Forum Archive

While I really don’t want to add to the landlord/tenant debates that seem to take up so much space here, I have a simple question: what to do about a former tenant who refuses to give the landlord a forwarding home address?

We just had some tenants from hell who after living in an apartment in our house for a few weeks, and making all sorts of changes to the place and having us do the same (to the tune of $2000), then began demanding things that weren’t in the lease (complete access to our backyard, using our basement as a music studio). Anyway, after angry back-and-forths, we released them from the lease and they moved out only 6 weeks after moving in.

Now we’ve asked for a forwarding home address to send their last month’s rent to. And they are refusing to give us one–demanding that we send the deposit to their work address. Never mind that every tenant we’ve ever had has given a forwarding home address, we need one now to send their outstanding bills to (they keep getting cable and phone bills sent to our address) and for tax purposes (to list tenant info). Plus, if anything else surfaces, we think we should be able to locate them.

Are we really being unreasonable? Our lawyer claims we aren’t, but I’d like to hear from other landlords and tenants. As a reality check…

Thanks!