Backyard Realty Group Jennifer Schingeck realestate company Acworth , Georgia

I have received and reviewed a copy of the complaint that was filed by Ms. Tanisha Spy. Ms. Spy signed a lease with us on March 19, 2010 for a 12 month period with an ending date on March 18, 2011. I had received a text message from her that an emergency had come up and that they may have to move. Then later that date I received another text message that said the crisis was taken care of and that they would not be moving.

On July 9, 2010 I received a phone call from Tanisha stating that they were going to be moving out because they had the opportunity to purchase a home. I referenced her back to her lease to Section 7 that states:

Tenant may terminate this Lease provided Tenant is not in default hereunder at the time of giving notice, has strictly complied with all of the provisions of this paragraph, and termination is as of the last day of a calendar month. The forgoing shall not relieve Tenant of his responsibilities and obligations regarding damages to the premises. Tenant may terminate this lease before the expiration of the original term by:

A. Giving management sixty (60) days written notice on or before the day rent is due as shown in paragraph 2 above; and

B. Paying all monies due through date of termination; and

C. Returning property in a clean and ready to rent condition as required by Move-Out form; and

D. Paying a $300 administrative fee and one-month rental equivalent at the time notice is tendered.

When I spoke to Ms. Spy on the phone on July 9, 2010 I told her that she needed to supply us with a written 60 days notice as per the lease referenced above. Ms. Spy emailed me a notice stating that they are putting in their notice and will be vacating no later than 7/31/10. I explained to her that she is responsible for those 60 days and she needed to pay all termination fees as per the lease and she agreed. We tried very hard to work with her considering she did not pay the cancellation fees at the time of giving notice as required per the lease.

After she put in their notice I did go and put a for lease sign in the yard and I explained to her prior to doing so how the process worked as per her lease that states:

Management may place a For Lease sign in the yard of the Property no more than sixty (60) days prior to the end of a lease term. Management will install a lockbox and show the Property to prospective tenants or purchasers during the last sixty (60) days of the term during reasonable hours. Tenant should expect showings to take place between 9:00am and 8:00pm seven days per week

We did everything that we could to work with Ms. Spy. Because she had a young child I agreed that we would not allow showings past about 6:30pm even though the lease that she signed provided showings up until 8:00pm. We always made appointments and tried to give Ms. Spy 24 hours notice on most occasions. I showed the property on one occasion while Ms. Spy and her family were there and it was very difficult. While I was showing the prospective tenants the home Ms. Spy and her family decided to stay while we were doing the showing which was fine, however, she was yelling throughout the home to her son to bring her things while they were trying to pack and it made it very difficult to show the property. I had to reschedule that showing with the prospective applicant to after the tenants moved out when it was less hectic so that they could actually see the home.

As per the lease and what was explained to Ms. Spy she was responsible for those 60 days whether they decided to leave early or not, they had to abide by the lease. There was a time that I went over to the property to show it and the basement door was left wide open with a can of round up in the door frame. The tenants were there spraying the weeds in the backyard earlier that day. I explained to Ms. Spy that they left the door open.

Ms. Spy stated that they would be out of the property no later than 7/31/10. However, they still had some items there and some cleaning to do. I asked her to notify me when everything was complete and we would do a walk through. I did attempt to schedule the walk through with Ms. Spy. The dates that she asked me to do it I already had meetings with tenants scheduled. I offered to do it on a Sunday in hopes that it would accommodate both of our schedules but that was a day that was not available for Ms. Spy. I stated that she did not have to be present at the time of the walk through because I would correspond with her anything that I seen via certified mail and would be happy to go over it with her. This was not acceptable to her.

On 8/7/10 we had some potential tenants that filled out an application and wanted to move into the home within a week. I explained to Ms. Spy this situation and asked that we do the move out inspection ASAP to take responsibility away from them and so that we could determine what would need to be done in order for a new tenant to move in. We had several discussions about this through email. Ms. Spy thought that we were still going to charge her for the 60 days but still allow a tenant to move in meaning we would be collecting double rent. Once we discussed this and I explained to her that we would not be doing this she allowed me to go and do the move out inspection. I told her that I would like to go to the property on 8/10/10 to do the move out inspection after we had the above discussion on 8/8/10. She explained that they still had some cleaning to do and she would complete that after work on 8/9/10 and that I could do the inspection on 8/10/10.

I arrived on 8/10/10 and did the inspection. I found a table in the driveway, missing window grates, floors not vacuumed, the burners were not on the stove but were in the dishwasher along with some other dishes, the appliances had not been cleaned, the overall home needed cleaning, there was a hole in the carpeting in front of the laundry room, and several small items needing addressed. Upon returning to the office I emailed Ms. Spy with all of the items I noted.

Since the potential tenants that wanted to move in changed their mind and Ms. Spy was still responsible for the 60 days I asked them if they would like to go back and fix the mentioned items in order to not be charged as a courtesy to the tenant. I was leaving for vacation and I explained to her that I was going to leave the keys with our receptionist and that they can come by and get them to address the items. When I returned from vacation Ms. Spy stated that the items were completed however they never came to get the keys.

I did a second move out inspection on 8/25/10 and many of the items had been corrected but there were still a few items that I charged Ms. Spy for including: missing window grates, broken toilet paper holder, red stains on the carpeting, garage door opener not returned and the hole in the carpeting. Ms. Spy stated again to me that they did not put the hole in the carpeting however they were the only tenants living in the property and the carpeting was brand new when they moved in. Therefore they were charged $75 for this hole. Typically when a hole is in the carpeting in the location in which it is we would have to charge the tenant for the entire piece of carpeting in this case for the entire hallway. But we believe that we can possibly fix it which is why they were only charged $75.

At this point in time, it is now September 21, 2010 and the tenants still have access to the home, the garage door opener was never returned and they still have an outstanding balance on the account. The lease termination fees were not paid, the 60 days of rent have not been paid in full and the damages have not been paid. We retained their security deposit to go towards the outstanding balance. We did everything that we could to work with these tenants.