In all our rental agreements we have a provision that states an early termination will result in loss of security deposit plus two months rent. We recently had a tenant notify us he wished to terminate his lease early and was asking if we would work with him on the 2nd months rent. We agreed under few considerations. 1. Property be returned in broom condition 2. Able to rent property out and current tenant would be liable for lost rent for month. Ex: rent out on 15th current tenant pays for 1/2 month. 3. Be flexible and assist showing property to prospective tenants. We were able to get the property rented so the tenant was only liable for 1 of the 2 months rent. When we went to the property to do the walkthrough and move out check list the tenant was not there. I called him, he sent me to vm and text back saying keys, and garage door openers on the counter. Upon inspecting the property we noticed multiple personal effects left behind, items still on the walls, multiple nail holes not filled in, a couple window fixtures still in place. To get the property adequately cleaned it took approximately 4-5 hours. We hauled away 4 jumbo trash bags of the tenants items, mostly hangers. The tenant did have a small dog which he paid a pet deposit for, however after getting the carpets professionally cleaned the animal smell still persists, and we had to have the carpet re cleaned. We have a provision in the lease that each hour for cleaning etc will be billed @ $55 an hour. This has been a great experience and moving forward we will charge the full amount 2 months rent for termination of the lease and return the portion of the security deposit that isn’t used to replace tenant damaged items. Do I send him a bill for the time invested in cleaning the property plus the cost of the carpet cleaning, or just scratch this as a learning experience?

Ryan Spath

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