Acquired Tenant Moving - No Move In Inspection Provided For Comparison

[Elizabeth S.]

I purchased a duplex last month with 1 tenant in place. She wants to move out, which I approved and let her know that she would lose her deposit. She had paid her last months rent up front so now she would like that back in a prorated fashion, which is reasonable to me.

Of course I will be reading through the terribly vague lease to make sure nothing is outlined that I need to be following.

My problem is that there wasn't a move in inspection provided to me for this tenant. She has mentioned (yesturday via text) that the carpet stinks and that there are mice and that the carpet was like that before. It sounds like the carpets are going to need to be cleaned, the mice irradiated and whatever other repairs I find after a walk through and 15 days if the lease allows.

How do I determine what damage she caused versus what she moved in with? Or do I just take the hit, be happy she is gone and that I can rent it out now and spend the money I need to just like I purchased a vacant property?

Any help would be great. I'm leaning towards the path of least resistant for sanity sake.

[Jerry W.]

In order to keep the deposit for damages you would have to prove she damaged the property to worse condition than when she moved in. Since you have no evidence of its prior condition you cannot really win. Sometimes the previous owner does have information, might be worth asking.