Rochester NY LTR Tenant 4K damages

[Jamie Dupont]

We have a LTR in Rochester/Greece NY that is under PM. We served the tenant 90 day notice as she was throwing massive parties in the home with complaints from neighbors, etc. Have not cash flowed the property for 2 years with her living there as she breaks everything (another reason she’s being served notice). PM sent us a laundry list of photos and repairs from damages in the home. $4200. Not to mention, asbestos siding that would not have been an issue, is an issue as that also has a massive hole in it. The insurance company sent us a letter telling us they will be dropping us for that reason as well. We have $2100 security deposit, however she also skipped out on her last month’s rent and PM did nothing. Therefore, we are on the hook for all of these repairs and at our wits end figuring out next steps. Any advice is appreciated. This is our first LTR and we are devastated. We fired the first PM that PLACED her because they did a terrible job. Therefore we’re trying to be proactive, however it’s a mess.  Not to mention, we are evacuated from this cat 5 hurricane at the moment and really having a difficult time thinking clearly at the moment. We do appreciate any advice on what we can do to be better.

[Drew Sygit]

@Jamie Dupont we automatically send eviction notices for nonpayment, in Michigan, it's referred to as a 7-Day Notice. 

After the 7 days, we can send to an attorney to file for a court date - which incurs attorney & court fees for owner.

We would have had a chat with the owner at this point to discuss pros & cons of waiting vs filing. Often, safer to file with the understanding those fees may be wasted, but better than waiting and then the tenant does NOT vacate (causing more lost time/rent).

Usually court date will be 2-3 weeks after filing, which means 1st or 2nd week of following month. If tenants vacates, can cancel court date and minimize attorney fees. Otherwise, if tenant did not vacate, attorney appears in court and more fees.

Once tenant vacates, we'd have a chat with owner about their options to pursue tenant for collection - which we MAY assist with, but with a disclaimer we're not experts and will be low priority. Otherwise, owner can pursue collections on their own.

The credit score is like the "1% Rule" - a decent filter, but NOT something to rely on.
-- How many active tradelines produced that credit score? We've seen 700+ FICO scores based soley on a Chime tradeline. Chime is a company that has created a bank account system that allows them to report "payments" to the credit bureaus, but it is NOT a vaild tradeline in our opinion. 
-- To consider a credit score as valid, we look for at least two open tradelines that have a minimum 24 months positive history and two more at least 12 months. Otherwise, we start focusing on rental pament history(s).

DM us if you'd like to discuss in more detail!