Expensive lesson by leaving one clause out of rental agreement

[Stephanie Menard]

I rented a furnished home in Las Vegas, NV, to a fully screened tenant.  I used the standard Nevada Residential Lease Agreement from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. I had to add an addendum for the home's contents in the agreement. I ended up evicting him because he continued to violate the no-pet rule.  Upon his moving out, I checked the outside cameras and noticed he was taking out all the contents of the home and putting them in a moving truck and his car. Over the phone (because I was on vacation), I called him and told him he needed to return everything or I would file grand larceny charges.  I gave him a deadline, but he failed to show up with all my items. I then filed a grand larceny police report.  

I had an inventory of the items along with the lease agreement. A detective told me they couldn't keep the case open because there wasn't a clause in the rental agreement that said: "All items are not to be removed from the home."  Because this clause wasn't in the lease agreement, they closed the case and told me to take it up civilly because they couldn't prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he wasn't permitted to take everything in the house.  It's frustrating, but I wanted to pass along the message to ensure this phrase is in your leases if you have items on your property.