Tenants destroying house, Property Management Company not helping

[BirdPerson]

What is the name of your state? VA

The tenants got into a fight, broke a window inside the house, tried to fix it themselves and damaged the entire frame, then a month later when we had a storm, reported as broken by the storm. The property management company would not send anyone over there to fix the window so I paid the deposit out of my pocket to have a window installer make an estimate. He said that there's no way the damage came from outside and that the tenant admitted to Breaking the window and even hitting it with a hammer to remove it instead of opening the slide. At this point the damage they have caused is worth more than rent and security deposit combined. What are my legal rights to evict them? Thanks, they have almost a year left on their lease and I have not seen the inside of the place there could be more damage that I don't know about.

 

[HRZ]

Unless your lease addresses a requirement for tenant to cure ongoing damage ...if the tenant is content to live with damaged window you might need to wait until lease end to address damages .

Often an inoperable window is a code violation ...and a formal code dept citation might help....then again be careful...might code violation backfire

can you jawbone the tenant to pay the replacement cost? Get it in writing

 

[FarmerJ]

If you refuse to repair it then its likely that the damage will grow worse AND your at risk the tenant will call local housing inspections to get them to make you fix it , city housing inspections will not care how it became broken they could force you to repair it under the threat of condemnation if you don't. So get it fixed then bill the tenant and note on the bill the deposit funds are depleted by x amount with balance of X to be paid by___________. If they don't pay then they are in breach of the lease since I cant imagine you gave them a lease that didn't hold them responsible for tenant created damages. Keep in mind that when they don't pay the balance your free to choose to take them to court and evict them based on the breach. Your second issue would be to talk to your attorney to learn if you can use the property managements refusal to repair as reason to declare a breach and end your contract with them so you can find someone else to run it.

 

[adjusterjack]

What are my legal rights to evict them?

If you've been a landlord any length of time and you don't know what your legal rights are, you should.

1 - Hire a lawyer to get them out.

2 - Then sell the place and get out of the landlord business.