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Updated over 7 years ago,
Move Out Inspection Advice Needed
We have a tenant who is moving out at the end of the month. Long story short, they have been very high maintenance since they moved in 8 months ago. They have borderline harassed contractors we have sent to the house (pool service, landscaper, etc.) and we have caught them in several lies (verified). The big one we unfortunately found out about after they moved in was that they broke their previous lease agreement even though they wrote on their rental application with us that they had never broken a lease. Yes, we should have known this before they moved in and yes, we should have done a better job screening them but that's all water under the bridge now.
They were supposed to stay until next May, but with the way they were treating us and all of our contractors we were really not wanting them to stay that long. We emailed them and gave them the option of getting out of the lease early without penalty and luckily they took it. In their email accepting that offer they stated that they want to be present for the move out inspection as they expect to get a full refund of their security deposit. We have no problem letting them be there for the inspection if they wish, but just wondering how to best approach the situation since we have a tenuous relationship and there isn't much trust from either side. We don't want to feel rushed with them being there. We have the feeling they may ask us to sign something on the spot guaranteeing a full refund, but we don't want to do that (unless we are obligated to, which we aren't sure about yet).
What is the best way to handle the inspection to ensure there isn't any hidden damage that we wouldn't uncover on a visual inspection? Do people sometimes hire a handyman or other professional to check everything out? I should add that this is our first time being landlords (obviously due to the mistakes we made up front!), so we don't have any experience with this yet. Thanks for any tips!