Tenant trashed my home

[Sabuj Sengupta]

I had rented out my home in NJ in September 2014. The tenant signed a 1 year contract and paid a 1 and half month deposit. In June 2015 he said he will be vacating the premises and in 7 days time he said that he will stay on for another year. I sent him a new contract but he never signed the same. Since I was out of the country I could not visit him and ask him to sign. He just did not respond to my mails/calls regarding the same. But if there were any issues, he was prompt to text/call and I have taken care of everything. I let it go in good faith. He has never been late in rent payment.

The contract would have ended on August 31 2016. He sent me a text on the last week of July stating that he will be vacating the premises on August 7 and I should deduct pro rated rent from the advance. He also said that he does not have time to clean the house as he is in a hurry but I can have it professionally cleaned and deduct from his advance.

After he handed me over the keys, multiple things were in a disarray. The carpet is so dirty and stained that I cannot stay there with my 6 month old. He broke some of the kitchen cabinets. There were nails and holes all over the walls.

Could you please tell me what are my options. Can I get the repairs done and the carpet changed and charge him on his deposit? Can I ask him to pay the rent in full for August?

[Joe Splitrock]

@Sabuj Sengupta I would take detailed photos of the carpet both before and after cleaning. If you end up having to replace the carpet, you can bill some of the expense to your tenant. You will want to be able to prove they caused the damage, so hopefully they signed something when the moved in noting the condition of the carpet. The risk is that they could claim the stains were there before they moved in. The other thing to be careful on is that you cannot charge someone for more than the useful remaining life. For example if the carpet was 5 years old when they moved in and the useful life of the carpet is 10 years, then only 3 years of life are remaining on the carpet. So you could charge them for 3/10 of the carpet replacement cost, which is 30%. 

Useful life is subjective unless it is mandated by state law. I am using 10 years in the example, but in some states it could be 5-7 years. Bottom line is you cannot charge 100% of the carpet cost because some portion of the life has been consumed. Whatever you determine is fair, just be prepared to defend your argument in court. Telling a judge you think carpet should last 30 years would not be reasonable in a rental house. I believe 5-10 years for a rental house is reasonable. Federal tax depreciation is 5 years, so that would be the minimum life span you could logically argue. 

You would be surprised what a good carpet cleaning will recover, so hopefully it cleans up nicely for you!