tear.

... After watching someone walk into the house with a lit cigarette (lease states it's non smoking) I am scheduling an insection for early next week and want to bring up the yard at that time as one of the listed issues I find if it would qualify as damage.

In my opinion damage, not normal wear and tear. I'd make them pay for it now and suggest they take a remedial driving course.

As far as the smoking is concerned, tell them you smell cigarette smoke, remind them of the no-smoking policy and let them know that if any odor or damage caused by cigarette smoking is apparent when they vacate, they'll be responsible for the cost to remedy.

[Harpaint]

Cigarettes can also stain the walls, especially noticeable in the bathrooms. YUK

[Lacerta]

Personally, I would have walked over right then and told them they would have a 3 day notice to vacate posted that evening, as my lease says that any smoking inside the house ever is an evict-able offense. It is a BIG deal for me, and I make that VERY clear during the lease signing. But yeah, at the very least, I definitely would not renew.

But as for the lawn issue, we've had this happen before. The tenants were driving on the lawn on both sides of the driveway, and it was an oversized driveway, as it was shared between 2 houses. Large enough they could have turned around and driven out forward. On the one side, the tire marks went as much as 10 feet off the driveway (the opposite set of tires was on the lawn, not just 1 side). The neighbors got tired of it and put large boulder sized rocks along their side the driveway, a foot or so from the concrete. The tenants actually had the nerve to complain that their car was damaged when they hit the rocks.

If the driveway is sufficiently wide for 2 cars, then anything more than a couple inches off the driveway is definitely damage. Oh, and you'll want to check your sprinkler system (if you have one), as driving on the lawn can easily damage the system.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Wear and tear is something that happens from normal use over time. This would not include ruts. Ruts are damage.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Driving off of a paved driveway and causing ruts is damage. If it is a dirt driveway and the ruts are confined to the actual driveway, then it is wear and tear.

[jumper_girl221]

No one was home and it was rhe boyfriend of the daughter that either just moved out, or is in the process of moving out who doesn't live there.

If I had seen it myself you bet though I'd of addressed it immediately!

It's a gravel/crushed asphalt driveway, but like I said it's very well defined and some of these ruts are 2+ feet away! The parking area is huge, we built it to park trailers and my big truck and it's like a 4 car gravel area, and these ruts are well past into the neighbors yard. I'm actually really impressed they didn't get stuck.

It's been a terribly wet winter so I understand the ground being wet and soft but this is redic imo.

[Kim in FL]

Damage, no doubt about it. No need to drive/park on the grass when there is a well defined driveway.

[jumper_girl221]

I figure I'll do the inspection and just make a notation on the bottom "extensive rutting of yard must be fixed prior to move out". Honestly it would be easier if we do it, we have a tractor w a box blade and I did tell the neighbor it might not get fixed until she moves out.

I've had a lot of issues with this renter and payment from EIC, which is the reason I'm going to use for non renewal. She has stopped complaining about the well water since I told her I'd be willing to let her out of rhe lease.

She has snapped two brackets on the storm doors (one she admitted to having propped open on a day wirh 38 mph gusts, which I was informed is due to the "house being old and the wood in the door frame being soft" I told her no dice and gave her the option of us replacing it or her....she opted to replace them herself. Which is why I wanted to double check other opinions on damage vs wear and tear since she's shown a history of wanting to blame "the house".

http://photos1.zillowstatic.com/p_c/...1000000000.jpg

Here's an old pic before we added the crushed asphalt (from when house was for sale). The area to the right is extensively rutted (ie I thought neighbors did it pulling out of the car port just out of sight until neighbor mentioned it). My property line is directly on the driveway so anything grass is my neighbors. The other rutting is in front of the house pulling into the front parking spot.