The right way to handle tenants who are moving out

Eventually, tenants experience that “feeling I get when I look to the west, and my spirit is crying for leaving,” which Led Zeppelin describes, and they move away.

When this happens, you will want to make the transition of the tenant out of the house as smooth as possible. The best way to do this is by telling the tenant what you expect from them. We send a letter that clearly spells out the checkout process. This way there are no misunderstandings, we are all on the same page, wavelength, sheet of music, or stairway to heaven.

Move Out Information Letter to Tenants

Some key things that we mention in our letter are:

1.) How much of their security deposit will be returned.

2.) There will need to be a review of their check in sheet (and attach a copy for them).

3.) What you expect in terms of house cleaning.

4.) Reminders to contact the utility companies to disconnect services in their name.

5.) Reminders to cancel newspaper and other subscriptions, and to provide the Postal Service with a change of address form.

6.) Reminders to contact us when they are ready for the final house inspection.

7.) A note that if keys are not returned, they will be charged.

8.) Any costs that we must pay to repair the house will be taken out of their security deposit, and we will refund the money due them within 10 days.

Download a copy of my “move-out” information letter to tenants.

(The link to my letter may not work on Internet Explorer. It seems to work fine with Google Chrome.)

Why be lenient with the damage deposit?

In general, we are pretty lenient when it comes to charging tenants for little things on the checklist. If they move out, and they have been good tenants, we are going return to them most, if not all of their security (or damage) deposit back, barring some obvious big broken item.

Our perspective is that we made a lot of money from the tenants over the years, and we don’t want them to leave on a sour note just because they thought we might have overcharged them on some ticky-tack repair.

 

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_____________________

Coming VERY Soon!

How to Turn Your Home into a Rental House, Instead of Selling It
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34 Responses to “The right way to handle tenants who are moving out”

  1. Great list Terry! It’s nice to see it from a landlord’s perspective. When we rented in the past, with the exception of one horrible one which we had to sue, most of our deposit would be returned to us. Usually the only thing that would be held out was for carpet cleaning, but we still got a big chunk of the deposit back each time.

    • Terry says:

      I’m glad to hear that things generally went well for you. I really can’t understand landlords who charge excessive amounts for seemingly minor repairs. I would rather have a tenant leave happily than to leave on a sour note. If nothing else, it creates bad karma.

  2. Katy says:

    I’m not in a position yet to turn my house into a rental but please let me know when your book comes out. I want to be prepared when I am ready.

  3. […] The right way to handle tenants who are moving out by Terry @ Fix em Up Rent em Out […]

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  6. […] The Right Way to Handle Tenants Who Are Moving Out on Fix Em Up Rent Em Out […]

  7. […] I mentioned in an earlier post, when we hear our tenants humming “Stairway to Heaven” that’s a sign that they may be  they ready to move […]

  8. […] The right way to handle tenants who are moving out by Fix ‘Em Up. […]

  9. Mark Z says:

    Thanks for the checklists. And also make sure that the accounting should be accompanied by labor and material receipts needed to clean and fix any damages caused by the tenant.

  10. […] we do with all tenants, we gave them a “Move Out Information Letter” describing the steps of the moving out process, which they […]

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