5 Tenants. 1 Lease. Only 2 Clean for Move Out

[Morgan Porter]

I have a single family house that I rent to students. It’s always one group lease. I never rent by the room. I just had 5 girls in the house for 1 year and the lease was up. I was contacted by 2 of the 5 claiming the other 3 took off and left the house a mess. I told them I don’t get involved in that, they need to talk to their “friends” and that I’d see them at the move out inspection.

I sent a text message to all 5 that everyone is expected to clean the house and to refer to the move in/out guidelines. They all received the guidelines when they moved in and I sent them again a month before the move-out date. They know what is required.

I arrived at the move out inspection expecting a mess but the 2 girls were there to meet me with a clean house. A few minor things needed to be addressed but otherwise there will not be many deductions from the deposit.

They even split the deposit so I should return the refund evenly but I feel bad that 2 of the 5 cleaned the house in detail for 2 solid days. I have photos from the 2 clean roommates of how nasty things were when they started cleaning.

I have one message from one of the 3 “dirty” roommates but the other 2 never replied. They didn’t bother to show up for the move out inspection and didn’t even bother to turn in their keys.

I know I should stay out of it and distribute their refund evenly but I feel like I have the evidence I need to charge a “cleaning fee” and pay that out to the 2 clean roommates and give the smaller remaining amount to the other 3.

Thoughts?

[Morgan Porter]

@Eric C. Good advice. Maybe a gift card or something would be a nice thing to do. I’ve also decided that this story will be told to anyone calling for tenant references. Not sure that would keep them from getting a new place but it won’t help!