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Legal help on rental, my house was left early and a mess, and now they want to sue us!?

I am looking for some guidance. I rented my home at the last minute because I could not sell it. I did not put the house up for sale this year because the renters asked to stay in it another year, but they would not get me the lease back (which we needed to buy the house in the new state we live in) In the meantime of trying to get the lease they went on there own and had $600 dollars in charges to service the AC, and then sent us a bill. This was the second time they had done unauthorized charges and after the first time we told them to please never do it again. We had discussed painting, and I told them they could paint on approved colors. I recently found out, and the only way i did was because i had a friend go by, that they choose deep reds, oranges and greens and chalk boarded a closet. I did say they looked nice and they did, with there decor, but never approved the colors. I wrote them a stern email, and thats when they told us they would be moving out. They had signed the year lease and wanted an addendum, they signed what my husband wrote up stating in the addendum all clauses were still in motion in original lease, but that they would be moving out in 2 months. When they left the place is a mess, stuff is broken, they left a trailer load of junk. So what i am asking, do we have to give them there deposit back? We got estimates on paint with an average of 2100.00, repairs around 500.00, cleaning, 150.00, Hauling of junk 150.00, and unauthorized charges at 800.00 Any suggestions would be helpful, and appreciated. They are suing us for there deposit back, $1300.

Public Comments

1. hey, I suggest u see http://ebiznus.com for this. I hope this will be resolving your problem you can also browse more for this on answers.yahoo.com but i think you better look at what i suggested instead of wasting ur time. Best of luck.
2. as they left the place a mess you do NOT have to give them their deposit back take pictures of the damage so you have proof should they come after you
3. I am a tenant and I never ever left the place a mess in fact the apartments i leave are usually cleaner then when I get them. I also take pictures of the places I move into as well as when I leave. I never once had a problem , take pictures and tell them your not giving them back the deposit ,let them sue you in the End you will win for they destroyed your Property which is Illegal. Next time if there is a next time I hope you have better luck and not such low lifes.
4. YES! It is standard for tenants to lose their deposit for breaking a lease. If the repairs cost more then the deposit then you need to sue them for the balance. In some states you can also sue for rent through the end of the lease or the day it is re-rented. You do not say what they are trying to sue you for but they have no grounds to sue you for anything from what you posted. EDIT: They are not entitled to their deposit back because they broke the lease and left damages. They are delusional and the court will set them straight. EDIT: Heather made a good point that I missed: Landlords have 14-45 days to refund a deposit depending on what state you are in. If you do not send a detailed list of the repair costs with in that time frame you lose any right to the deposit. At that point it does not matter how much repair cost they caused, you just lose that money.
5. tell them forget it - they didn;t get pre-approval for the AC repair and if they wanted to paint the place - they should pay for it - not you - especially since they didn't use approved colors - I wouldn't give them any security deposit back and I would SUE THEM for costs of getting the place painted painted normally and all their damage fixed, plus they signed a new lease and then broke it? - they owe you 10 months rent on top of everything else and breaking a lease automatically forfeits a security deposit - what are they trying to sue you for? tell them they owe you about $10,000
6. In most states you as the landlord have a certain amount of time to either refund the deposit or give them a detailed list of charges that need to be paid to offset their security deposit. Usually this is about 30 days. If they moved out at the end of August or something and you still have not refunded or explained, they could win in court regardless of what condition they left the place in. If you covered your butt on the time frame, let them sue you. It does not sound like they will win.