How to deal with Tenant wear and tear?

[Shayne Fee]

This Tuesday I have a 1 year walk through with a Tenant of mine. She lives in a nice SFH with some of her friends and has been a great tenant in terms of paying the rent right on time and dealing with a couple minor maintenance issues. Her rate is near the top of the market.

My issue is they haven't taken good care of the house. Moldings have been ripped off the brand new hardwood laminate, they got a second dog without asking after I said OK to one and the backyard grass (which was a nice green lawn) is now mostly dirt and dog poop. 

There are other wear and tear issues as well but my main question is, how would you deal with this? This is a nice house (rents for $4500/month) and I want to make sure it is taken care of. 

Can anyone suggest effective strategies for dealing with tenant wear and tear or a good approach to take during our walk through on Tuesday?

Thanks so much for any help!

[Jim Y.]

Can you work out an agreement to do (and charge for) repairs during the lease to avoid relying on the damage deposit at the end? A high rent tenant may be more likely to pay for repairs during their lease if they have a large deposit they expect to get back.

At the same time, don't worry about lawn maintenance while dogs live there. Do it after move out. Otherwise, the tenant may move the dogs indoors to avoid re-damaging the lawn, which would be far worse.