Tenants claim I evicted them, trashed house wow

Tenants claim I evicted them, trashed house wow by Mary on September 5, 2022 @02:24

Here is a cautionary tale of being walked all over by people and allowing it. You get what you bargain for! A cautionary tale.

My tenant was a twenty-something who, for the most part, was a pretty good (albeit entitled) kid except for two times in his tenancy:
1) he rented half my house whilst my daughter rented the other half. She came home for a couple of months for medical reasons. During that time, he and some of his friends from "home" took her belongings and moved them from her room and put them in a pile in the dining room, and moved his two friends in. He wrongly claimed that she wasn't paying rent, and then when he realized who he was talking to, he shut up. My daughter moved out as she wasn't well and moved home and I allowed his friends to move in. (yes, I know). Well, things went fairly well for the next two years until I tried to raise the rent ONCE. They claimed that they wanted a lease tied to my mortgage rate, and that they had heard that I could raise the rate every month. I got a really insulting email from them which wasn't accurate or deserved. This was all based on a relative of one of the friends who was working for Sec 8. I told them that I wasn't Sec 8, that I couldn't give them a lease, and if they didn't want to continue the month to month tenancy and pay the increase they could move out. They agreed in writing to pay the increase and in fact paid it the month it was due. They also wrote that they wanted to continue their stay and that they were very happy there.

A couple of weird things happened simultaneously. One of the roommates insisted that I call him Natalie versus Nicole which, frankly isn't a problem for me. He/she dropped it as quickly as he/she brought it up and I am befuddled as to the significance of that. I really think their relative was trying to find "gotcha" stuff for me to screw up. This is the thanks I get for renting to a kid who basically takes a paying customer's belongings out of her room without notice and moves their stuff in their because they are friends with the kid staying there. It is my own fault. I also rented to him/her with a 532 FICO score. In short, I shouldn't have been shocked by any of the grief I got from these people.

2. The next major issue occurred when they moved out!

They paid one month of the increase and were unsuccessful in negotiating a lease or any stays of rent with me. I get it, I just asked them for a decision. They moved out BUT they are insisting that they got evicted because they didn't give notice. They contacted me several days after they unexpectedly moved out and were snide and not very nice. They said that I had evicted them. Best I can surmise is that one of the roommates didn't want to pay the increase and that they just ran over the notice time period. I was really shocked when I got no rent check but instead got a text from one of them saying that they were shutting the electric off as of the EIGHTH. I was left with an empty house but it gets worse--the house is FILTHY. I took copious pictures. They look like they put gravel in the washing machine. It looks like they deliberately destroyed things. They said they cleaned the fridge and other appliances, but they did not, so they flat out lied. Again, pictures.

They left furniture that belongs to my adult daughter there. Lots of it. They left things I had no idea exists. I'm not sure who owns them. I'll inventory them.

I did say they could consider this their notice if they didn't want to pay the increase but they wrote me several times afterwards and reaffirmed their intention to stay. I agreed. I didn't get forwarding addresses at all. I mailed their security deposit accounting to their last known address and their parents houses. Am I missing anything?

I have been a landlord for 35 years and have never had any litigation with tenants. am really upset at myself for not being more forceful and should have not let these kids trash the place.

I find it really sketchy that they didn't contact me before they moved out.

Again, I had a walk through sheet on move in and they didn't fill out one on move out. Looks like they just didn't want to pay the increase and twisted the facts, trying to say I evicted them. First, there are three of them and I only spoke to one of them. Second, my lease says notices are NOT to be done via email or text. So, there is that.

So, any feedback?

Thank you for your time and feedback.

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Re: Tenants claim I evicted them, trashed house wow by Garry on September 5, 2022 @20:02	[ Reply ]

Are you just venting ? A list of such trivial concerns of yours over a 2-3 year period is worthless right now. To make your long story much shorter, the tenants are out, and you should not have to deal with any of them ever again. Change the locks, get rid of any items you want to, clean and fix up the place, and rerent it again------case closed !

Tenants claim I evicted them, trashed house wow - Landlord Forum thread 362179