Security Deposit Question / Ruined Furnishing

[James P.]

Good morning everyone,

First I want to thank you in advance for any help you can provide. I am a new landlord so I want to make sure I am following law when it comes to security deposits.

I am renting out a room and private bathroom in my condo unit and the laundry unit is in the private bathroom which we have an agreement on the time and day I'll do my laundry (enter the room). My tenant didn't take out his clothes from the dryer so I took them out and set them on the furnished bed I provided him.

I notice a cut and small hole going into the center of the mattress that was not there on the walkthrough. I notified the tenant in email and he mentioned "I'll replace it" I than sent him another email below:

"Thank you. The total replacement value of that mattress after depreciation totals around $500. (Original price $800) However,  I have found one on Amazon that's a bit cheaper that would be fine it totals $386.75 including tax. Provided the link to buy* Thank you for replacing,"

Am I handling this correctly? Should I give a date for action if I don't get another response and if the tenant does not replace than state I'll take the $500 from the security deposit? How do I handle this?

Thanks, James

[Cara Lonsdale]

As stated by another poster, you didn't have authroization to enter his room, so I would tread lightly.

Also, how were you able to view a cut and hole in the mattress....does this guy not have sheets on his bed??  I would question more why he doesn't have sheets on his bed, and why didn't you provide him with a mattress that had a protector on it?  

Anyway, giving him the opportunity to replace the item seems fair.  If he pushes back on it, you can take it out of his Security Deposit upon move out.  However, I would be careful going forward.  You have to have expressed authorization and/or give proper notice to enter a Tenant's property.  It sounds like your authorization only extended to the bathroom, so hopefully you have to enter his room to access the bathroom where the laundry is..???