Bought Property with Tenants, not given a property checklist

[Brian Hellenbrand]

So we bought a duplex that has tenants already living in with a lease agreement until July. They were friends of the old owners so I do not think there were a lot of the normal procedures done when they signed the lease. The lease is current and legal (done by an attorney from our state's Realtor association). There was not however, a move-in/move-out check list. So far they have been great tenants. As we get closer to signing a new lease I am getting nervous that if they decide to not renew it is going to be difficult to fault them for any damages to the property without that checklist. My concern is they have two black labs and I know that the carpet is going to need to be professionally cleaned or replaced (most likely the latter). Hopefully someone on here has similar experiences with this.

So my question is if they do not renew, how would I go about assessing damage and then putting them at fault and using their security deposit?

Or if they do renew, can you do a checklist or build in other things to the lease that will put them at fault (i.e. the carpet must be professionally cleaned and if deemed unusable their security deposit will be responsible for a certain % of replacement costs)

Thank You