The kids trashed the place

My husband and I retired early.

We bought a small house on the lake and we rented our old house instead of selling it. Renting the place would mean long-term income and it was in the heart of the city by the college and close to shopping. The house has four bedrooms and two bathrooms. A college student with really good credit wanted to rent the place and he had three roommates that were going to rent the bedrooms. I made out a lease for this unique situation, giving each one of the tenants rights on the lease as well as responsibilities for their portion of the rent. 3 months after the boys moved into the place, one of the tenants moved out suddenly. I told the boys to find someone else to rent the room, but they decided to split the difference and keep the room empty. That was fine with me as long as they were paying the rent on time. Unfortunately, there came a time when the boy stopped paying rent all together. Their lease was going to be up in 3 months. I handed those kids everyday to pay their rent and I never saw a single dime from them. When I evicted them, they left a huge mess in the house and the central AC unit was broken. I honestly don’t know if the broken AC was their responsibility or not. I had no way of knowing, but I was still upset that they left the house in such poor conditions. I kept their entire security deposit to pay for the repairs to the AC unit.
heater