Tenant moved out- owes rent / oil bill & left garage everywhere!

[Michael Hague]

Hello, 

we had a tenant move out that we inherited with the building. We are owed approximately $2,300.00 in back rent and heating oil bills. 

We gave a demand for rent & eviction notice about 15 days ago, but they’re already moved out. 

Yesterday on 7/6/24 was their final day as they let us know the property was vacated. Upon arrival we had to cleanup two dump truck loads of garage that they left behind in the apartment and basement. 

What would be the best way to approach this situation to recover the money owed? 

Also, since we did the clean out ourselves can I charge market prices for a clean out?

Thank you so much!

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Michael Hague:

Let me add to what Theresa said. You can charge whatever you want, including your time. You can even charge $1,000 an hour for your time. However, if you end up in front of a judge, the judge will not compensate you for your time and you may even get in trouble if it looks like you are trying to take advantage of the tenant. 

Best practice: hire professionals to handle all the work. This gives you an objective third party as a witness and it ensures the charges stand up in court.

What you experienced is very common in real estate investing. The first thing you need to do is learn how to handle it like a business and not take it as a personal attack. The second thing to do is see where you made mistakes and figure out how to avoid them again. Did you inspect the property regularly to prevent things from getting out of hand? When you found violations, did you document them in writing, give the tenant a deadline for correction, inspect to verify compliance, and use consequences for continued violations?

They are gone. Count your blessings because I've seen new owners lose over $10,000 with an inherited tenant. Focus on turning the unit around and placing a good renter at market rate. Once you have all the evidence gathered, submit the tenant to collections and maybe you'll get some of it back, but don't count on it. At a minimum you can have the satisfaction of knowing that the collection action will sit on their credit report for many years to come and may prevent them from harming another landlord.