All Forum Posts by: Kate K.

Hi @Mark Faustrum! Thank you so much for this information!! We don't plan on keeping the security deposit as there is no reason for it. We can cover the damages they left behind and the cleaning with a lot less than $1,800. However, after hoe many damages thry left, there is no reason for us to the job for them and not charge them for it. Question is how to make it the right way?

Your comment is definitely very helpful!! Can you send me this form, please? Somehow I can't download it or even zoom in to read it. As we are about to sign a new lease, I might incorporate it in with new tenants.

My husband will redo the walls after our old tenants' poor sloppy job that they did on the walls, for a lot less than if we were to hire professionals to do drywall and painting. I assume they should be happy we agree to do the job ourselves and charge them a lot less money for the labor. We will use estimate on the granite as a proof of cost and we can furnish receipt for the blinds from the store. We could furnish receipt for paint and drywall material, but as to labor.. we can charge some minimal fee for everything altogether. Perhaps $250 for everything (materials and labor)? That would be to redo the walls that they altered and did NOT restore properly. For 3 rooms that they altered walls, would it be unreasonable? If anything, I think just drywall material and paint alone will most likely cost almost that much.. And the labor will end up being free for them... Unless you would suggest a better idea how to break these charges down for the walls, so there is no chance they might decide to debate or question it. After all, they did a terrible job at sanding and painted just spots where they made holes and it's not at all how the walls looked when they moved in. Yet they probably expecting for us to accept this terrible job as "proper walls restoration" which is NOT. New tenants looked at it and made some unfavorable comments, and expressed hopes that it will be redone.

@Nathan G. Thank you for your detailed input!! Granite.. you would be surprised, is actually expensive to repair and $300-400 is one of the lowest quotes I got and professionals are still not very much inclined to come out even for that amount. So I'll plan to charge as per higher quote just in case if a final balance will be "a surprise" upon completion of the job. My guess is that it should not be more than $500. Blinds, my husband says, should cost around $30 per each at Menards, so it's $60 (maybe $70 with tax).

In all honesty, they didn't demolish the house. So on the big picture we are good! We learned our lessons from our experience about allowing tenants to do whatever it is that they ask for and not having strict policy about Right of Entry. Pandemic noone was accounting for 2 years ago.. But that's ok, now I'm having it in our Addendum to our Lease - "no exception including pandemic".

So all I just needed to figure out here was how to properly valuate the charges that I will be deducting from their security deposit and if whether or not I have to present them with actual receipts or just use estimates. Pretty much I'm on the right track and have my questions answered. Thank you again for your advice.

@Nathan G. The lack of responsibility was just a rhetorical question.. We are accepting that deal with tenants neglect and lack of responsibility is part of being a Landlord. But we are running a business here, and as such I'm planning on charging them for everything they damaged, didn't clean, didn't mow the grass, etc., because we are not a charitable organization.

It's actually 30 days in the State of IL for returning the security deposit, not 45, but I might be mistaken. And I should be able to manage to get the remainder of their security deposit back even within less than 30 days, using estimates.

My husband is our contractor in our business :) He is very handy and there almost nothing he can't do. We are hiring professionals to do the granite. This will be done last. Our new tenants are ok with that to be done after they moved in. This week we are starting on repairing small missing pieces of drywall, sanding the walls (that they poorly sanded), repainting them properly, and cleaning (which we are hiring the service for also).

We have to replace the floor but it's not our tenants' fault, it was installed improperly by previous owner and no adjustments that we attempted worked becausehe didn'tleave enoughspace around the edges (it first bubbled from expansion and contraction abd then broke), so we are putting in waterproof and scratch-resistant higher end vinyl, to ensure it will be durable for tenants with pets and resistant to heels, spilled water, etc. This job will be the biggest but won't take long because our house is small.

For the fridge I was also thinking to charge nominal fee ($50-100 sounds reasonable) for that permanent little dent. No reason to buy a new one, spend time on figuring out depreciation and charge tenants the difference. It's just 2 years old. We want to be done with these tenants and move on.

@Colleen F.oh, I got it! Yes, I know about 5 years depreciation mark. That does make sense. Good thing they managed to ruin many things within only 2 years. In this scenario no lawyer or judge would rule in their favor if they attempt to go to court and claim "it's normal wear and tear" and they got charged unfairly. I would imagine that it probably wouldn't fly and it would be fair if it didn't. But I hope that we will just deduct them for those most significant certain things, send itemized list of things they get charged for, and mail it along with the check for remaining of their security deposit via certified mail. Thank you for your advice!!

@Colleen F. Just saw my 1st response to your comment and realized that I made typos in what I said. I meant that I have NO issues with normal wear and tear, but what our previous tenants did is not normal. And what you are saying is that we can change them for the blinds if they were 5 y.o. but if it's 2 y.o. they shouldn't be paying for replacement of blinds their cat chewed up on?

@Colleen F., of course, it is not worse that one can see. That's true. But the house was brand new. Normal wear and tear i have issues with. But how one can manage to ruin the drywall in almost every bedroom and living room like that, chip granite in multiple places, mqke dents on and in refrigerator, allow their animal to chew up on brand new blinds (there is no wear on any other blinds abd usually those last 15-20 years)? And "$455 plus tax" for the granite is even not the most expensive estimate I got! The most one was for nearly $1k!

They lived there for 2 years. I did take pictures before abd now especially took tons of pictures after. I read many useful forum information on BB here and it was most helpful! I will then put together itemized list of charges and plan to include with their check for remaining amount from their security deposit.

Our property is in Lake County, IL and we are going through a 1st transition from 1st tenants to our 2nd ones. Tenants that moved out this month, left some damages behind (some repairable and some not) as well as didn't do a proper cleaning upon their move out. So I was wondering how to valuate certain items while deducting them from the security deposit and do we have to provide them with the receipts for the services and items that have to be replaced or we don't have to, but just to put together itemized list of deductions for them with description of what it is and how much we charge them for it?

1. 3 chips (1 medium and 2 small) in a granite (I spent a whole week collecting quotes and going back and forth with different companies to make arrangements for the repair and companies are not very willing to come out any time soon, because it's too small of a job for them, therefore isn't worth their time, while they estimate quite a lot for the repair). So it might take a while to get that done.

2. 1 small dent on the door of the refrigerator - how much does this damage worth? It's a permanent damage and cannot be fixed.. Inside the refrigerator metal edges of the shelves are all dented and scratched.

3. They left stove and inside the oven filthy with dog's and cat's hair and debris inside, and kitchen floor wasn't even attempted to be mopped, stains are all over. 

4. They asked to put only 1 TV on the wall and we allowed, but without our permission they drilled holes in almost every wall in the house, put 2 more TVs up and hung all kinds of other stuff, except 1 bedroom, so 1 living room wall looks bad and 2 bedrooms have all walls altered, and patches are poorly sanded. Per their lease (which is standard) after any approved or unapproved alterations is a tenant's responsibility to restore the property at their own expense to it's original condition (normal wear and tear is expected though, but that's not normal). 

5. Drywall in the closets are severely damaged, very deep chips and scratches. Small drywall pieces are missing. 

6. Brand new blinds (2 small ones in the living room) have been chewed up by their cat.

7. Dishwasher is dirty and has nasty white stains all over inside and some debris. 

8. Grass was not cut before final inspection.

What's bad is that they used COVID as an excuse and denied us our "Right of Entry", so we weren't able to inspect the house and perform necessary repairs and routine maintenance. So we just saw our property after they moved out and the condition of it did not align AT ALL with how they described they left the house and expected a whole security deposit back!!! They've asked for and we've made a lot of exceptions for them throughout their tenancy, hoping they will honor the lease terms, take care of the Property and cooperate when required, but this did not happen. Now, after such contempt on their end to our rental and lease agreement, I see no reason to give them free pass with them turning our Property back to us in such condition and not charge them anything for that.. I was just wondering how to do it properly because by law I have only 30 days to return back to them the remaining of their security deposit, and granite people can only come out in 4-9 weeks to repair it? My idea was to take the medium quote (that one was unofficial, just a number "$455 + tax" from one of the companies) and charge them that amount and already not send them upon completion any receipts and be done with it, because quotes are just estimates and I don't know how much the final charges will be. The same goes to cleaning. Need to wait for those services but I can't wait with returning remaining of the security deposit. 

Any suggestions on fair valuations of these items and if whether or not I should provide them with any receipts or just send quotes and charge them the medium amounts, and then for this money use whomever we choose and whoever will be available first, for repair, replacement and for cleaning of these items?

Thanks in advance!

Ashish, by saying county records, are you referring to the property tax bill?

@Ashish, so if it was valued at 25% on the 1st and a 2nd year, can we change it now to whatever it is according to how our county valued our land at?

Also, in our tax bill our land is valued at $11,711. Building assessed value is $50,339. That's what I see. But I don't know the formula that land should be valued at (I heard from another Accountant that it depends on our tax bracket), that's why I'm not sure who is right - new CPA/Attorney (with 10%) or a Block Advisors Manager (with 25%).. If it has to do with tax brackets, what are they in relation to land rate?

Our Tax Accountant from Block Advisors moved on with his career and we had to find a new CPA/Tax Accountant. We found one that's seem to be experienced and knowledgeable. He is also a Real Estate Attorney. His advice is to make Block Advisors to amend the 2019 tax return. He says that they valued the land too high in his opinion and that we should be depreciating higher building costs so we can save money. Manager from Block Advisor's Office, where we used to go to, insists that land on rental properties should be valued at 25%, and that 10% is too low.. Plus, because this new CPA asked me questions just to confirm that the reason why there is a difference between "basis" and "rental cost" of the property on our depreciation schedule from 2019 is because of land, the Manager at Block Advisors said that if this CPA asks me such questions, then he doesn't know how to do his job, as these are the basics of CPA class (land is not to be depreciated). Though he just wanted to confirm the difference is because of the land, nothing else. Our depreciation schedule doesn't really have much information in it. That's why this new CPA probably asked. I am not a CPA myself so I don't know either way, that's why I had to ask her (that Manager) to find answers. If I were a CPA, I would be doing taxes myself :)

Don't get me wrong, I would love we to save more money, but I wouldn't want to save money now and look at having penalties from IRS later.

So what is the correct percentage to value land on Rental Property - is it 10% or 25%? And does it matter which State it is at? We are in Northwest suburbs of IL. 

Your advice would be very helpful in deciding for us to choose the right Tax Accountant to do our taxes. Thanks!