Landlord Question and Answer Forum

We own a house in TX and the lease was up May 31st. Earlier in the month he texted me asking when the lease was up. I had replied June 1st thinking this was the end date. I then asked what his intentions were for the house. Our lease states a 60 day notice to be given or lease would renew month to month basis. He ignored my questions about his intentions. When we began lease he discussed possibly buying it in the future so we honestly didn't think he wanted to leave. I asked him the 1st time May 3rd when he asked the date, again May 6th, and again May 14th after I received a very surprising call from a property manager wanting to know about his rental history because he had signed a new lease with them for June 1. He notified us by text May 15th that he was planning to move prior to the end of the month. So he turned in the keys last Friday and the house is a mess. We hired a property manger who sent me pics of the house. It is absolutely not clean, totally disgusting. Looks like he never watered the yard and killed our sold planted the year before. The shrubs are overgrown into the garage. All appliances are very dirty and there is a broken ice button on the refrigerator. The inside of sinks are all corroded as if he poured acid down them. Let me add this house is not even 2 years old. He is constantly texting me that the house is clean and as good as any realtor house he has seen lately in his search. Thankfully he did not ruin our every expensive AC system because he had no filter in it and it was caked in dirt and dust. We paid the AC installer today to come inspect, he did have to clean due to neglect and that's even on the invoice. I know that I can itemize every repair and cleaning out of his deposit but I am very unclear as to if we would even owe him anything due to know notice. Our lease has the abandonment clause stating if he leaves before the end without written permission from the landlord the leased premises is then considered to be abandoned and Tenant is in default of this lease agreement. Any assistance is greatly appreciated so we can try to figure out where we stand. As it stands, we turned on utilities so that someone can clean, AC checked out, yard will need work and grass appears quite dead, house will need painting inside as there is scrapes down to the drywall, plumber to replace drain catchers, and toilet seats may need to be replaced. Thanks!

Well, it certainly appears the tenant vacated and made no attempt to clean. I would certainly deduct all from the security deposit. If there are funds left, you can make an attempt to contact to return any last funds. What does your property manager say? They may also have advice.

Posted by karen s, WI on Monday, June 10, 2013