My tenant is becoming a serious hoarder, lease has 4 more months

[Jon Burns]

I've bought a couple hoarder homes in the past, they were the types of homes that rewarded you with experience.  It's one thing when I am buying a house in that condition, because I am thinking of the the pot of gold at the end.  After witnessing the explosion of stuff rapidly accumulating in my house, I am not too thrilled.  Let's face it, a tenant security deposit is not going to cover that damage.   After discussing the situation and our strategy with my wife I thought might be interesting to see how other people might handle the situation.

So......how do you handle the tenant.

1) How do you talk to the tenant about getting things cleaned up.

2) What proactive strategies have worked for someone to get the property cleaned up prior to the end of their lease?

3) And if they do get the property cleaned up, would you renew the lease?

Tenant Info:

Tenant has only paid late one time in eight months, and contacted me prior to being late.  Tenant does notify us of any possible repairs in a timely fashion.  On the other hand,  tenant also changed the locks with out my permission, which I immediately changed back.  Tenant also locked one of the bedrooms, because it is stuffed (which we photographed on a previous visit) This increase in clutter started about 3 months ago, and it has increased substantially in the past 2 months.  There is also increased damage to the floors and walls.  And finally, there is a certain level filth that makes you wonder if anybody is aware of how to work a broom.

[Greg H.]

These type of posts seem to be on BP weekly.  To the people that advocate evicting, exactly what would you evict for ? In Texas, which is one of the most landlord friendly states, it is very very difficult to evict for anything other than non-payment of rent and holdover.  I would actually say EXTREMELY DIFFICULT.  If you do go down this route, you must start with a notice of violation and provide a reasonable opportunity to cure.  Most courts will rule that 3 days is not sufficient and 30 is more reasonable.  So, if you gave 30 days to cure and then began the eviction process you are looking at +-2 months.  

With the lease ending in 4 months, you are looking at 2 months in "savings".  With all the costs and aggravation of going through the eviction process I would just give the tenant a notice of non renewal with plenty of notice and move on