Tenant still moving out day after lease end
Hi All-
Pardon this long post: I had new tenants moving in yesterday morning at 9 am. They were coming from out of state so I had made assurances that the place would be ready. I made assurances because the departing tenants had assured me that the house would be move-in ready. Well, come Sunday morning (the last day of the lease), I called the departing tenants just to see how their move was coming along. They again assured me that all was well. At about 5pm, they called and said that there were problems but still hoped for the best. They called at 11:30pm and stated that they would need more time. We were asleep and didn't get that until 6am. I call them at 6am and they state that they need more time. Their lease ended at midnight, what are they talking about?? I get to the house at 8am and it looks like they are just starting their move. This is a three bedroom, three bath very nice house with a very big rent to match.
At 9am, the new tenants arrive to the biggest mess you can imagine. It was so low-budget and embarrassing. My wife and I own our properties in different types of entities and I own a property management company that maintains them and others. We, like most people on this site, really pride ourselves on first class properties (regardless of price-point). We offer properties that we are proud of and work hard to maintain them. So, when we have new tenants roll up to this property and it looks like it has been ransacked, we were upset. The departing tenants continued to load (and pack) while the new tenants were trying to move in. The new tenants were gracious while the departing tenants were not the least bit apologetic about the situation. Not surprisingly, they offered the whole array of "the dog ate my homework" excuses for the fact that they were still there past the end of the lease term. Of course, all the excuses were the fault of others.
I had to spend 7 hours at the house yesterday trying to expedite their departure while a normal check-in would have been completed in under an hour. At about noon, I finally guilted them into hiring some crew off of Craigslist to come help them move. They were finally out at 4:30 pm.
Now, (after that really long description) I want to know what to do next. I don't feel that charging $70 for a day's rent is enough. The house was clean because there was a cleaning crew working behind them. However, I don't have a provision in my lease that has a delineated penalty for this.
In 23 years of owning rental properties, I've never had this situation. Usually, in a rush, one would get out but just leave the place a mess.
I would appreciated anyone's insight or experience concerning this situation.
Thanks in advance, Phil.
Richmond, Virginia