Landlord Question and Answer Forum

outlined description ... 1. put home for sale [tenants aware] 2. sold home within one week [tenants informed] 3. sent notice to vacate letter and text to tenants regarding sale of property providing them exactly 30 days [as indicated in contract] to vacate premises. 4. day 29 & 30 returned to property and wife had moved out [they were separating] and husband was still in process of removing items. 5. day 31, returned to property for final walkthrough since buyers were to do their final walkthrough 2 days later ... 6. upon entering home no cleaning had been done and home still had personal items, some furniture and 2 small holes in wall. the tenants had pets [we were only aware of one - apparently they had two] and I swept up piles of dog hair and dirt from floors. My husband and I cleaned the house as well as we could since we only had one day to present home to buyers. lawn mowed, drywall repaired, home cleaned and cigarette buds removed from patio and backyard. We also removed a majority of personal items from home. 7. buyer walkthrough - they continued to complain of dog odor and demanded carpet cleaned more thoroughly to try and eliminate odor. We then hired carpet cleaning services to appease buyers and our agent went and removed remaining personal items and furniture due to buyers request. 8. Buyers continued to complain of dog feces in backyard left and other small details however we ended up completing the process and closing. 9. Sent letter to tenants - $0.00 return security deposit [repairs, cleaning, violation of contract] 10. tenant responded demanding full deposit by june 31, 2016 and she would be contacting her attorney. **Should I have given them their security deposit? I want to do everything honestly and felt the cost, time, inconvenience and violation of contract [personal items, more than normal wear and tear in home, undocumented pet] resulted in them losing their security deposit.

As long as you document and take pictures of the repairs, cleaning and haul off and it took the entire amount of the deposit to perform this, then you have a right to keep the deposit. If you did not use the entire deposit, you will have to return only that portion.

Posted by Marsha G, TX on Friday, June 17, 2016