Move out checklist disaster, help !

[Martha Daisley]

Hi guys,

I need your advise. I have a tenant thats out of the country in Iraq. He gave me 30 day notice via email that he was non-renewing the lease. I accepted his non-renewal. He never came back into the country so I ended up doing  the move out walkthrough and move out checklist with his adult children and his son signed off.  The children are listed as occupants on the lease but only the dad is the primary on the lease as he originally signed it.

Now he is upset because he will not be getting his deposit back as there is extensive repainting/repairs that need to be done that go above and beyond the deposit. He is saying it wasnt acceptable to have his son sign and is threatening to "go to the authorities". Im not sure what else i could have done since he was not in the country and someone had to be present and sign.  He is now also claiming his wife is getting seen for health issues due to mold in one of rooms. When they  first complained about it, i sent my handyman over on two occassions to treat the issue and they didnt say anything more about it until now. He obviously wants to retaliate because hes not getting his deposit back. Im getting a professional mold inspection done next week to cover myself.

My question is: Is it a problem that i had his adult son sign the moveout checklist since he(the dad) was out of the country at the time of moveout?  #2. I know you are supposed to send a certified letter with intent to keep the deposit. I dont have an address for him in Iraq and im not even sure how that would work so i emailed him the letter instead and im sending it certified mail to his adult son and daughters new address tomorrow.  Is that enough or do i have to still send the certified letter to Iraq? I doubt he will give me his address there at this point.

Thanks!

Martha

[Gail K.]

First understand where you send the letter regarding the security deposit information in Florida:

Landlord tenant law in the state of Florida is very clear There are specific steps and requirements that a landlord must meet regarding security deposits. If the landlord does not follow the exact letter of the law then their right to withhold ANY of your deposit money is forfeited completely. In this case Tenant laws in the State of Florida force the landlord to return 100% of your security deposit.

Florida in a nutshell - Upon the vacating of the premises for termination of the lease, if the landlord does not intend to impose a claim on the security deposit, the landlord shall have 15 days to return the security deposit together with interest if otherwise required, or the landlord shall have 30 days to give the tenant written notice by certified mail to the tenant’s last known mailing address of his or her intention to impose a claim on the deposit and the reason for imposing the claim.

This is a notice of my intention to impose a claim for damages in the amount of upon your security deposit, due to . It is sent to you as required by s. 83.49(3), Florida Statutes. You are hereby notified that you must object in writing to this deduction from your security deposit within 15 days from the time you receive this notice or I will be authorized to deduct my claim from your security deposit. Your objection must be sent to (landlord’s address) If the landlord fails to give the required notice within the 30-day period, he or she forfeits the right to impose a claim upon the security deposit.

The last known mailing address is your rental property.

Second...the fact that his adult son was present to at the walk through means diddly.   Walk throughs are often jokes anyway; each state gives a landlord a certain amount of time to review a rental property for damages above normal wear and tear and it's not unusual that additional damage may be found after the walk through.  In other words, the walk through is NOT the final end all to finding damage.

What's important is that you have accurate pictures of the damages you claim are above normal wear and tear.   It's doubtful that this guy is going to "go to the authorities" since he isn't even in this country but it's always good to have evidence to justify your reason for keeping a security deposit for damages should you need this information in the future.

Finally, don't worry so much about this nonsense mold claim.  The "deadly" mold ship sailed long ago.  Your tenants reported an issue, you sent a handyman over to address it; there were no further complaints.  If you send over a so called professional mold inspector they are likely to find mold because...guess what...mold is everywhere.   Instead keep the documentation that you addressed this repair issue, again, if needed sometime down the road.

Gail