All Forum Posts by: Gunnar F.

Thanks so much for the above views. I am probably stuck waiting until December 31 just to be on the safe side. Just three points:

As I said, we have a problem with vagrants breaking into abandoned homes on the street with some frequency. Thus my interest in getting control over the property ASAP. (I also have an interest in getting the house ready for a new tenant immediately if possible and exposure-free.) The home is plainly unoccupied. All that remains are some random pieces of indoor and outdoor furniture and some boxes and the like. 

Second, my lease reads: "The Property Code does not obligate a landlord to return or account for the security deposit until the tenant surrenders the Property and gives the landlord a written statement of the tenant's forwarding address, after which the landlord has 30 days in which to account." The tenant has not furnished anything like this. More to the point, the house is a mess and damages abound. So I would not return any of the 5K deposit anyway. But the landlord-friendly Texas Property Code makes this even easier in these circumstances.

Third, the tenant is wealthy and likely does not care one bit about the remaining items. She mentioned something about leaving her high-end washer and dryer behind at one point or taking them to the dump if I insisted on her disposing of them.

Many thanks!

Hi, all. Texas residential lease expires December 31, 2016. Tenant has paid all rent and appears to have vacated the house. Though she has left significant property that appears to be worth a couple thousand dollars. She is totally non-communicative at this point. In her last message she stated she would probably leave in late November but was happy to pay the December rent as owed (again, she did pre-pay this).

Technically, she has neither Abandoned (because she paid her rent) nor Surrendered (because she provided no definitive written notice specifying her date of Surrender) under the contract.

First question... I would like to enter the property because it looks abandoned and we have a neighborhood issues with vagrant break-ins. Can I do so or must I wait until December 31? 

Second question... how long does she have to leave a forwarding address before I can consider myself totally released from any obligation to refund her security deposit?

Appreciate any advice!

UPDATE: Nothing ever came of the dispute. Happily collected rent until the end. Selling the property in January. Thanks, one and all!

@Susan H. yes, but the tenant is volatile. This would not end well... I would need to break in. The tenant will not come to the door unless the planets are perfectly aligned according to my PM. I want to keep things on an even keel as the tenant pays an enormous rent like clockwork. Again, peculiar case.

I have a bad feeling this will ultimately end in my having to retain specialized legal counsel to cope with a lawsuit of some kind.

@Stone Teran, thanks. I am doing everything possible. I have provided her with a lengthy of possible ameliorative measures. 

I am not getting "legal"... though this is my training. I am in client management mode. Legal solutions tend to be blunt and inefficient instruments in such matters.

I am leaving all remediation to the experts... but she is not letting anybody in the door. So I just need to take care to prevent being positioned as indifferent to her concerns in case this is a ploy of some kind to later assert that I did not act quickly.

Happy to fix it... If there is anything to fix. But the tenant has to be willing to make an appointment and open the door so the inspector can verify her claimed identification of toxic mold based on a photo she saw on the internet. 

And even if I didn't live 9,000 miles away she rarely uses her phone or email account except when making claims. And she answers the door only sporadically, according to my PM. Your advice is good. Just a strange case.

Anyway, will keep pushing. Thanks.

Now that I went to the trouble of identifying mold testing/remediation resources my tenant -- who asserted that she is living with toxic mold -- has not reached out to those outfits. 

She has in the interim described my efforts via email to address her numerous complaints as "harassment." I will continue raising this bedeviling mold allegation in particular lest I somehow be portrayed as indifferent to her concerns.

I had a wonderful, nearly trouble-free run for a decade with a decent little portfolio of properties ranging from budget to luxury and a few in between. The last two years are causing me to head for the hills. Liquidating all but three modest properties. Turns out I am a bit of a fair-weather landlord.

 I will let you know, Steve. Agree that nuisance suits can occur on all sorts of twisted bases. 

Meanwhile, the parties got together fro coffee and have apparently made peace! Let us see if it holds.

Fully agree, David. I don't think that by accepting rent from a tenant I have effectively taken a sacred oath to intervene forcefully to ensure my neighbors are not disturbed by barking, whether proven or merely alleged. 

Thanks, everybody. The inherent conflict in the thread seems clear...

Some argue that a landlord has a duty (legal and moral) to enforce the public nuisance laws the moment the landlord accepts a rent check. This duty requires the landlord to evict a tenant who is guilty of an offense in the landlord's judgment. (It is unclear how the proponents of this view would practically expect a landlord living abroad to honor this duty, particularly given limited ability to investigate competing claims.) Above all they exhort the landlord to "take it seriously" and experience empathy for the neighbor making these allegations, which is certainly appropriate as a kind of attitudinal best practice. These folks do not seem to place much emphasis on the neighbor's failure to seek recourse through the authorities, instead suggesting the landlord should offer herself up as the first port of call to neighbors when an allegation of tenant misbehavior arises.

Others would argue that the landlord has no such duty and that adults should behave rationally and, if necessary, permit the authorities to resolve such issues according to official processes. Under this thinking perhaps the landlord might be bothered to give the tenant a "heads up" regarding the allegation made. The more complicated scenario to test the limits of this thinking is whether the landlord should be required by law to evict the tenant based on a breach of contract (excluding criminal behavior known to the landlord)? If not then under this approach the landlord is legally required only to honor her own basic duties to provide adequate housing and no other duties arise.

(Anyway, the tenant has now lawyered up also. I assume those urging that I throw myself into the jaws of this conflict remain undeterred.)