NC Statute in 42-26(b) explicitly identifies "... arrearage in costs owed by a tenant for ... electric service ..." can't be your only basis.  

They're just lawyers who act as small claims court judges part-time normally, and they may not normally practice landlord-tenant law, so if you can print out or at least refer to the correct statutes, it's helpful.But, if you are expected to reimburse the PM money that should have come out of a security deposit they told you they collected - that is money you can sue them for.  

Most likely, you'll be able to convince tenants to go along with this "no-cash" provision without incident at your discretion - but do be careful to check current statutes if you get any push-back from tenants who wish to challenge you on this.

I found the FL law:http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?

Of course, you can check with the actual statutes under real estate, landlord tenant law - but who has time to decipher those!

I'm WI there is no statute regarding carpet age,

If the statute is 30 days notice and you give 60 you are being generous. 

The author of the article "guesses" that the intention of the statute is to require the landlord to set up a separate trust for each tenant, but this is not the type of thing one should have to guess about.

So it sounds like the best answer for *me* is to write a dual letter of notice of non-renewal (with wording to allow for default to month-to-month, which is what happens in Washington, from what I am reading in the statutes) along with a 3-month notice to increase rent.That will give them the 90-days required notice on rent increase & hopefully stop any potential sudden "complaints" that would bar me from non-renewing the lease (Washington statutes seem to say if there is an open "complaint" about a rental, you can't evict or non-renew or it's considered retaliation).You know, the more I write, the more I just want to get her out, sell, and buy 3 or 4 cheap properties......I love real estate and rentals, but when it's your OWN home.....ugh.

CT has all their statutes online.