Tenants Abandoned House

[Angela Hansen]

Good evening BP,

I currently rent out and manage one property. My tenants are due to move out on May 1, 2016. They did their part of informing me with written notice (they are military and fell on orders to move) and we came to an agreement on paper that they will pay April's rent in full and have a scheduled walk thru to ensure the house is in good condition before I would mail them a check for their deposit money. Well they paid me $400 of the $1100 that was due (and it was two days late), and now I can't get ahold of them. I went over to the house and it is empty. The house looks good, carpets professionally cleaned and all, just a pretty large hole in one wall from moving furniture I am assuming. They also left huge holes from hanging TV's on walls.

Since I cannot get ahold of them and they didn't keep their end of the contract, am I entitled to their deposit money? I actually need it to pay the mortgage on the home since they failed to pay the full rent amount for the month. Has this type of situation happened to anyone else? How did you handle it?

[David Hines]

Also, if a tenant failing to pay rent puts you in the situation that you can't make a mortgage payment, you may be in the wrong line of work. Having an adequate reserve amount of savings is necessary for situations like this as well as being prepared for unexpected repairs.