At PropM, our job as a professional property management company serving the Sarasota/Bradenton and Portland, Oregon areas is to protect your property. Our potential clients often want to know what happens if a tenant destroys the property. That’s a great question, and a good property management company should not have this situation happen too often , if at all. Your property manager should do a good job of screening tenants. But, if it does happen – what do you do?
Inspections and Documentation
A great property management company will have video of the inside and outside of your property. A move-in inspection video should be made before the tenant even moves in. We have these move-in reports on video so everything is documented and date/time stamped. That’s a big deal because we can prove the place was destroyed. You can compare the move-out video to the move-in video. Then, you’ll need to put a cost sheet together. This is how we handle a security deposit return or refund. Figure out what damages the tenant has caused, and what they owe.
Collecting Damages from the Tenant
You can send the tenants a bill in the mail, and give them a certain number of days to pay you back. If they don’t pay, you can pursue them legally and turn a claim into your insurance company. Tenants can turn it into their insurance company as well. At the end of the day, the two insurance companies can battle it out and determine who pays the claim.
It’s not the end of the world if a tenant destroys your property. It’s clearly not you or us who did it. We know who did it, and we need to determine the value of your property that was lost.
You can replace like items for like items. So, if a used old door was damaged, you don’t get to charge the tenant for a brand new door. You’ll need to discount it somewhat because you cannot upgrade your property on the tenant’s dime.
If you have any questions about protecting your property, please contact us at PropM Property Management.
