Cailey Seymour and William (Bill) Gerhard Jr rented a home from us from February 2016 through November 2016 in Cocoa, Florida. The initial lease was to come up for renewal/termination in February 2017.
In the beginning, the rent was being paid on time and they were also doing improvements around the house. They wanted to work on the curb appeal of the house and so they asked if they could purchase some mulch for the front and back of the house – which we approved and paid for.
However, we began having trouble with Cailey R Seymour and William N Gerhard Jr shortly after this timeframe.
From our understanding, Cailey was responsible for ensuring rent was paid. She was the primary contact with us and let us know when the rent would be paid and amounts deposited. On several occasions, we found Cailey to be very dishonest regarding payments and had excuses for why rent wasn’t being paid on time (which were mostly all disproved).
Overall, they were late each month starting in June 2016.
Two Three Day Notices were delivered to their home due to the late rent. After the first notice was delivered, we contacted Bill Gerhard Jr to alert him to the situation. When we spoke with him, he claimed that he had absolutely no knowledge of what was going on and claimed he was not aware that a three day notice was even delivered. After a conversation with him, we worked out agreeable payment arrangements to get caught up.
Unfortunately those attempts did not work with rent not being paid. He made one payment (which was less than agreed) and then provided excuses about why agreed payments were being missed. We then had another Three Day Notice delivered in mid-November and we were going to proceed with eviction.
A conversation was started with Cailey Seymour once the second notice was received. She was advised that we would be willing to let them stay until December 1st, and at that time, possession needed to be turned over. If it was not, we would begin the eviction process.
On a positive note, the tenants did move out willingly on December 1st.
However, the damages to the house were extensive. Pictures below show the condition of the home as it was left to us.
- Complete re-painting of the entire house
- Several rooms required additional priming of the walls before painting
- Removal of stickers on the walls
- Two bedroom floor thresholds need replaced
- Large Ceiling hole in one of the bedrooms (about 12×12)
- Attic entry was damaged with the ceiling around it cracked
- Yard needed fully mowed and brush removed/trimmed
- Large amount of debris / trash removal
- Laundry room door was damaged
- Kitchen sink area damaged
- Closet door installation
- Baseboard and flooring repairs
- Major cleaning on the inside of the house including appliances
Material list:
- Plywood
- Interior 24″ door
- Two packs of two garage door rollers
- Caulking supplies
- Bi-Fold 36″ closet door
- Five gallons wall paint
- Two gallons white semi-gloss paint
- Five gallons wall primer
- Two floor thresholds
- Drywall
- Baseboard
Total cost of materials was $482.32.
Cost of labor to repair everything applicable to tenant damages was $1,980.00
The total cost lost was $4,812.32
We would not recommend renting to Cailey R Seymour and Bill N Gerhard Jr based on the following:
- The couple was dishonest with payments and ended up 2.5 months behind in rent
- The couple painted the house different colors, which was not fully completed, without consent
- The lawn was left overgrown and was not mowed in well over two months
- A considerable amount of junk and debris was left behind
- Tenant had an additional teenage child move in without consent or approval
- Tenant brought additional pets into the house without consent or approval (pet rats and a cat)
