I had some tenants for 3 years, and they were in the month to month portion of their lease. Two days ago they let me know that they wanted out of the lease at the end of the month. I told them that their lease requires 30-days written notice and that they would need to pay through the end of February. Well, yesterday I found out that they moved out already, at the beginning of the month. They had not paid the rent, so I served them with a 3 day notice to pay or vacate about a week ago (before i knew they moved out). What are my options here, and how do I go about getting my money? Do I have until the end of febuary before my 14-days start for getting them the end of lease statement? I live in Washington State. Please help.
What are my options here, and how do I go about getting my money?
What options do you need? You’ve already got the property back. If they are low income tenants, you aren’t going to get your money back. If they are middle class and have jobs they like, you could sue them, but you still probably won’t collect.
The only way you’ll know the correct answer to your question about the end of lease statement is to ask an experienced lawyer or experienced investor there in Washington. Since you have the property back, I would say that the lease is over now and your 14 day clock will start no later than Jan. 31. Why not just send them the end of lease statement in the next few days - then you won’t have to worry about the legalities. Obviously, you’re entitled to the deposit since they ripped you off for January’s rent (in addition to any damage they caused).
Good Luck,
Mike
Small claims court. They have turned over the property to you.
Check with a lawyer like Mike says, but many states start the clock at termination of occupancy.
Sort of my thought except:
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I still had not gotten the keys or anything from them. I just found out they were not there. Since it has been 3 years, and I have moved twice since they moved in, I might not be able to find the keys to the place.
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I know I can go after them for January and damages. Rent was 1275, deposit was 1000. Damages will probably be 700-800. Maybe more since I have to have a locksmith change the locks, because I did not get any keys back. What I wanted to know about was February rent. They will probably owe me $2000+ when it is all said and done. I wanted to know if I can actually go after Feb, because that is enough money it is probably worth taking it to small claims, getting a judgment, and garnishing wages. They both have jobs. I just found out they are splitting up, which led to all this. But the wife has been telling me she sent me a rent check over a week ago, just to buy time, and I want to go after them out of spite. I can’t stand being lied to and mislead for the better part of a month.
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I wanted to know about procedure. I did not want to do anything wrong that might jeopardize my chances at getting awarded money in court.
Ryan,
My advice? Let it go…it’ll cost you more than it’s worth to find them, drag them to court, and try to get a judgement. If they’re splitting up, they’ve got other things on their minds.
As for ‘spite’ - that’s never a good thing. It’ll come back to bite you - in spades ('karma’s a bitch and we’re jus the puppies).
Take two deep breathes and let it go. It’s just part of being a landlord. The good news is that they were there for 3 years. If you do find them, let them know that you aren’t happy but you cut them a break.
Keith
OlympiaHomeBuyer,
I’m with the others. Let it go, move on.
Last year a rented a property to an oil man (landman) who was a great tenant. He was there a whole year. But then his 19-year-old son moved in. Then Dad appeared to have moved out, although he continued paying the rent. Sonny was not a good tenant. We started finding silverware and rugs on the lawn and in the dumpster! It was how he cleaned house.
Finally the rent checks stopped, and we couldn’t get anyone to call back. So we sent a Certified Letter to Dad’s new address stating that we were going to be delivering Sonny’s belongings back home as we couldn’t contact the boy. “Please call us,” we wrote, “if you don’t want us to do this.”
We got lots of boxes from U-Haul and packed up Sonny’s messy clothes, bong pipes, guitars, drug posters, etc. We sealed it all up nice and clean and delivered it an hour and half from here to Daddy’s ranch. Nobody was home (they knew we were coming) so we left it all on the porch with a nice note: “Thanks for renting from us so long! Here is Sonny’s stuff since we had trouble reaching him.”
This was a 1-day cleanout and it got our unit back to us. No courts or mess or waiting around.
Furnishedowner
It’s part of the business.
no one likes to be lied to but lets face it we all deal with that almost every day!
I’m with the rest, just be happy you didn’t get stuck with the legal end to get them out and be happy you have your unit back in your control so quickly.
if they all just Up and moved out when they slit up or couldn’t pay us anymore the eviction lawyers would go out of business> LOL
You got off lightly. Overall I think you didn’t do too badly. Most of the time when people leave in a hurry I usually get stiffed for at least a month’s rent. If you’re lucky you may be able to get it rented in a few days, but it is winter so it’s tough. I usually get at least a month’s rent for security though.
They didn’t really do about $800 in damages, that’s just wear and tear and it’s not bad that they paid rent for 3 years and wear and tear was only about $800. You can look at your actual loss as about $275 or so, the difference between the security and your missing rent. Typically in rentals you can only really count on 90% occupancy, it’s nice when it’s higher but you can’t have it all the time.