Inherited Lease, No Move-In Form Available

[John Dehn]

I purchased a 6bd student rental 18 months ago with renters in-place. 2 of the 6 residents have lived there 3 years with the others living there 1-2 years. Prior to that, one of the 3-year residents had the property passed to him from his older brother. For the last 5ish years, there was at least one rollover tenant year-to-year.

The tenants fully moved out this year and are sending me messages demanding their full security deposit back because they’ve been great tenants and always paid their rent on time. I just got the maintenance and repair bills back from my property manager (who I hired approximately 8 months ago because I’m out of town) and the turnover costs were approximately $8k ($3k patch & paint, $900 for a new fridge because lots of interior parts were broken, $900 for deep cleans, door repair, labor, etc). When I bought the house, I noticed significant drywall patches that were unpainted but overall the house was in decent condition. 

My question is this - if the previous landlord never did a move-in form and the tenancy has been passed down through a fraternity for 5+ years, what’s my obligation to prove the damages occurred during this current group’s tenancy? My lease states a move-in form was provided to the tenants and was required to be returned within 7 days for otherwise everything is assumed to be in good working order. The previous landlord was unable to find a move-in form.

When I was in college, I just assumed my deposit was gone the day I moved in even if I took great care of the house. Worst case scenario is I get sued and have to pay twice the deposit back in damages via small claims court.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @John Dehn:

You are wrong.

Technically, you accepted the property in it's current condition when you bought it. You should have inspected it and identified issues during that time, then negotiated with the Seller for repairs. For example, you could have identified the broken fridge parts and requested they be replaced or a new fridge purchased, or the Seller could have told you it's been that way for ten years and you'll have to accept it "as is".

Second, you can't charge tenants full price for a brand new fridge. You need evidence they caused the damage (you have none) and then you can only charge a depreciated amount. They lived there for five years. Even if the fridge were brand new when they moved in, it's depreciated for the last five years and is probably worth $400 or less. And I'll bet dollars to bagels it's older than five years.

Unless you have evidence the damages took place after purchase, I don't think you can justify the charges. I would also argue that they couldn't have been very bad tenants if they were allowed to stay there for five years.