?Seeking Advice

[Scorpio Johnson]

Our tenants who moved in in July, notified us in early November that they are moving because they bought a house. Shortly (very shortly) they moved out leaving the house in complete disarray. Per our lease, they are to pay for rent until we find another tenant, however we have not found one until now. It is middle of the winter and I don’t think we would be able to find a decent tenant until spring if not summer. Once kids are out of school I know the property will rent out quickly because the house is in a very good school district. They did make a payment for December and now they are refusing to pay up. They’ve also refused the claims made by our rental agency in regard to the extensive damages that they’ve made to the house.

They clearly knew that they were not renting for the long run: they signed the contract in early Aug and closed at the start of Oct. So they abused the house while they were there and now we are stuck with repairs and payments (until we rent out to the next family). They did not give us any time upfront to start marketing the property and attempted to push a lawyer on us because they felt that we were misrepresenting the damages. The lawyer backed off once they found out that everything was properly documented. What upsets me the most is that the husband is an executive at a local company, so they are not exactly hurting for money, but obviously he feels that he can do no wrong. Our property manager says that she will process the deposit towards January payment and will issue that to us, and that once we do find the next renters, she will put a claim with collectors in the amount they will owe. Is that all we can do? Is that the right course of action? Any advice is appreciated.