How to recoup damage from tenants

[Dennis Lau]

I had my home as a rental property to one family 5 years. Once their lease was up, i did not renew them and had them move out. The problem is that upon them moving out, they left quite a few damages to the home. I,e all kitchen tile missing, stove missing, various damages around the home. The property management company ended up using all their deposit, but I had to pay an extra 1500 to get the remaining repairs completed. So now, I would like to get that money back. What is the process exactly? The property management company said that since I'm no longer renting my house out through them, they can't act on my behalf, so now I'm on my own. Do I take the tenants to court? If so, how does that work? Is 1500 too little to fight over? Also, I live out of state if that matters

[Randy E.]

Five years of paid tenancy resulting in $1500 of damage works out to $300/year.  I don't know what the monthly rent was, but assuming $750/month, that works out to two months rent.  

I say that to lead into a point about turnover costs.  Let's say that first tenant moved out after 18 months, which led you to one month without tenants while your management company searched for tenants and then you paid the management company one month's rent to find a new tenant.  Then two years later, the second tenant moved out and you had another vacant month followed by paying the management company another month's rent for a finder's fee.  In that scenario, you would have been out of 4 month's rent payments over that same 5 years.

So, having one tenant for five years and ending up with $1500 damage/wear and tear doesn't sound like the worst thing to me.  I know it is frustrating from a principal of the matter standpoint, but from a business perspective it really isn't that bad.  Hopefully, after five years of steady rent collecting, you have enough money saved to quickly repair the house so you can rent it out ASAP and start making money again.

Good luck.