Tenant caused damage and is trying to Jedi mind trick me

[Anna Flores]

Hi, I'm a newish landlord and could use some advice.

I have a tenant moving out this month who has generally been a good tenant other than she is moving out a few months early (although our market is super hot so not a problem).  I inherited her from the previous landlord, who did not collect a pet deposit or ask any pet fees for her dog or two cats.

Well, the dog has absolutely wrecked the hell out of a large set of blinds by chewing on them.  They will definitely have to be replaced.

The problem here is that there are several other windows in that room with the same color blinds.  The color is apparently no longer available, so to have them all match again, we will have to replace all of them.

The tenant took it upon herself to order new blinds for just the one window, but they are not the same color, nor do I know whether they will actually fit the window and will need to get them installed.  They won't arrive until about a week after she has moved out.

She has been contacting me multiple times a day now to say that she really expects to get her full deposit back, saying that it's inappropriate to have "custom color" blinds in a rental so this isn't her fault, etc.  She is also trying to switch to a "video walkthrough" to get her deposit back faster.  Of course that is a no-go.

So my questions:

1)  How would you handle the blinds situation?  It does seem a little unreasonable to ask her to pay for the blinds for the entire room, but I'm also not excited to eat that cost or have mismatched blinds due to damage that she caused?

2) Any other words of wisdom on security deposit management/walkthroughs/etc?

Thank you so much in advance!

[Rj Lindemann]

1. I've not been landlording for too long, but here is my personal opinion. I think it would be unreasonable to expect a tenant to pay for all new blinds when they ony damaged one. It simply is not the fault of the tenant that they no longer manufacture the same color, and I don't think a court would disagree should it get to that level.

Depending on how reliable and easy to work with the tenant has been, I would probably let it go. In my view, security deposits are mostly to protect you from more major repairs, with minor repairs due to turnover needing to simply be budgeted for every month. It probably isn't worth the headache that this could potentially cause. As i said, especially if they have been a good tenant thusfar. 

2. I always do a walkthrough with my new tenants. I take a picture of every room, and I fill out a sheet detailing the condition of each room we enter. I have them look over how I described the condition of each room and take their input on any flaws they see in my evaluation. I may then edit my evaluation accordingly. After that, I have them sign off on the paper and will go through a similar process when they move out.

Goodluck! I hope this helps.