Landlord Question and Answer Forum

Tenants moved out after 2 mo. of 12 mo. lease claiming something never stipulated verbally or written in lease: no central air (CA). I promised CA to be installed in upstairs of trilevel home verbally prior to move in. They signed lease for 12 months after living in home 4 days with agreed upstairs CA. Downstairs has window unit. Q1: Will they stand a chance in small claims court (SCC), in your opinion that breaking the lease is a option? Q2: During the 2 mo. tenants painted 3 bedrooms and ripped out carpeting in den without permission and refused to repaint or return carpet to original status. They claim I gave verbal permission (I did not.) Lease states all changes must be approved by landlord in writing before changes can occur. Will SCC uphold my claim to have them pay for returning rooms to original condition, in your opinion? I am extremely anal about documentation and always had my maintenance contractor accompany me to home visits for collaboration. Any other advice B4 SCC

I would think that if you have a lease and it stipulates that you are providing Central Air, then you are obligated to do such. On the other hand if you do not have anything in the lease about central air and the lease remains silent on this issue, then your tenant would have the burden of proof. The situation about the decor in the den: Have you provided written notice to your tenant after you found out about this? No body can ever tell for sure about how a judge is gone to decide. Usually though, the lease, if there is one is the determining factor.

Posted by Denise S, PA on Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The lease does not mention CA. I verbally promised to put in an upstairs CA unit. The house is a trilevel built on a slab and putting in a downstairs unit is cost prohibitive. All this was explained when they first called about the house. As for the asbestos, I have consulted two attorneys who both feel if the tenant removed the carpet and damaged the asbestos tile in the process, they are, according to the lease, required to recover the tile with like carpet that was there originally. I just wanted to know if anyone has actually dealt with an asbestos situation before or a tenant who makes whatever changes they like without regard to a landlord's approval...

Posted by anita j, NC on Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I have never dealt with asbestos but I have dealt with a tenant making so called "improvements" without my permission. I had in the lease that pemrission must be asked for and that tenant was responsible to make the unit as it was before they moved in. I ended up taking the money out of their security deposit.

Posted by Denise S, PA on Tuesday, October 7, 2008