Previous Tenants damaged rental, blocked Landlord - Please advise

[Melissa Faraias]

Hello BP community,

I am a relatively new landlord, who has a few out of state rentals in South Carolina that were managed by a friend and his property management company. I recently took over the management of the rentals and a couple of months later the tenants in one of my units decided to move out. They were two young women who always paid their rent on time and seemed very responsible. As a result we were not expecting to see what we saw when we went to get the unit ready for the next tenants. The unit was completely dirty, damaged and looked like a fixer upper. I guess they did not clean the unit for over 3 years and did not call the old property management company when things started to break.  We got several quotes for cleaning and repairs, which added up to almost $4000 beyond normal wear and tear. We decided to keep their entire deposit of $2000 and bill them the rest. We sent them the photos and videos to back up the invoice and they have decided to block our emails and calls. What do you suggest we do in such a situation? To be honest, I think we may just need to bear the costs and learn from this and do regular unit checks going forward (which was not done by the previous property management company).  However I would hate for them to do this to their current landlord, who did not even call us for a previous landlord reference. Should we call up their current landlord to warn them about these renters? Can we do something else to scare them a bit so that they never do this again? Thank you for any advice you can give. 

[Bruce Woodruff]

I do not agree with those saying "just move on", and here's why: they will undoubtedly do this again, and we, as landlords, owe it to our fellow LLs to help each other.

Although you may very well never collect the money owed you (But you also may get at least some, read on to see why)....there is another bigger reason to go through the Small Claims process. Once you win in SC Court and have your Judgement, then you take the next step and Record that Judgement. 

Now they are screwed - every time they fill out an application, for their next rental, to buy anything on credit (like a car) or buying a house...this Judgement will pop up and they will be denied. Imagine never being able to buy anything again! This is why some people will then offer you the money, or some of it, for you to release the Judgement.

But even if you see zero money, you will have put the screws to these ladies. You will have essentially ruined their lives and prevented them from ever doing this again to another innocent Landlord. IMHO, you owe this to our community. And you will feel good about it....

Also, as said above, you gotta do regular inspections!