Need to repair after a tenant moves out

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Forum -> Inquiries & Offers -> Lakewood, Toms River & Jackson related Inquiries

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amother

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 4:28 pm

amother Opal wrote:

I’ve rented for the past 20 years and gosh I’m happy you were never my landlord!!

If you leave homes in the condition my tenants did, then im sure glad you were never my tenants. Ive been renting for over a decade and would never treat a house or apartment like they did. I dont see why me charging them for damages and repairs they caused makes me a bad landlord, but if that's your assumption of me then whatever.

amother

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 4:30 pm

amother Cantaloupe wrote:

It definitely is a requirement to paint after each tenant. The fact that you don't want to rent it out again doesn't mean the previous tenant has to pay to repaint by losing the security deposit

Legally it isnt, at least in NJ

They arent paying to repaint, they are paying to restore the house to a reasonable condition after causing damage

amother

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 4:35 pm

amother Cantaloupe wrote:

When we rented (2 different landlords) we asked if we could hang things on the wall. Both times we were told, yes, it is your home now

OP didn't clarify what she agreed upon with the tenants at the beginning, if they would be allowed to hang things up or not.

Lease says they are allowed to install fixtures, as long as they remove, repair, and return to original condition, and only with written consent (which they never asked for)

amother

Aubergine

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 4:43 pm

If it’s Jewish tenants you would have to consult a Rav. The Halacha would usually follow the minhag of the community. In most cases anything that would be addressed by a standard spackle and paint job would not come off security even if they were wrong for making outsized marks and holes. For the junk removal you would give them fair notice and then charge them for removal. The shelves and TV mount removal would likewise be their charge. Your husbands time would be chargeable to the extent that a handyman would charge.

If we are talking about non Jews you are probably within your right to try to deduct the rest that you mentioned but if they do take you to court a judge may hand them back most of the deposit.

amother

Yarrow

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 4:44 pm

amother OP wrote:

Ok. I dont understand why everyone feels the need to focus on repainting. I asked for advice on how to figure out my charges, im not looking for everyones judgement on whether or not I should charge it. I know im within my legal rights, I know they left actual damage that is NOT wear and tear. I dont really care if painting is standard, I wasnt planning on doing it and now I have to. So either I hire a team and its a huge expense, or DH does it and it still costs a lot plus days of his time. This is after removing everything from the walls and fixing all the holes and damage, before it needs to be painted.

I also need to deal with getting 15 HEAVY pieces of furniture out of my house, along with piles of trash, old clothes/shoes, empty boxes, old kids toys like bouncers and ride on toys. I also need to clean it top to bottom, wipe stains off floors, walls, windows and get carpets cleaned. Sweep, clean out appliances, literally everything.

I am within my rights to take all the wall repairs and painting, as well as junk removal, out of their security deposit. There is no reason I shouldnt. If I had been planning on painting anyways, I would only charge them for the removal of the tv mount and wall shelves, because those were not installed properly and taking them down is going to cause damage to the sheetrock, and need to be professionally removed. But I wasnt planning on repainting, I was okay living with some scuff marks for a few years until I could afford to repaint properly, which I cant right now. And on top of all this, I am moving out of a rental apartment where I have been already killing myself doing all the cleaning, spackling and repainting (to avoid losing my security)

If someone here rents and decides to be extra nice to their tenants and not take what they are legally owed, fine. But there is nothing wrong with me doing it and literally no reason for me not to. So please stop judging me. If you have any practical advice, I will gladly take it..

The best way is to get quotes from vendors. Include that with your refund calculation and then decide if you want to use those vendors or do the work yourself. Furniture and junk removal is clearly their responsibility and that alone will be pricey possibly even the whole deposit so start with that.
For the rest since you seem to be in the vast minority in what’s acceptable and assuming you’re a frum family renting to frum tenants I would ask shailos about what you should be charging. The same way we can’t give you quotes without seeing the damage, we can’t know what’s right or wrong to charge for without seeing it.

amother

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 4:46 pm

amother Aubergine wrote:

Thank you!

amother

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 4:47 pm

amother Yarrow wrote:

Great, thank you

For the record, they are not Jewish

Amarante

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 5:13 pm

Hire someone to do everything and then deduct from the security.

Your "labor" isn't free and shouldn't be used to reduce the cost of fixing damages. This includes hauling out the trash; arranging for furniture to be thrown out and hiring a cleaning crew as tenants are supposed to leave a place "broom clean"

Honestly holes in the wall are a bit of a gray area. While it is normal for someone to hang a few pictures with thin picture hangers, hanging screws and heavy shelving is not something that is normally allowed since fixing it up adds to the cost of a paint job.

amother

Pearl

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 5:16 pm

It’s normal to have to repaint in between tenents. That’s part of renting out a property.
Yes they need to come back and remove their furniture or you will bill them for you to hire someone to remove it.

octopus

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 5:45 pm

Sounds like a headache! So sorry you are going through this, op!

amother

Hyacinth

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 6:01 pm

I’m a landlord in NY - not NJ.
I only rent to Jews.
I don’t nickel and dime the deposit.
It’s expected over time for the place to need to be repainted. I send someone in to fix regular wall holes and repaint between tenants.
If there’s like a giant section of sheet rock that needs to be replaced like if someone banged something into the wall really hard I would charge for that.
It’s expected that renters will hang TV, photos and all that to the wall. I’m happy that they attach their bookcases to the wall so they aren’t dangerous around the kids. I would not want to be the kind of landlord that doesn’t allow attaching bookcases to walls. That is dangerous.
Broken tiles is expected over time, every 10 years or so I’ll replace oven and fridge.

I have charged for things like:
Broken light fixtures, Broken window and things like that.

amother

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 6:23 pm

amother Hyacinth wrote:

Good for you..

theoneandonly

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 6:24 pm

amother OP wrote:

Good for you..

Why is the snark necessary? She clearly delineated her experiences as a landlord and what she is able to charge for and what she isn't.

amother

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 6:33 pm

theoneandonly wrote:

Why is the shark necessary? She clearly delineated her experiences as a landlord and what she is able to charge for and what she isn't.

I’m not really sure what the point was

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 6:42 pm

amother OP wrote:

Legally it isnt, at least in NJ

They arent paying to repaint, they are paying to restore the house to a reasonable condition after causing damage

I rent in NJ. We would need to pay for damage beyond normal wear and tear. Dead batteries and dead lightbulbs is normal wear and tear. Scraped paint is normal wear and tear. Holes in the wall is damage. The size of the holes doesn’t matter. Shelves still installed is damage.

You should be hiring a restoration service and using their receipts to calculate what’s left from the deposit. Not trying to do it yourself.

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 6:48 pm

amother OP wrote:

small nail holes: regular wear and tear
giant screws, installed wall fixtures, major areas missing paint or spackle marks: damage

Unless you have a source saying otherwise..

In general I’ve never heard of major areas missing paint, or spackle marks, to be an issue beyond normal wear and tear. I don’t have a source. It’s just what’s commonly done.

If they installed something, removed it and spackled it—as they should, then there will be spackle marks. So I’m not sure what you’re expecting.

ShishKabob

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 7:53 pm

Hugs op, it sounds like you're disappointed with the way things were left.
The only thing I see that you can charge for is the removal of the furniture and maybe the removal of the large shelves on the walls.
The dirt in the appliances, walls, windows, carpet cleaning etc. all fall under normal wear and tear.
Of course you were probably a really neat tenant and thought that everyone leaves an apartment the same way they got it, but these people obviously weren't like that. And I hear you that you are super annoyed that you have to work so hard to make this livable for you when you can't afford to do a regular paint job etc....

amother

Salmon

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 8:03 pm

Op, your question seemed to be how to handle the security deposit so people Are answering the question.

amother

Hyacinth

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 8:08 pm

amother OP wrote:

I’m not really sure what the point was

Didn’t mean to tick you off.

I would say it’s best to hire a repair guy and get a quote before and deduct it from their deposit with an itemized receipt.

Just check with the laws in your state there might be a set amount of days you have to give it to them in writing before you forgo the right to deduct from security deposit to make repairs. Also, I’ve heard of cases where tenants are told we will deduct x amount for these repairs unless you want to take care of repairs yourself and tenants had to agree. Check the laws in your state.

Also, make sure that all the things you want to deduct for are legally very clearly allowed to be deducted from security deposit because the last thing you want is to end up in a small claims court.

CPenzias

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 8:27 pm

amother OP wrote:

I wasnt asking for legal advice, Ive checked the local laws and I am entitled to deduct for the repairs and repainting if its more than wear and tear (which shelves, mounts, large screws and large areas of torn off paint and spackle spots are)

So what are you asking for? Opinions?

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