Stinky tenants when showing unit

[Ken D.]

I've got a problem with a group of tenants who haven't been willing to keep their unit even remotely clean during showings for the last four weeks. They've got three cats and two litter boxes, and the entire unit stinks of litter -- they've also got food and dishes everywhere, and huge piles of dirty clothes everywhere.

This is a nice, fairly high-end apartment in a not-so-great area, it should stand out as being nicer than the surrounding apartments. Before showing the unit to potential tenants, I've started having to warn them about the smell and have made promises that a professional cleaning crew will be in the unit during the flip period to make sure that the smell is removed.

The unit is a major turnoff to everyone who sees it. Very few people are able to look past its current condition, and I'm sure everyone is worried about committing to an apartment with the risk that the smell will linger. I'd be willing to offer them an escape clause in the lease, or just start off month-to-month, but I haven't been able to get anyone interested enough to even get to that point. I've impressed upon the tenants that they need to improve the condition of their unit, and they've made some modest efforts, but the situation is far from acceptable.

I need to have this unit filled in 10 days and I only have one applicant who really doesn't meet the financial criteria I would prefer. I consider them a big risk, and I think the condition of the apartment has forced me to accept them when I otherwise could have been able to get a much higher quality tenant.

QUESTION: Other than damages for cleaning the unit after they move out, can I deduct damages for the condition of the apartment during the showing period? Will this hold up in court? If I failed to find a tenant, I could see claiming one months rent in damages, but if I accept a lower-quality tenant, this seems hard to quantify or justify. Although I've talked to the tenants a few times about cleaning up, I haven't sent them any formal letters or threatened to take money from their deposit for the state of the apartment during the showing period, which I feel like would be important documentation if they protested my damage assessment in court. Thoughts? Should I add conditions in my lease saying what the expectations are during the showing period? Can I have language in the lease saying that there are basic expectations of cleanliness even apart from the showing period?

I'm in Minnesota.

[Steve Babiak]

Originally posted by Ken Durden:

... I realize it's not always possible, but my financial model, admittedly, does not have enough room for vacancy in it.
...
Worst case, for now, I get some tenants in there who don't have the best rent/income ratio (2X).

Wow, only 2X rent for income, and you can't afford to have vacancy - do you think you can afford to have tenants who can't afford to pay? That's usually how renting to a tenant with income of 2X rent plays out. How long can you afford to hold out while evicting a non-paying tenant?

Sometimes it is better to have a unit stay vacant than to have an unqualified tenant. This sure seems like one of those ...