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

[Marcia Maynard]

We bought an 8-plex several years back and there were no move-in check lists and in some cases no security deposits or inadequate security deposits. We did an inspection and filled out a "property condition report" at that time with the help of each tenant. We asked the tenants about the condition at move-in and surprisingly most were open and honest about it. We then made an additional note as to what they told us and added it to the report. Tenant signed the report. That is what we used to base our return/keeping of security deposits or charges for damages at move-out. We do periodic inspections and charge for damages as soon as we discover them, so it reduces issues arising at move-out.