Tenant cleanliness (inside the home)

[Patrick Edelin]

Pardon the interruption but I wanted to pose a question to my BP brethren.  I've searched high and low for an answer but could only find related topics on maintaining the external presence of a property.  My wife and I rent out our 3-story townhouse and we have four post-grad female tenants and a property mgr handling the rental.  The unique part of the situation is that the property mgr uses my contractor as a servicer who happens to be my friend and he has recently sent me photos of certain living spaces that can best be summed up as NASTY (e.g. master bathroom tub looks like it hasn't been cleaned since the beginning of the lease six months ago, the bathroom sinks have caked on toothpaste and the toilets have incredibly dark rings, etc).  Is this something I should address this with my PM or should this be out-of-sight out-of-mind until judgment/security deposit day (my PM was able to secure double-security so we have about $7500).  Appreciate the insight.

[Jonathan Towell]

Generally, it hard to do much about people who live dirty. However, if they are doing things that damage the property (e.g. staining/ruining carpet, etc.) or creating health risks, you may be able to write a lease violation with a fine. For example, when our maintenance guys recently discovered dog urine on a tenant's carpet, we issued a $25 lease violation and required them to clean it up.

That said I don't know the laws in Virginia and your lease may or may not allow for such measures.