Legal options for collecting unpaid rent and damages

[David Hard]

This is concerning a single family residence that I owned in Wichita, KS. I currently live in NM and had this property professionally managed. I had tenants who signed with me back in early 2017 and for the majority of their time treated my house well and paid rent on time. When things started falling apart due to COVID earlier this year, I reduced their monthly rent, gave them several breaks in late payments, and (now I see foolishly) allowed them to use their security deposit money to pay for one month's rent. My property manager had convinced me that they were ideal tenants and took great care of the place. They signed a 1 year lease extension in April 2020. Back in September they had expressed interest in leaving the property early (they mentioned November which would have been approximately 5 months early) due to COVID-related job difficulties and a need to downsize. Our contract required 30 days written notice for vacating the property. I would have fully supported this and allowed them to leave without penalty, since I wanted to sell the property anyway. We never received written notice, and basically were told at the last minute that they left in early October and they would pay October rent. When we investigated the house, they had pretty much trashed it. There was garbage all over, expired food left out, a nail polish stain in the master bedroom carpet, coloring on the walls, etc. Fortunately my property manager accepted some of the responsibility and helped with repairs and cleanup, and after all's said and done for the damages plus one month of unpaid rent they owe about $2200. The tenants moved away secretly, have not been responding to emails, calls, or texts, and are clearly trying to hide from making this payment. We do not have an address for them. I decided this was a good opportunity to sell a slightly aging house while the market was still super hot, and I have been busy with closing up to last week so I have not given this aspect much thought before then. 

So to recap, I mistakenly allowed them to use their security deposit to pay for rent, they left without notice, and owe $2200 in unpaid rent and damages. We have text and photo records of all attempts at conversation, the multiple breaks I had given them on payment, and the damages they left behind. If anyone has experience in this area with legal options for collecting this rent and/or tracking the tenants down, and if the juice is worth the squeeze, I would greatly appreciate the insight. 

[Shane H.]

Just let it go

You live out of state and is it really worth wasting all your time to try and get blood out of a turnip?

I've had the same thing happen to me - I just let it go and forgave the rats that trashed my former personal house -- They owed me more and caused way more problems -- Once I let it go I was able to focus on more productive things   You can probably find a post or two I made about it back in 2017 if you look.  Im a firm believer in Karma.  You've sold the house - chalk it up to a loss -- You probably came out better anyways -- right now any affordable house in Wichita sells very very quickly and price appreciation is up for homes under a certain price range - I'd guess you gained far more by the timing of your sale with them leaving  when they did even though it wasn't under ideal circumstances.