Pet deposit to cover damages

[Steve Tom]

So since my previous post, the tenants have moved out.

At the end, I guess I was being careless during the last day they were at the rental. Instead of focus on the walk through, he spent much time asking me questions and we just.. talked. Because it was the last day of the lease, he still had not finished fixing/touching up the house - wall, trim.. etc. He told me he had the paint and a brush, but there wasn't time to do it as it was the last day. Ok, fine. I told him i will do the touch up.

Bad move.

My wife was there and she noticed that after they had hired cleaners, the house was still not clean. There were cobwebs and dust on many surface, but they had the invoice from the cleaning company. So I asked and he told me his wife will clean up. They broke one of the Roman Shade, but supposedly had someone fixed it. We trusted them and didn't checked.

Since I worked at night, and it was already 3pm, we chatted some more. And i told him since there was only the $200 of pet deposit left, I will take money off it. We agreed that the new paint for the trim could be $20, for now, and I might deduct more if I needed.

We left and returned two days later. There were still dust and cobwebs; the Roman shade they had fixed was left on the kitchen island. Wife put it up but it wasn't functional.. it was because they just glued the back of the shade with one big sheet of fabric. Therefore, the cord and loop won't work. Basically it became useless and we had to replace it.

As we slowly walked through the house, there were a lot of spots and placed that need patch and paint over, not just touch up. So we had to buy two more different color of paints and more brushes, painters tapes.. etc.

All added up to $160.

Thats all right? Nope. We opened the fridge and discovered two of the shelves were cracked. Replacements costed $38.

We spent the next two days cleaning and patching up the house.. Initially i was going to hire a cleaner, but looking back I am glad I didn't.

On the fourth day, we realized we need to check the AC unit because we are in Texas.

We turned on the AC and let it run. After a few hours it wasn't cooling much, so I went into the garage and check the unit... holy moly, there was water leaking out of the HVAC unit. I turned it off and try to pull the filter out. The filter was literally disintegrating in my hands because it got so wet. Afterward I got a good look, the filter was so clogged and dirty, the air was not moving through it. (Also I think they have never pour vinegar into the drain pipe to clean it at all, so the pipe was clogged as well. As the result, coil froze and the pipe couldn't drain and water leaked.)

Costed me $50 to rent a dehumidifier, all day to clean and mop, and then $50 for HVAC tech to check the system.

I called and told him what happened, he insisted he had changed the filter regualrly and did so just two months ago. And that he is an honorable person and wouldn't leave the house in bad shape, and that he wasn't responsible for the broke old Roman Shade, or al of the stuffs we had to patched and painted because we did the walk through already.

I spent $300+, not including cleaning supplies, on the house after the tenants moved out.

Since we did the walk through before all these, I am not sure if I can even take more money out of the $200 pet deposit.

Lesson learned.