Tenant lease expired January 18, 2024, tenant has taken down our living room blinds

[Marie Larcom]

We have a tenant that has been very difficult to deal with. When we contact him he just does not answer most of my text messages and calls. His lease ended on January 31, 2024 and he is now on the month to month from the original lease. I had given him notice that we were going to have a company conduct a property inspection on the property and he stated to me that he will allow a company to come in and inspect the property. When the company arrived he would not allow the inspector into the master bedroom or the master bathroom. He told the inspector that his wife was a sleep in the bedroom. He knew when the inspection was going to take place and he agreed. I told him that by law he has to allow us in to inspect our property. When I spoke to him on the phone after the inspection was completed he was very angry and spoke in a loud tone. The inspection revealed that he had taken down on living room blinds, bedroom valance to the blind. He had put pictures on the walls with nails and put a shelf/rack in the master bathroom which put holes in our walls. In the lease agreement it states that he is not allowed to alter or remove and thing on our property. It states he is not allowed to put up and hang drapes in any room.  The lease states he is not allowed to put nails in the walls or place holes in the walls to hang anything from our walls. He violated our lease agreement. I asked him why he took our blinds down and he stated he still has the blinds. I asked him to take a picture of the blinds and send it to me to show me where they are  and where they are stored. He will not send me a picture or answer my calls not. These blinds are light beige cloth vertical blinds. He apparenlty is lying to us and he apparently has ruined them. I do not like this individual and I think it is time for him to vacate the property. My husband stated do not let the blinds be a deal breaker since we are reciving $1,500 for the rent. Our property is nice and I am worried that he is angry and might do more damage to our home. I sent him a lease extension agreement and in the lease extension agreement it states that we are increasing the rent to $1,650 per month and we are requesting another $3,000 for escrow for a deposit to stay in month to month. He will not answer my text message regarding this matter and he did not answer my phone call. Three different times he was late on rent by two weeks and we never charged him a late fee. 

He is from the middle east and I assume he does not like us since we are of German descent. He definitely does not like a woman telling him what to do when it comes to our property. He is rude and I do not trust him, because I believe he is lying to us about our blinds. We live in Dallas and the property is in Millington, TN.

I really want him to get out and my husband stated what if we can not find another tenant to rent our property for $1,650 or $1,500.

Our home is in very good condition and it has 3 bedrooms and has two bathrooms.

What would you do if this happened to your property and how would you handle it?