Tenant broke lease!

[jyssilly]

What is the name of your state? Massachusetts

I'm trying to find out some information on my parents' behalf.
They recently rented a house in August, lease started Sept 1. The family was moving from Indiana, and never saw the place until they moved in (basically signed the lease as they moved in) but because they were desperate to find a place, sent relatives to check it out. They sent several recommendations, credit reports, employer recommendations etc (all un-asked-for).
They agreed to a $2000/month rent (as listed in the newspaper ad) and paid $2000 security deposit. They were NOT able to pay the last-month's rent, so my parents had a verbal agreement with them to pay an extra $100/month starting in October. They signed a 1-year lease.
On Nov 3, my father called to make sure some repairs had been done (some plumbing) and since my parents had been out of town, also mentioned they hadn't received November's rent (due on the 1st, 5 day grace period). The wife of the family went crazy and said he was "harassing" her and the rent wasn't due for another 2 days.
Then, a 2 days later, the tenant (wife) calls to say, they are moving out, said she refused to pay November's rent and then just hung up. My mother tried to call her back to see what had happened and if something had gone wrong to make them just suddenly move out, but the tenant just said we'll be out by Nov 15th. Checking the house on the 16th, they were indeed gone, no forwarding address, and left the house a mess. The tenant did randomly place an ad in the newspaper to try to help re-rent the place, but the ad was only placed for 1 week.

What recourse do my parents have? They are afraid to sue because of the legal costs and time involved. Also, is there any way the tenants have any real case to break the lease? The property was well maintained.

Currently, my parents are trying to re-rent the place.
Thanks for any help!!
Jen

 

[aahlee]

Do you see the problems you get when you gouge tenants with $2000 rent?

your parents can use the security deposit for this months rent and for the damages, and they can sue them in small claims cort for the excess amount.

This should be a warning sign, if the tenants are desperate, renting sight unseen, something is wrong.

so are you sure asking $2000 a month is not just sticking it to the tenants?

 

[FarmerJ]

JY look online in your state govt web page for landlord tenant , look for statutes covering deposits ,and the return of deposits your state statutes might bar the use of deposits covering use for anything other that actual damage , 2nd get pictures of all damage to home and messes left , begin to make a list of the repairs & cleaning needed and create a line item detail of cost for repair , get notice sent in mail even if it is to the last known address , (perhaps post office will forward to a new address ) after a period of time it may be neccessity to file claim through small claim court if needed . ALso when all the dust settles have a proffessional property manager run the place for a year , while they take the time to bone up on who to manage rentals in your state , as far as the amount of rent being charged it has nothing to do with sqaut its more likely that some of the referances they has were BS and they frankly didnt give a damn about any rental home they ever had so caring about that one was no different . get your folks to have a property manager run the place at least 6 mo to a yr while they learn all they can about your states laws .

 

[jyssilly]

Actually, for our town, $2000/mo is right in the mid-range for a 3 bedroom house with basement, full kitchen, dining room, living room and yard, parking included! So I really don't think you can call it gouging if it's comprable to other houses in the area.
My parents have already taken pictures of the house, but because we didn't hire anyone to clean the house (we did it ourselves), there isn't any charge to list there. There are other damages to the house that they can list, and I don't know about what you can use the security deposit for (I'm pretty sure they can't use it for 1 months' rent though).
They are still considering going to a lawyer, but they have been managing this house (which is in our home town) for more than 10 years now and have never had any problems. They have rental houses in another nearby town also, and again, never any problems.
Thanks for the advice.
Jen

 

[abezon]

Absolutely they can use the deposit for Nov. rent! [GLM 186-15B] Whether they should bother to sue depends on how much it cost to get hte place back to its original condition & how much it cost in advertising/lost rent until they got new tenants for $2000/month. They can sue in small claims court if they can find the old tenants to serve them. Otherwise they may have to hire a skip trace service to locate the tenants, then serve them, then try to collect the judgment. Alternatively, they might engage a debt-collection service (for 25-50% of $$ collected) to try to collect the debt without going to court first. Halket is the one to ask about that!

Also, you & your parents need to read the Mass Code, Chapter 186 on LT laws. You should probably get a book or two also. Here are the L/T laws of Mass:

http://www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/gl-186-toc.htm