I sent a notice of lease termination to my tenant. The tenant left before the end of the notice period. Do I have the right to do renovation in the property and place a new tenant or do I still have to wait until the end of the notice period ? The property is in GA if that helps.
If you place a new tenant early, you need to return the prorated portion the former tenant paid for the time the new tenant is in residence. If they are definitely out you can start prepping the unit. If you are not certain they are out, follow your state/local laws about giving notice about going in for repairs (COVID 19 has caused some locations to restrict going in for maintenance to the basic health and safety issues)
Thanks Kathy. They are definitely out: they sent a text message upon departure. My property manager claims that we had no legal rights to access the property before the end of the lease, which I found bizarre: that would mean that if your lease still had, say 5 years to go, then you could not re-rent it during that whole period... I found that to be very unlikely.
That just gives you additional time to start prepping for the next tenant. But Roland is probably right, depending on your local laws, that if you fill it right away you may need to refund prorated rent to the one who left. I prefer to take advantage of that time with extra repairs and get the marketing