Landlord Question and Answer Forum

Hi all. This is my first time going through this. The lease expired for a tenant and he moved out. I had several issues with throughout including late payments, late security deposit and so on. When he left I had to threaten to towe his old car out of the driveway as he left it there for four days after returning his key. Anyways, the room he rented was a mess and he left tons of trash in front of the house and dog waste in the backyard. I wrote an itemized list of what he was being charged for and emailed him letting him know his security deposit will not be returned. He is now saying he wants receipts or he will take me to court. The property is in Austin TX, I live in NYC. I don’t have time to go all the way there for this and I don’t think he has any case. Am I required to show receipts for the repairs?

It depends. You only need to show receipts to the judge but you could just .pdf the ex-tenant a copy. That would look good to the judge should it come to court. What the tenant is trying to do is claim you overcharged your labor for clean-up. So, as long as you keep your charges reasonable, let him scream. What I do? I always have the apt professionally cleaned. That way, if the ex-tenant starts crying, I send a .pdf of the bill and have them take it up with the cleaning company.

Posted by Matthew M, IL on Monday, March 25, 2019

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Posted by jahfwkwi j, on Wednesday, April 3, 2019

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Posted by jahfwkwi j, on Wednesday, April 3, 2019