I received a letter from a lawyer to request all deposit returned to tenant. How should I respond to the letter?

A tenant moved out on 4/2/16. Prior to moving out, keep threatening us not to return key without a check for all deposit back and complain every thing about the property and management..

They owned about $350 late fee. They had a cat illegally, but deny even with all evidence like cat food, wast, cage.

Since they are so much problem, so I stick to our lease.

1 unpaid late fee.

2. April rent

3 illegal pet fee and pet rent.

4. No 30 day notice and not allow up to show.

5. Very dirty toilet and refrigerator.

It is twice as much deposit. I sent the ledger to tenant and he text back very mad. I asked what he think we should pay him, He wanted all.

I received letter from an attorney today.

So, a big issue here is that you can't let a bunch of things build up, not charge them at the time, and then just try to collect them at the end. I mean, they have $350 in late fees? How many months worth is that?? Here, our judge only allows a $30/month maximum late fee -- so that would be almost a full year's worth of late fees! So, you can't just let them build up and then try to collect them all at the end.

Same with the cat. You can't say "Hey, I'm charging you for having a cat the entire time you were there" just at the end. If they had an unauthorized pet, you should have been charging them for that per your lease as soon as you knew it.

That being said, if they have reasonable costs and damage (April rent, dirt beyond normal wear and tear, pet damage, and so on), then, yes, of course you can deduct that.

It looks like you sent an accounting of how the S/D was used within the timeframe, right?

Did it use up ALL of the S/D? Give us the numbers so that we can see what was used and such -- that might help give better advice.

Finally, I don't know MO for S/D. Here, in Michigan, if the tenant properly gave notice that they were contesting the S/D amount, we actually have to sue THEM to keep it. It's weird, but true. So, hopefully someone for MO can say what happens when a tenant contests the amount. Hopefully, they have to sue you for it -- and you feel comfortable that all of the deductions were legal.

- John...

I asked for the late fee every time and they are like bomb to explode all the time.

We only found the cat when I am there to get the key, He complain the property had wild animal. then we found more cat stuff on the back deck.

My lease said rent not prorated on moving out month and we need 30 day notice and allow us to show.

The dancer moved out to a new boyfriend and her daughter's father is cosigner and her daughter's grandmother moved in after. None of them are normal people.

Side note: Does your lease contain a provision for legal fees? If the case the tenant lawyer may see an opportunity esp. if you just allowed the late fee's to rack up month after month under Laches or in case of the pet an Illegal pet fee as a penalty.

I agree with what others have said, including ignoring his letter and BLOCKING his phone #. He's just trying to bully you and you are falling for it. Caveat---that is IF you have followed the letter of the law in your state in documenting damages and returning the deposit accounting within the required time frame. Why in the world did you not evict this loser a year ago?

You really need to pay an attorney that specializes in LL/Tenant law to help you. You seem to have a lot of drama with your tenants because you gets sucked into their black hole of drama instead of dealing with ANY issues that come up IMMEDIATELY and posting a 3-day notice the second they violate a lease, and continuing to argue with them, continue taking their phone calls, etc., etc. Since English appears not to be your first language, an eviction attorney would be worth his weight in gold to you.

Way to many variables, here.

This could go several different directions.

Maybe 6 feet, aint so far down......

I did not evict then because they always paid rent, even it was late about ten days. Judge will let them stay if they pay rent.

Also they would make my life really miserable and talk to every tenant bad. A few other bad tenants will be very happy and follow him if we made him very mad. I was trying to ignore all his bully during the whole time.

He went to CL to ruin my reputation. He bad mouth to any prospect or neighbor whenever he had chance. He threatened to bring TV crew to ruin our life.

I do not understand why he is so bully. I image vent on me because he can not reason with his dancer lady.

AllyM, Why do I need to sent all the money back?

Do u have cat pictures? Damage pictures. Did u send accounting of how the deposit was used, do u have receipts for how the deposit was applied to bills to pay for damages? How much is the deposit.

Consider just returning it to the attorney ? Perhaps? Are you also the management company? Or is that a separate business not run by you ?

He was violating the lease by paying late--10 days late? That is not paying rent on time--that would get my tenant a 3-day notice 7 days earlier than the 10th, and I would have refused any rent he tried to pay late.

You are still all about the tenant drama. Who CARES what this loser tells other people about you? If your multitude of other bad tenants follow him, good riddance--get a better class of tenants to replace them--screen x3, be a ZERO TOLERANCE LL as many do here and beef-up your lease.

Many here have given you some really great and valuable information, yet you still continue to not listen and let the tenants run your business.

Renting to people in certain "careers" never ends well--another lesson to learn from.

Pattyk, what do you call the double first month rent? I tried to called it performance fee, but they still think it is security deposit.

I had pictures of cat stuff.

What do other landlord do for April rent? I have never be so irritated and never so strict either.

Double first months rent is RENT.

Performance Fee is a FEE.

Your post calls this a deposit.

If all is just as you have presented, I'd ignore the letter. 90% chance this is the end of it. Ex-tennie doesn't want to run up legal bill trying to collect from you. Worst case scenario, he will sue, you will win.

Being a landlord is more about being a teacher than anything else. Every so often you will get a bad student, but since you are allowed to screen them before hand.....what do you suppose went on?

YOU getting fired up doesn't help anyone...it only reinforces the idea that he is trying schooling you. Keep your cool and think about what is going on and what is at stake.

Maybe it just might be cheaper to charge him $195 for cleaning and not following the lease (if that is what the lease says) and give him a few dollars shut up money. You might not think its worth it - that too is also OK. Only you have to decide if it is worth wild to get beat up on CL, possibly lose other tenants and have to hire an attorney to possibly go to court for you.

Should you be angry - yes. Should you ask yourself....was I following the best business practices of the trade? Only you can answer that. Will you win? Probably...but what good is winning $400 if it cost you $1,200?

He started to threaten to sue us as soon as she moved in. He just get more mad now. He wants every penny of 2x625 back and he would be very powerful and think we already lose if we pay him back. I want to see what the judge will decide.

CJ, I have a hard time believing that all of your problems are a result of bad tenants. Judging by this & your other posts, I think you need to either learn how to screen & manage your rentals better or get out of the rental business.

He keep saying the dancer is the type of person I deal with. Most of My tenants are good. I do not need to mention the good ones. The dancer and the daughter's father are the worst. A couple of denied prospects tried to bully me. Most are ok.

Your issues are simple, management problems!

First of all, each time a tenant hasn't paid a late fee, you must send a written request for them to include a late fee when they submit their next rental payment.

Then when the next rent payment is shy the last late fee, you must send a second letter that you are deducting it from their security deposit.

Without both letters, you don't stand a chance deducting it from the tenants deposit at the end of a tenancy.

Then when a tenant is going to move and they give you written notice (don't accept verbal notice without a follow up letter), conduct a pre-move-out inspection.

Let your tenant know what you are going to deduct from their deposit and how much you are charging for repairs.

Example: Vacuum and Shampoo Carpets, $150.00. If you tenant thinks that $150 is too much to shampoo the carpets, let them rent a Rug-Doctor Shampoo machine from a store and do it themself....

Then after you tenant moves out, conduct a move-out inspection. Take pictures. Get written estimate of the repairs. Don't charge for all of the little stuff. Limit the scope of work.

Then after the tenant is gone and before too much time has past (3 weeks at most), provide you tenant their deposit refund with copies of your repair receipts or estimate -- if the total is over $100.

IF you were to have done all of the above, then your tenant wouldn't have been left out in the cold having no idea what's going on and they wouldn't have gotten an attorney to deal with you..

All issue could have been avoided.

When my tenant refused to give me keys until I got their deposit back. Since I had a move out notice from the tenant with a move out date, I just changed the locks and had a fee ADT alarm installed......

CJ,

The real issue: Did you mail a Deposit Settlement letter within your state's deadline? YES or NO.

.

If you did, just tell the lawyer you did and say no more.

If you did not, this is what can happen depending on your judge:

If the Deposit Settlement was not given to the resident properly and timely, the judge can order you to return the deposit, he can triple the amount if the lawyer asks, and because you lost you will have to also pay the filing fees and the resident's lawyer.

SO....

if you did not mail the Deposit Settlement properly your cheapest defense is to

1. try to negotiate some kind of payment

2. return it all. Cheaper than letting this go to court.

You MUST get to Convention (It's in YOUR state!) and LEARN to manage.

BRAD

Assuming you followed state law mailing the deposit ledger ... ignore the lawyer. Let him sue. It will most likely be dropped.

Cathy, there is a pattern here, it's with your tenants, but actually it's with YOU and the type of tenants YOU ALLOW into your rentals.

I suggest (again, as others here have) that you hire a property manager and stop dealing with and choosing tenants because you aren't good at it. Or quite frankly, SELL. Is it worth all this continual drama?

You've been given a lot of good advice over the last several months that you've been posting on this forum. I quit replying to your posts because the patterns remain. It's a different tenant, but the same underlying problems over and over and over.

There's an old saying. "The common denominator in your failed relationships is YOU."

Yes, I mailed the final statement and followed the state law..

I appreciate any suggestion to solve the problem here.

Sorry, Hiring a manager is not the option for us now. It does not work for most other landlord here either.

I would not ignore the lawyer letter. Respond to the letter with your argument and evidence. I hope you took move-out pictures. Cats can ruin carpet, so if the cat sprayed make sure you shine a black light over the floor to see if there are urine stains and take pictures.

Find out who the lawyer is by checking the State Bar. A tenant can go to any lawyer and NOT tell the entire truth. I've had tenants flee to legal aid lawyers telling all kinds of lies to not get evicted. I

This tenant will tell the lawyer anything to get the lawyer anything to write a letter.

CJ,

Please. Hire a lawyer to respond. Please.

And get to Convemtion to learn how to avoid these problems.