Q: Can I charge tenants for labor I do to the property. Cleaning and yardwork they didnt not do before moving out.
The tenants did not clean the house. They lived there for 1 year. The interior was freshly painted when they moved in. The dog destroyed the lawn and it is now a mud pit. We had a dog there for 5 years prior and never had this problem. It is winter and too late to try and seed. We will need to lay sod to ready it for the next tenants. Can we charge them for labor if we do the work? We have always done the work on our own house and landscaping. How much is an appropriate amount? To have the house professionally cleaned it is 50$ an hr. I do a better job than the cleaners in the past. To have the yard fixed it would cost us over 2000.
A: The tenants are presumably liable for damages beyond ordinary wear and tear. You do not even have to have the damages repaired in order to be able to charge them (first, presumably, from their security deposit and bill them for amounts over that). If you do have repairs made, yes you can charge them for your own labor as long as it is reasonable. If house cleaners are $50 per hour in your area, then you can charge $50 per hour of your time to do the job. I recommend obtaining some sort of bid or other proof of the $50 per hour rate by the professionals in case you are ever challenged in court. The yard should be the same. Be sure to send a written accounting to the tenants within 31 days of their restoring possession to you for why you are keeping the security deposit or you will owe them twice the amount not so timely accounted for. You can bill them for amounts over the security deposit and you can later amend the bill if you need to, so long as you have a reasonable explanation of why the charge(s) could not have been included in the 31 day accounting. To the extent you ever want to sue the ex-tenants to collect what is owed you, remember you have 1 year from when they restored possession to you (or from when you first learned of the damage (or reasonably should have learned of the damage) being charged for. After 1 year, the statute of limitations is up and it will be too late. Concerns? Review it all with a landlord-tenant attorney. Good luck.7
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