Who pays for negligence in the house?

[Briana Bean]

In our contract, we state that tenants are responsible for any damages they cause including ones out of negligence. We also go on to list different examples of negligence such as clogged drains due to improperly disposing of materials such as grease, sanitary napkins, ect AND changing furnace filters, batteries. Our current tenants have clogged the pipes once due to grease. We forgave that one. Now, they did not change the furnace filters resulting in an after hours HVAC call due to the furnace not working for being clogged. What is your thoughts on how to handle these types of situations. We have never had to force a tenant to pay for damages caused (thankfully), but how do you go about it? Or do you not because the problem is so small and not worth the future problems it could cause? I'm wondering if we should even right in that they are responsible for changing the filter, because more than likely they may do it wrong resulting in further damage. 

[Michael Peters]

@Jarod Castaneda I'd be wary of waiting until move out to charge there deposit when the tenant is only at 6 months.  Doesn't take too many tenant damages to exceed and deposit and once the tenant is out collecting any unpaid bills is far more difficult then when they are still living in the property.  Just my 2 cents.  

For the tenants excuse with the quarter I would have referenced the property condition catalog and their signature.  All of our tenants review the catalog and sign before we hand over keys.  They have 3 days to report any issues not already accounted for.  We have 3-400 pictures of each property as well.  If the garbage disposal worked when you moved them in and they didn't mention it in the 3 days it would be their responsibility.