House Paintings gone. Can I charge the deposit?

[Juan Abraham]

Hello everyone!

   I recently rented an unfurnished house for a couple of years and left a couple of paintings hanging in the wall. 

   After the renters returned the house I found out that they had thrown the paintings away!

   Can I keep the deposit over this? Is it legal?

[Beth L.]

@Juan Abraham If you specified in the lease that these paintings were provided in the rental and will need to be returned at termination of the lease, then yes. Otherwise they probably just thought they were a gift, or something left behind and did with them as they pleased.

[Richard C.]

Paintings hanging on a wall are not a fixture, they are personal property.  The answer to any legal question asked here is, "Check with a local attorney."  But in this case I can pretty confidently predict that if you end up in front of a magistrate over this, you'll get murdered.

[Tyson Luthy]

They should have been removed before the property was ever rented. They're gone now, time to move on....

Make sure any items you want are removed. It is unrealistic to track and hold tenants accountable for items like that.

[James DeRoest]

We're they in the lease? Did you check the items in on move in? 

If you answer no to both the questions, consider them part of your glorious history as a landlord.