Landlord Question and Answer Forum

Hello. I have a few questions regarding landlord rights and what tenants can be billed for. 1. Tenants left all their belongings on tree lawn. There is no bulk pick-up so we had to pay to have someone remove their trash/furniture. Can they be billed for the removal? 2. Tenants did not do any cleaning of the property. They left the toilets, tubs, appliances and floors filthy. Can they be charged for cleaning. 3. They also violated several clauses of the lease, such as removing smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. Their lease expired on 4/30 at midnight and my husband was meeting to collect the keys on 5/2 since that was the only time they could meet. They had entered the house and were moving out items on that day (two days after their lease expired). 4. There were also multiple damages to doors, cabinets, etc. We do have some before pics, but not of everything. We do have after pics of everything. We used a standard Ohio lease. So I am just making sure I am covered to deduct these items from their security deposit.

Hello, Sorry about your tenants leaving a mess. Charge them for everything you can document. Pics and bills. 1. Yes. 2. The tenants are responsible to leave the house in what is know as broom swept condition unless you have something else in your lease(I put in the house and carpet must be professionally cleaned) 3. if you have to buy new smoke alarms and extinguishers charge them for the replacement If your just putting them back up you really had no loss.(fire alarms need to be replaced every ten years). 3A. They were moving things out 2 days after the lease was out so you could prorate for those two days. 4. If its damaged and you paid to fix/ replace it add it to the bill. As long as it's well documented and you give them a bill you should be good.

Posted by Scott H, VA on Wednesday, May 6, 2020