If a rental property that you own had property damage by tenants and you found out when they left, be sure to read the article below because we will be addressing the all-too-common problem that landlords often will encounter when they say, “Help! My Detroit house had property damage by tenants!”
If you own a rental property, then the following may have happened or may happen to you in the future. Did you already have a tenant leave it in less-than-perfect condition? This does happen from time to time! In fact, it’s an experience that probably every seasoned landlord has faced at least once. If you looked at your empty rental property and said, “Help! My Detroit house has property damage by tenants” then here are four options you have to do something about it…
1. Is it worth going after the tenant?
It might be a good idea to first assess the damage by tenants to property and figure out if it might be worth going after the tenant to pay for these. Unfortunately, it often is not worth the hassle because it is often a time consuming and even expensive effort to get the tenant to pay you back, and there are times where they still may not. However, if the damage is significant enough, you may decide that going after the bad tenants is the right option.
2. Is it worth repairing the property damage?
Whether you have holes in the walls or they stole the toilets – we’ve heard of just about everything you can imagine! It’s possible that just some drywall and paint will fix the problem, in which case you may want to repair it and rent the place out again, and accept the minor repairs as the cost of doing business. You could even look into rental property damage insurance, but if the property damage by tenants is still not significant enough then it may not make sense. However, if the damage is significant and isn’t worth repairing yourself then you might be interested in some other options:
3. You could rent your house to a handyman
Another option that is actually really helpful is to locate a handyman who wants to actually live in the house. You can offer a discount on rent (or even free rent) and in return they can fix up the house for you and make it a nice rental property again, without any out of pocket costs to you. This might be a tricky situation however because what’s to stop them from staying in the house too long without a lot of work getting done. But what if this handyman is a bad tenant, how do you know how to avoid bad tenants in the future?
4. You could sell the house
Another option is to sell the house and move on from owning a frustrating rental property where the tenant damage property. However, be aware that if you try to sell the house on the open market, you may have to fix it up first in order for the agent to list it. Another option is to sell privately to a house-buying team like ours. (We buy houses in as-is condition and we’ll fix them up ourselves).