I had a tenant who lived in my rental property for 6 years. The Management company had been doing all the trouble-shooting for us, as the landlord. After they moved out, we just realized that the house was a total mess, torn carpet, mold, etc. It cost us almost $40,000.00 to repair it to the origin condition. We are asking the late tenant to pay the 6/20( six years they live there) cost. The tenant refused.
The question I have here are:
1) The tenant claimed that they did report the problem, but had been ignored. The Management company denied the statement. We are thinking take the tenant to the small claim court to get the issue solved( they hired the attorney and demand the security deposit
return). Do we have a good case?
p.s. The tenant did breach the contract for having a big dog and more than one cat while they lived in the property.
2) How could I make sure that the Management company did/do their job? We do find out that they don’t response promptly, even from us,
the landlord. Sometimes could take them a month to get back to our question.
Thank you for your property management question. I will forward this also to our local Portland area office for their input.
Lack of prompt response from the property management company to this problem has certainly exacerbated the situation, and you should hire a different property management company. The property management company should have been doing regular inspections 2-4 times a year and following up with the tenant on the damage well before this point. When the tenant expects
regular inspections, then the tenant will take better care of the property. Regular inspections would have probably also turned up evidence of illegal pets on the premises.
If you move forward with legal action, the judge would probably react favorably to any damages that could be proven to be the result of the illegal pets. With the mold and other issues, if the tenants can prove that they contacted the management company and that the management company’s neglect contributed to the problem, then it will be difficult to collect on damages from these causes. Also, with a very long tenancy of 6 years, normal wear and tear might be construed fairly liberally, to include replacement of the carpets and repainting of the interior, for example.
One Comment on “Conflict between tenant and management company”
Julio
August 24, 2015 at 10:50 am
By law, any repairs you wetnad to make to the property must be done prior to you giving up possession of the home. You have no rights to enter the home once you vacated.References : Was this answer helpful?