Investor · Holmdel, NJ · Member since 2013 · 29 posts · 5 votes
I have a rental property in Indianapolis. Our tenant bought a home(unbeknownst) to me and moved out of our home with no warning with 6 months left on the lease. My property manager said it’s not worth going after the tenant for unpaid rent, but any suggestions here? I was considering putting a lien on their new property? Any advice?
Get it rented and tell your PM that they better have kept the entire deposit and give it to you to cover the rent. Don't let the PM tell you they are keeping it and if they returned it, tell them they (the PM) is on the hook for the bill as they should have known better and followed the terms of the lease. You could take the tenant to small claims court.
Get it rented and tell your PM that they better have kept the entire deposit and give it to you to cover the rent. Don't let the PM tell you they are keeping it and if they returned it, tell them they (the PM) is on the hook for the bill as they should have known better and followed the terms of the lease. You could take the tenant to small claims court.
You can go to court and win a judgment, but that alone doesn't guarantee payment. It'll at the very least be a black mark on their credit report for 7 years, but since they already have a house, they may be ok with riding it out.
Make sure you keep that deposit and get your property re-rented ASAP. Renting in December isn't easy in the snowy locations from what I've heard.
Rental Property Investor · Boston, Massachusetts (MA) · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
5y
@Ken Lagana Indiana law says you have to mitigate so you are likely looking At two months max. Keep the deposit as allowed and eat the other month and you’ll be better off. I doubt you would find a sympathetic judge to make a lien stick, but two months this time of year doesn’t seem unreasonable.
Property Manager · Shelbyville, IN · Member since 2014 · 303 posts · 161 votes
5y
@Ken Lagana
Do you have a lease break fee built in to your lease?
And you should automatically be keeping that deposit as liquidated damages. There is a double dipping rule to keep in mind, you can't sue for future rents if you get the home rerented pretty quickly. However, if the tenants left the place in shambles and you lost 3 months of rent this year because you had to put the joint back together, you can sue for those 3 months. You might even have a claim for a month because yes, December and January are pretty dead when it comes to new lease-ups. But that's what the SD is exactly for... Liquidated damages.
Going forward just don't do another 12 month lease right now... Do a 6 month so your lease staggers in the middle of summer instead of winter.
Property Manager · Member since 2020 · 108 posts · 68 votes
5y
@Ken Lagana
As a property manager I have dealt with this.
The first thing is they have broken the lease so they must pay a lease break fee. If the don’t you keep all of their deposit. Since they did not provide proper notice it’s up to you to decide how gracious you’d like to be.
I would definitely go the legal route, if you can’t work anything out with them. Definitely rent it out as fast as possible