Tenant leaves without notice and leaves garbage behind

[Jak Dadi]

We had a tenant who could not afford to pay his rent and so left the apartment without giving any notice. He had been living in the unit since 1984 and we acquired the place in August 2010. He left the apt totally filthy and left a lot of things for us to haul after him. It has been 45 days since he left the apt. I talked to him on the phone and indicated that he owes us one month's rent and cleaning and hauling charges. His deposit was $200 (back from 1984) and unfortunately we never had his deposit marked up in 2010. Can I still go after him for the rent and 400 in cleaning charges and 100 for hauling charges. Within how many days should I be sending the letter to him. How many days before i can send his account to collection?

[Jak Dadi]

Note the fourplex is in Bay Area.

[Jon Holdman]

Sure. You can go after him for the missing rent, trash removal, anything you had to do to get the place ready to rent and any repairs. Getting anything from him is a different story. Fix it up, clean it up and get it re-rented.

[Jak Dadi]

Thanks Jon. I was able to get the place fixed and turned around and should hopefully find tenants soon. But I still did not want to let this matter die down without an effort to collect something. I ended up spending $2000 to get this place turned around.

[Jak Dadi]

My big question is how many days i need to give him to pay before i send him to collection?

[Mitch Kronowit]

Being in "tenant-friendly" California, you need to follow the proper legal code or you could make this a lot worse than it is. I explained the process generally in another thread here on BP (I am not an attorney nor do I play one on TV).

Was this tenant renting month-to-month or was he under a fixed-term lease? How long after he supposedly moved out did you realize he was gone? Did he ever provide a written notice he was moving out (even after he actually did)?

It sounds like he simply abandoned the property which is covered under California Civil Code §1951.2. You are under certain legal obligations to notify him in writing and safeguard any personnel property he might have left behind for a certain amount of time (careful what you consider trash). Also, because you are in the rent-control happy Bay Area, make sure you're conducting everything in accordance with local ordinances.

Finally, I would go with what Jon said. Be happy he's gone, keep his security deposit (send the tenant a statement showing what your damages are and how that $200 is being applied), and get on with life.

[Jon Klaus]

27 years is one of the longest tenancies I've heard of on BP. How much per month was the rent in 1984 and how much now?

[Jeff S.]

See: http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/sec-deposit.shtml

Under California law, 21 calendar days or less after you move, your landlord must either:
• Send you a full refund of your security deposit, or
• Mail or personally deliver to you an itemized statement that lists the amounts of any deductions from your security deposit and the reasons for the deductions, together with a refund of any amounts not deducted.

If you did not do this Jak, you blew the statute and there’s little you can do anymore. In fact, it’s conceivable the tenant could go after you for his $200.

Better yet, since I suspect you’re new at landlording, you might consider the following books that you can check out from the library:
Landlording, 11th Edition: A Handymanual for Scrupulous Landlords and Landladies Who Do It Themselves
also
California Landlord's Law Book: Rights & Responsibilities

[Jak Dadi]

Thanks alll.

Jeff, you are right. I am new at landlording. Will definitely check out the publications. Thankfully I have a letter from him indicating that I should apply his deposit against the owed rent.Ah, I wish I knew about the 21 day rule. I guess I cannot go after him for the dues. I did talk to him over the phone but I guess that is not the same as a documented letter.
But lessons learnt for the future!!