BenFiasco14 said:

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Let's see some pics

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This.

Also sorry you have to deal with this OP.

Trashed as in torn up, holes in the walls, cement in the drains, broken everything or trashed as in crap left everywhere?

Did she pay, or just leave?

Post picture of the check

+1 on not the kind of house that I was expecting. That was a nice place. Do you know any of the background of the lady renting?

tjones said:

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Totally and completely trashed.

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At least they are gone. That can save you 3 months of rent.

Dang that's a cool house OP. This really blows.

Have a decent deposit at least?

Probably a dead end, but does your former tenant have ANY sort of assets where suing her ass to oblivion would result in anything other than a piece of paper?

Sorry to hear man. That is tough. Great house. Don't let this persons BS ruin the memories you have there.

Bullseye is a good primer and I believe they make a plus version that is supposed to be a little bit better. New paint will help a lot to remove that smoke smell.

If she had been locked into a year lease and she had stayed current on rent and I would have seen the condition of the house, could I legally have kicked her out or would I just have to wait until lease expired?

I can't imagine how bad it would have been in another 6-9 months!

Eviction for reasons other than non payment of rent are always more difficult. Up to the judge's discretion more than how black and white not paying rent is.

That being said, general unwritten rule for lease violations is three uncured lease violations is usually sufficient to get the judge to grant eviction. So if you wanted her out due to property condition, you would issue a violation notice referencing the violation and term of the lease being violated with requirements to cure. Give her reasonable amount of time (let's say 5 days or something), then issue another if she didn't do it then another. If she still didn't do it, issue 3 day notice to eviction and follow same steps to evict. There's nothing in the law that says you have to give her these chances to comply but it's good ammo to make sure the judge doesn't side with her when she shows up at the hearing and says she'll fix it.

Great house - you rented it furnished with all the furniture shown? Maybe since they were only in there 3 months the smoke won't be super embedded in the woodwork, sheetrock, etc. You'd probably lose a lot of the smell when the furniture moves out for your sale. Hopefully.

Wow, I am so sorry they trashed the home.

Zinzer BIN shellac based primer is what we've used a few times to cover up smoke smell. It's pricey, and tricky to roll on (much thinner than latex paint), but In my opinion, worth every penny.

Got the house back into great shape....12k later.

But, listed it last Friday and had multiple offers over ask in 3 days. Under contract now.

Does your insurance cover that $12k, or do you have to come up with it all? I have always wondered how a rental property could be profitable if the place gets destroyed like that.

Not that I know of... covered it out of pocket.

High Functioning Moron said:

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Does your insurance cover that $12k, or do you have to come up with it all? I have always wondered how a rental property could be profitable if the place gets destroyed like that.

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Even with that disaster of a situation, still made good money on it. If that were to happen to one of my other places where the rent isn't near as high, then I'd definitely take a bath on it.

If you lease a property to a person from now till August 1. Then have another tenant signed a contract from August 1 going forward. What if your initial tenant does not want to leave August 1? This will be the same scenario as the OP stated correct

Thanks for the update - glad it worked out so well for you!