Hello everyone, I recently had rented my house to a very greedy and ugly couple. The whole process is like a nightmare which I would like to share with all of you and seek some help and suggestions.

This couple has signed the contract with me for 2 years until May 2018. They pretty much paid on time. One a few times they were late for like 1-2 days. Generally speaking they are ok until this happened at the end. In December 2017, 5 month before lease ending, they called me and said that they are going to start looking for their next house and would like to change the lease term to month to month starting January 2018. And they did emphasize that they probably will still live in my rental until May 2018 since they normally spend a long time looking for a house. Considering they look like decent people and they did not really have much drama going on for the past of months, I agreed. However, right after I agreed, they informed me on 1/1/2018 that they are going to move out on 1/31/2018 and that is my 30 day notice for landlord. I’m so shocked since I felt like I have been setup by them. By then I had to agree since I agreed month to month.

Then the tenants moved out sometime in early January without letting me know. I posted the house for rent online and one potential tenant stopped by and took a look at the house. He let me know that the house was vacant. By then I know they moved out. So I asked them to return the key back to me on January 7th 2018.

There was some other background. They did not have enough funds for December rental and again pursued me to use their deposit as last month rental which only covers till 1/16/2018. I want to kick myself by being too nice to those jerks if I know what will happen next. Remembering our agreement is that the lease will end by 1/31/2018. So per our agreement, they need to pay ~$800 from 1/17-1/31/2018 rental on 1/17. Back in December, when they want to use their deposit to pay the last month payment, I pointed out that I am not comfortable doing so. They have promised me that they will sure pay the remaining amount, it is only a small amount, they have decent jobs blah blah blah….. again, all lies since nothing happened for those $800 until now.

I texted them for the remaining balance for the rent since 1/17, but I never get it. And even worth, here is what they came back with: they said I have demanded the key to be returned to me on 1/7. They paid thro 1/17. Thus I owe them for 10 day rent ~$500!

I am furious about their greediness. I have given them the house key at least 10 days before the contracted starting date to help them move in FREE. I have agreed to help them for early termination without any penalty. I have agreed to use deposit as last piece of payment. They have made nail holes in the wall and patched poorly with different color and I had my painter paint the whole house without charging the them. I have helped way too much and they did not show any appreciation at all! All they promised are lies! They played my kindness. There was one time we were talking in the phone and they said we are not afraid to go to the court which will take you years and you wont get anything from us. Such jerks!

I am not sure if the fact that I asking the keys back on 1/7/2018 will be viewed as I voluntarily ended the lease.

Will the extra 10 days I voluntarily gave them the house key before the actual lease starting date be counted as lease or no?

I am planning to go to small claim. I don’t want them to continue doing this to other landlords. Those are horrible persons! If there is anyone can help me with this situation, or any suggestions will be appreciated!

Best

Ann 

I would suggest hiring a Management company.

Chalk all this up as a learning experience...there is a learning curve for all of us. 

My Managment company has all my tenants do a year lease, then they switch to month to month...not sure why, but this is pretty typical. It has worked out well for me in vetting good tenants.

@Ann Anderson - this is a good lesson learned. One big lesson is take your emotions out of the equation. There is not much you can do about them moving out early when you agreed to switch to a month to month.

It also sounds like they are ignoring you and hoping you will just go away.

What you can do is document everything very well. Print your emails into PDFs and save them. If there are any damages to the house, take photos of them as well. To be on the safe side I wouldn't change the locks till January 31st when their lease is officially up. If they don't want to turn in the keys early they don't have to. 

Then on February 1st, I would send a final statement with any owed rent, late charges and damages, then subtract any security deposits you have. If they still owe money I would mention that they have 30 days to pay and if not paid it would be turned over to a collection agency. Then turn it over and forget about it. 

I would also look up your local laws. 

What you had is tenants smarter than their landlord. Your inexperience cost you money. In the future maybe you will operate your business with eyes wide open. No good deed ever goes unpunished in our world.

You were played, very well in fact, and they are correct you will likley not win anything by taking them to court. The kindness of a landlord allowing tenants in early and not charging has no value. Your mistake. You changed their lease to M2M. Your mistake again. You took the keys back before the end of the lease. Again your mistake. Since they gave notice on Jan 1, depending on your state regulations, they may have owed rent till the end of February but you likely lost that case by asking for the keys back Jan 7th. 

You do not have a strong case but I would take them to court anyway. To stand a chance you had best be extremely well organised with all the facts and dates stored to memory. Trip up on any dates and you will lose in court. Appear to be uncertain of any details and you will lose in court, get confused or flustered and you will lose.

You are dealing with smart well orginised tennats that will be very perswasive in front of a judge.

thanks for your reply. Yes, I trusted people too much when they ask for favor. Learned my lesson. However it is sad though that I will have to be alert and cautious under those situation when I really like to help people out whenever I can. There were some good tenants which I helped out in early years. But seems like more and more tenants now are showing no appreciation no matter how much others try to help. It is just sad. I just dont have the time to do all those things. I'd rather spend time to make money on other things than drain myself down in this Sh*thole. And tenants well know this. They know that it will cost me time to do all those. And even i win in court, there is still a long way to get the court order executed. I had a similar case before and it took me almost 3 years to get about $5000 back. Will I do it again for $800? Probably not. Anyway, I believe as a landlord, my leverage is very small compare to tenants. 

Originally posted by @Ann Anderson :

Hello everyone, I recently had rented my house to a very greedy and ugly couple. The whole process is like a nightmare which I would like to share with all of you and seek some help and suggestions.

This couple has signed the contract with me for 2 years until May 2018. They pretty much paid on time. One a few times they were late for like 1-2 days. Generally speaking they are ok until this happened at the end. In December 2017, 5 month before lease ending, they called me and said that they are going to start looking for their next house and would like to change the lease term to month to month starting January 2018. And they did emphasize that they probably will still live in my rental until May 2018 since they normally spend a long time looking for a house. Considering they look like decent people and they did not really have much drama going on for the past of months, I agreed. However, right after I agreed, they informed me on 1/1/2018 that they are going to move out on 1/31/2018 and that is my 30 day notice for landlord. I’m so shocked since I felt like I have been setup by them. By then I had to agree since I agreed month to month.

Then the tenants moved out sometime in early January without letting me know. I posted the house for rent online and one potential tenant stopped by and took a look at the house. He let me know that the house was vacant. By then I know they moved out. So I asked them to return the key back to me on January 7th 2018.

There was some other background. They did not have enough funds for December rental and again pursued me to use their deposit as last month rental which only covers till 1/16/2018. I want to kick myself by being too nice to those jerks if I know what will happen next. Remembering our agreement is that the lease will end by 1/31/2018. So per our agreement, they need to pay ~$800 from 1/17-1/31/2018 rental on 1/17. Back in December, when they want to use their deposit to pay the last month payment, I pointed out that I am not comfortable doing so. They have promised me that they will sure pay the remaining amount, it is only a small amount, they have decent jobs blah blah blah….. again, all lies since nothing happened for those $800 until now.

I texted them for the remaining balance for the rent since 1/17, but I never get it. And even worth, here is what they came back with: they said I have demanded the key to be returned to me on 1/7. They paid thro 1/17. Thus I owe them for 10 day rent ~$500!

I am furious about their greediness. I have given them the house key at least 10 days before the contracted starting date to help them move in FREE. I have agreed to help them for early termination without any penalty. I have agreed to use deposit as last piece of payment. They have made nail holes in the wall and patched poorly with different color and I had my painter paint the whole house without charging the them. I have helped way too much and they did not show any appreciation at all! All they promised are lies! They played my kindness. There was one time we were talking in the phone and they said we are not afraid to go to the court which will take you years and you wont get anything from us. Such jerks!

I am not sure if the fact that I asking the keys back on 1/7/2018 will be viewed as I voluntarily ended the lease.

Will the extra 10 days I voluntarily gave them the house key before the actual lease starting date be counted as lease or no?

I am planning to go to small claim. I don’t want them to continue doing this to other landlords. Those are horrible persons! If there is anyone can help me with this situation, or any suggestions will be appreciated!

Best

Ann 

 You are way to close to this situation. In the future you need to step back & avoid being so emotionally involved. Tenants do stuff like this all the time. Tenants are savage. Rental properties are savage. All around it's a very savage business. If you sweat the small stuff like this you are going to go insane. 

Honestly this doesn't even seem like a big deal to me. When they didn't pay their December rent them moving out early benefited you more than them. Once they don't pay rent you need to move to evict them. If they leave before you need to go through the time & cost of court that is a bonus for you. Your wasting time & effort worrying about this any further. Going to court doesn't make any sense either. Time cost, monetary cost & missed opportunity cost are all way to high to do anything other than finding a new tenant & moving things forward.