Looks like tenant is on the road to suing us - California

[Julie Smith]

Hey everyone. (sorry this is a long one) This is our personal home and is very modern. 

Lucky us, we keep getting these "professional renters" and I am just beside myself. 

First of all, we had a family move in 4 years ago. I had a neighbor whom is also was a property manager help us since we lived overseas. The first red flag was negotiating the rent. Any tenant that does this. RUN. We agreed to only 1000 dollars over the monthly rent... so 6000. 

They paid on time except for one time we let him pay 4000 for 3 months because he was trying to qualify for an SBA loan which he wanted to do verbally (gee I wonder why) He made of the difference a few months later which we had to REMIND him about. 

Now, upon walk through, there was excessive wear and tear. All screen doors ripped, cabinets broken off, he took out storage units in our garage which we specifically said you can't do this or we will charge you money. He also wanted a new washer and dryer.... ours was only 5 years old and in perfect condition. He kept demanding to get brand new ones (wife was preggo and wanted new ones for the baby?) So we said, ok, you get rid of the both for 600 dollars (sell them) AND we are raising the rent by 200 dollars per month. Well, he paid the rent but we never knew what happened to the washer and dryer. Turns out he donated them and never gave us the money we asked for.... this was written in an email. 

He put in a new garage door opener that is 800 dollars! He said the spring was broken which I said "go ahead and fix" and we paid for it. Then he said he thought the garage door opener was broken. (He likes new stuff) to which in the email thread I said "if its broken, please go ahead and fix it"... Never heard from him again. He never sent estimates. He just got a fancy door opener with WIFI attached to the wall which we never approved NOR did we want. We would have been ok with a new one on the ceiling from Home Depot! It also left a big gash in the ceiling where the old one was.... 

He also did 1400 dollars worth of plumbing which we never knew about until the walk through. He said he snaked the entire house. WHAT?! 

He put a new dishwasher in which we never approved. Its NOT the one we wanted nor would we have bought. He said in an email that the dishwasher was acting up. I said "please get a repair person and keep us updated"... crickets. Then suddenly during the walk through there is a new dishwasher. (Sigh).... as a landlord, aren't we expected to get estimates of the cost and OK THEM FIRST??! 

The cleaning was atrocious and I had to clean the oven and fridge which I spent half a day doing. I will charge him 25 dollars an hour for this. 

He actually isn't contesting the damage as we have good documentation but he wants all his money back for repairs we didn't know about nor have the opportunity to get estimates and discuss. He wants to call it a wash. 

He also was is reluctant to give us his new address (wonder why) to forward the estimates of damage. So he gave his work address which is a PO Box. What is he afraid of? We were also never used as a reference for his new rental?. I think these renters LIE for their references. They get their friends or family members to take the phone call.

I have a feeling this will go to court. His last email has a tone of threatening in it. By the way, we also gave him FOUR MONTHS notice to move out because they were having a hard time finding a new rental in the current market. He had 4 months to fix the damage in our place but he didn't.... the place has excessive wear and tear for the paint and baseboards but we aren't going to go there since this is already looking bad. Also, he had our house key for a week as he said "he couldn't find it"... he finally returned it with several missing items. Some items he took are still outstanding.

So far, we have fixed the cabinets $300

Screens all over the house plus missing screen wheels $695

Missing storage units $500

Curtain rod and curtains taken down and never replaced $400

Washer and Dryer (perfectly working LG front loader and dryer) $600

His requests

Invoice for plumbing that we just got today but never knew about performed earlier in 2020 $1400. 

Dishwasher (no invoice) $900 that we didn't OK

Garage door opener $750-850 that we never OK'd. I said IF it's broken, replace it. I didn't know he would put a fancy one in NOR was I given a price quote or estimate. 

He lived in our home for 4 years. He rarely communicated with us except at the beginning he was quite high maintenance but we accommodated his requests. Then after the first year, he mostly went dark.

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

One thing is for sure, I WILL NEVER RENT MY HOME AGAIN. I'd rather eat shards of glass and get root canals than ever do this. Its just NOT WORTH THE HEADACHE. 

Thanks for letting me vent.