Tenants Want To Use Their 2 Mos Deposit To Pay Last 2 Mos Rents

[Masta Purba]

Hello, this is my first post eventhough I am always actively following and reading Biggerpockets. I have a question regarding a rental property I currently own in Miami, FL.  I am a long distance landlord and I live in TX.  I currently have a tenant who is renting the property.  They have been renting the property for 4 years now.  They are good tenants and always paid their rent on time (even long before the due dates).  I recently flew to Miami and stopped by at the house to do some repairs. I saw the house was cleaned and well maintained.  

Recently, 2 months before their lease ends, they told me that they won't extend the lease because they wanted to move to another city for a job. They mentioned that since I already saw how good they took care of the house and what a good tenant they have been (never late in rent payment for 4 years, cleaned the house very well, repaired little things that needed to be repaired by themselves without bothering me), they wanted to use their 2 months security deposits that I held to pay for their last 2 months of rent (March and April). They promised me that they would take care of the house and leave the house as the way I saw them when I was there recently.

I thanked them for being a good tenant, but I told them that they couldn't use their 2 months security deposits for paying the last 2 months rents and they needed to continue to pay the rents.  However, they didn't accept my explanation and got irritated because it seemed that I didn't 'trust' them, by the way I have a good relationship with them.  I explained again to them that as per lease agreement, I needed to hold the 2 months security deposit until they move out.  They didn't response to my explanation, I believe because they were upset.  After thinking it through, I finally came to a decision to give them their 1 month security deposit to pay for their 1 month rent.  So, I sent them an email saying that they could use their 1 month security deposit to pay for their 1 month rent but they have to pay for the other month rent.  They never responded to my email, I think because they still wanted me to give them their 2 months security deposit to pay for their last 2 months rent.  Now, they didn't respond to any of my correspondences if I talked about rent payment.

They were supposed to pay for this month rent (March) but they didn't, so I took the 1 month security deposit and applied it to this month rent as I promised to them.  Now, I am confused.  If they didn't pay the next month rent, which I believe they won't, should I give them a 3 day notice and evict them?  I don't really want to do an eviction process because it will cause me time and money and also there will be a risk of them destroying the house if I evict them.  I really want to work something out with them, but they didn't want to respond to me regarding rent payment.  The funny thing is when I told them I wanted to sell the house and the RE agent might need to look at the property to take some pictures, they responded and they told me to let them know ahead of time so they could prepare the house at its best for the picture taking.

So, I am not sure what I should do.  Does anyone here have a similar experience?

Comments and input would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Masta

Irving, Texas