What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington State.
Issue:
The lease expires at the end of February but the tenant wanted to leave early and asked if we would let them out of the lease. We declined that request but did agree to try and rent the house and would let them out of the agreement early if we found another tenant.
In December we conducted an inspection and found several issues we needed to correct (at our expense) prior to the house being rented again, as well as several small things they needed to repair or replace.
The tenants had already began a gradual move out process and were no longer living in our property. The house was not yet fully moved out of, and was messy enough that prospective tenants were not interested. Junk cars in the front yard, a broken trampoline in the back, no yard maintenance, etc.
With their agreement, we began working to correct the problems we needed to take care of and told them that until they had cleaned up, we could no longer show the property.
We have been contacting them frequently throughout January requesting payment of January's rent. They initially said they would pay, then said they would be late and now they are unwilling to pay.
They have been gradually moving out all of January, while we have had several repair projects done. They are upset claiming that we are remodeling the house "on their dime" and have refused to pay rent for January. Our position is that we have only been doing work necessary to solve structural problems (water leak from the outside) and get the house ready to be rented and not remodeling for heck of it, and the house is still not in a showable condition due to their stuff still being around as well as our inproces projects.
The week of 1.17 our repairman had to turn off the water to replace a hose bib, and unfortunately he did not get the water turned on for several days. Because of this the tenant was very upset citing that water turn off has to be done only with written notice and approval and that we were making it difficult for them to clean the house so they could move out. During that phone call they requested that all work inside the house cease until they vacated. Other than having our repairman enter the house to ensure the water repair was not leaking, this request has been honored.
This past Monday (1.24) I went to the tenant's work and gave him notice to vacate (lease calls for 7 days notice). They have not yet paid the rent and have said that unless we let them out of the lease at the end of January, and accept the "last month's rent" collected upon move in, they will occupy the property until the end of the lease and we will have to sue them for the 1 month's rent they have not paid.
Yesterday they called again offering the "let us move out now or you can sue us" option mentioned above. I told them I would consider the offer and contact them back today (1.28).
We are inclined to move forward with the eviction process as well as sue for January rent, but wanted to get your objective & legal opinion and considering the house is essentially vacant have some concerns about vandalism.
Issue:
The lease expires at the end of February but the tenant wanted to leave early and asked if we would let them out of the lease. We declined that request but did agree to try and rent the house and would let them out of the agreement early if we found another tenant.
In December we conducted an inspection and found several issues we needed to correct (at our expense) prior to the house being rented again, as well as several small things they needed to repair or replace.
The tenants had already began a gradual move out process and were no longer living in our property. The house was not yet fully moved out of, and was messy enough that prospective tenants were not interested. Junk cars in the front yard, a broken trampoline in the back, no yard maintenance, etc.
With their agreement, we began working to correct the problems we needed to take care of and told them that until they had cleaned up, we could no longer show the property.
We have been contacting them frequently throughout January requesting payment of January's rent. They initially said they would pay, then said they would be late and now they are unwilling to pay.
They have been gradually moving out all of January, while we have had several repair projects done. They are upset claiming that we are remodeling the house "on their dime" and have refused to pay rent for January. Our position is that we have only been doing work necessary to solve structural problems (water leak from the outside) and get the house ready to be rented and not remodeling for heck of it, and the house is still not in a showable condition due to their stuff still being around as well as our inproces projects.
The week of 1.17 our repairman had to turn off the water to replace a hose bib, and unfortunately he did not get the water turned on for several days. Because of this the tenant was very upset citing that water turn off has to be done only with written notice and approval and that we were making it difficult for them to clean the house so they could move out. During that phone call they requested that all work inside the house cease until they vacated. Other than having our repairman enter the house to ensure the water repair was not leaking, this request has been honored.
This past Monday (1.24) I went to the tenant's work and gave him notice to vacate (lease calls for 7 days notice). They have not yet paid the rent and have said that unless we let them out of the lease at the end of January, and accept the "last month's rent" collected upon move in, they will occupy the property until the end of the lease and we will have to sue them for the 1 month's rent they have not paid.
Yesterday they called again offering the "let us move out now or you can sue us" option mentioned above. I told them I would consider the offer and contact them back today (1.28).
We are inclined to move forward with the eviction process as well as sue for January rent, but wanted to get your objective & legal opinion and considering the house is essentially vacant have some concerns about vandalism.