This week the question for Ask Landlord Hank is about how a property management company deals with tenant damage. Remember Landlord Hank is not an attorney and is not giving legal advice.

Dear Landlord Hank,

We inherited a single-family home that already had a property management company.

Lucky for us, the tenant moved out just before moratorium!

However, the home was trashed and it was clear that this had been going on for quite a while. Garbage bags and damage were everywhere. For instance, a glass shower door had broken glass and large pieces of glass protruding! And the tenant was still using the shower with just a curtain hanging! And there were 4 small children living in the home!

My question is, do I have any recourse with the property management company?

They had done their walk-through and had asked the tenant to replace the door, but failed to follow up. We also had smoke detectors beeping from June till December, when I was granted permission to enter with the property-management owner. Clearly there was neglect. We sold the house with a loss of more than $50,000 due to all the problems, including the pandemic.