How to handle damage from a previous existing tenant?

[Jay R.]

I recently purchased a property that had tenants in their. I'm wondering how do you handle clean up costs and damages from a tenant. Example. The screen door was broken and they did not clean the kitchen, carpets, etc. when they left. Is there anyway that I can justify taking these damages out of their security deposit. My biggest fear is them mentioning that the damages were there when they started the original lease with the previous landlord.