All Forum Posts by: Lee Ostrowski

I have a tenant in a single-family home that I'm trying to decide two things. 1) should I allow him to renew or tell him I don't plan to renew with him and 2) If I renew, do I require the tenant to bring the property up to standards (cleanliness) or do I use the security deposit to bring it up to standards?

Backstory:

Like so many others, my tenant began losing his income starting in March. Prior, he didn't miss any payments, however, with COVID he missed March and was late each month until July when he finally was able to pay the backlog and catch up. The monthly rent is $1,814, and it is a single male who is relatively clean, quiet (no parties), and could have taken advantage of COVID and not paid, but did pay. 

Would you renew the lease under these circumstances? If you would renew, would you include any other clauses in the lease (I'm including a requirement of the first and last month rent up front)? 

Lastly, how do you handle lease renewals when it comes to bringing a property up to your standards? Do you clean it and fix anything broken to make sure year of repairs don't accumulate and then I'm left with more than a security deposit's worth of repairs (after year 2 or 3)?