Tenant unreachable after moving out

[Daniel K.]

Here in Ohio, I recently closed on a rented SFH with a tenant that ended their lease 1 day after I got keys. I owned the property for 2 days under their lease. It's time to follow up with the security deposit so I need to contact the lessee to see where to send mail. However all contact info I can find on the lease leads to nothing and I have been trying to reach the tenant for a week now.

The lease provides numbers only for the County because the tenant received assistance from the County.  According to the lease, the board of mental health is to be the "primary contact" between the landlord regarding the tenancy.  All numbers listed on the lease are either disconnected or they automatically forward to the County which has led me to four different people who said they do not even know of the tenant or they leave messages for others who never follow up.  

I predict four things happening here:

1.  I suddenly get a call back from the lessee's caretaker, or at least a County employee, with an answer (seems unlikely at this point as I called multiple times and got voicemail)

2.  I send the followup via certified mail, to the County Board of Mental Health.

3.  Nothing happens.

4.  I suddenly get sued by someone for not following up on a security deposit because they were impossible to reach.

I am thinking #2 is the best option to prevent a #4.  Do any of you have better ideas or a similar experience?  

[Michele Fischer]

What I would do is mail the itemization and check to the tenant at your property address.  I would use regular mail unless certified is required by your tenant landlord laws. Either it will get forwarded on and cashed or it will bounce back and you can save it as evidence that you made a good faith effort.  Also document the other steps you took for the file.