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Updated over 6 years ago on . Most recent reply

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87
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42
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Casandra M.
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Janesville, WI
42
Votes |
87
Posts

Is it legal to terminate lease due to depleted Security Deposit?

Casandra M.
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Janesville, WI
Posted

My husband and I are considering accepting Section 8 again at  a few select properties. We originally decided to no longer accept Section 8 because of damage at properties that we purchased with Section 8 tenants inherited from the previous owners. 

We feel confident that once we apply our own screening criteria, we could find decent section 8 tenants, however, I am questioning, as a safe guard, if it's legal to give a tenant a notice of terminating a lease if the tenant has caused enough damage or incurred enough fees to deplete their security deposit.

For a prior experience example, our last Section 8 tenant (the "final straw" tenant) had a $650 security deposit and at one point, had the front door kicked in, breaking  the door, both locks, and breaking the surrounding plaster (not due to a home invasion). We put in a new door and replaced the plaster with dry wall, just to find out later that there are now imprinted knuckle punches in the brand new door (ouch!), broken sections of the new dry wall, the garage man door was also kicked in, and the tenant also still owed a $50 late fee on rent. At the point of the repair for damages reaching the $650 security deposit limit, would it have been legal to give the tenant a 30 day notice to leave the property due to excessive damages? 

If yes, take this example: What if there is an $800 security deposit, and the tenant gets enough late rent fees, or fees in other ways pertinent to the lease addendums, that they reach the $800? Granted, this is an extreme example, but if it's just from fees and not actual damages, would it still be legal (assuming the fees are legal to take from the security deposit, as stated in our current addendum)?

Any thoughts or ideas on this would be great, especially from any members in Wisconsin!

Most Popular Reply

User Stats

953
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908
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Peter M.
  • Rental Property Investor
  • DFW, TX
908
Votes |
953
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Peter M.
  • Rental Property Investor
  • DFW, TX
Replied

I am not familiar with WI section 8 laws but from a simply contractual standpoint there is no problem with something like this. How I would address this would be to bill back the tenant for damages. The lease would have a provision that says the tenant is responsible for any repairs not caused by normal wear and tear. After you do the repair, the tenant gets the bill. If he doesn't pay you should be able to evict him for breach of contract. My lease states that monies paid are first put towards outstanding fees, then rent. If they just paid the normal amount, it would not be enough to cover the rent and I have grounds to evict for non-payment of rent. Now is this feasible with Section 8 in WI? I am not sure but I wouldn't dip into the security deposit until the tenant is out. Even landlord friendly states usually have pretty severe penalties for misappropriating the security deposit. 

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