Mold excuse to break lease without notification

By DP

After living in our beautiful rental house in an upscale neighborhood for barely 3 months, tenants abandoned the property, claiming that it was unlivable beacause mold was making them ill.  They sent us an email on the day they moved out, planning it for several weeks knowing that we would be out of town for the holidays.  They are threatening to take us to court if their security deposit is not returned in full.

They gave us no indication of their issue nor did they notify us either verbally or in writing that they were having a problem.

We did pay to have their heating ducts cleaned, the result being no mold was found.  Just to be sure, we are hiring a mold specialist to give us an objective report.  We would have given them the opportunity to break their one-year lease if they had just communicated with us and given us a chance to remedy the purported problem.  They also left the house filthy and refused to move the 150 plus boxes they left in the basement.

We think they are having financial problems, having bounced one of their rent checks in the 3 months they lived there and are using this excuse to get out of their lease.

We plan to deduct one month rent/late fee/bounced check fee/cleaning fee/trash fee from their security deposit which would mean they would owe us under $500.  We doubt if we would ever see that but don’t want to go to court.

Advice?

Thanks! 

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