Inherited Tenant Moving Out

[Jared Pinkus]

Happy New Year everyone –

I made my first deal a few months back, two townhomes in a four-unit complex. One of the units was vacant, the other occupied with a Section 8 tenant.

Last month, the inherited tenant mentioned they will not be renewing their lease which expires at the end of March. I have a love-hate relationship with this tenant. I’ve only been once in the past 5-months and they've never been late with their portion of rent however, they are also pretty disrespectful and self-entitled. The tenant has lived in the unit for five-years and has done some improvements (painting, flooring).

What steps should I take to make sure the transition goes smoothly, are good tenants usually pretty responsive to the process seeing as they will need a reference for their next landlord?

My biggest concerns are:

• They will leave the unit trashed/damaged,
• Say the appliances are theirs, a possibility since other upgrades were made
• Be difficult in the inspection/touring

Any insight is appreciated!

[Jennifer Donley]

@Jared Pinkus, Section 8 is all I do and I've inherited a lot of tenants with minimal documentation.

Here's what I do in your situation:

1. You should get what's called the "Good standing certification" pretty soon from the Housing Authority (HA).  On this doc, you certify that the tenant is in good standing or not.  They shouldn't be able to get anew voucher to move to a new place without being good standing with you, as long as you're reasonable and have good documentation.

2.  As soon as that doc lands in your mail or inbox, schedule a pre-move out walk through with the tenant.

3.  Take a move out checklist to the appointment as well as a cleaning checklist. Notate with the tenant what items need to be fixed prior to move out in order for them to get their full deposit back (especially on inherited tenants, I'm really reasonable here).  Give them the cleaning checklist.  Tell them that unit must be cleaned per checklist and ALL belongings removed in order for them to get full SD back.  Emphasize that your goal is to give them every penny of that deposit back and these docs will help them.

Also emphasize in writing that doing all of these things will not guarantee that they will get their full deposit back because things can happen in between the meet and move out, and there are things you may not see or notice during the pre move out. But this is a good faith effort to help them get as much back as possible.  

NOTE: If they do all we asked and nothing is changed at final walk through/nothing major identified, I give back all the deposit. 

4.  Unless they owe money OR there is a significant, expensive repair needed identified during the pre move out walk through, sign off on good standing.  If they owe money or a large repair needed, indicate that tenant is NOT in good standing due to $ or identified issues.  Document your tail off if either of these 2 exist.

5. In general, if it's an inherited tenant that I want to get rid of so I can rehab the unit and I don't have good docs from their previous landlord, I'm very reasonable because I figure if I can't defend it in court, I'm not going to go to the wall on it here.

6. Conduct final walk through day of move out or day after.

Let me know if I can help further.