For people who don't know, that's a tactic I've heard some landlords use with problem tenants who simply won't leave. They bring in a "tenant" whose sole purpose is to be obnoxious and annoying in order to motivate the existing tenant to leave.

Is this legal?

Hey Landlords!

Looking for some advice. I wanted to see if any of you would've charged me for my carpet? My lease had no move out fee for my carpet or any stipulation for needing to clean it so I just vacuumed it really well. Landlord is trying to hit me for damages but the image she provided was just a picture taken in the hallway. These are the ones I took before I turned over my keys Aug 28th. (Lease was up Aug 31st)

I've never been charged for damage before and I even filled and spackled my holes (my LL and maintenance director asked me to do that.) I was told I didn't need to texture or paint so I didn't do that but I'm really irked about the carpet situation.

I did have water intrusion from the AC closet next to my bedroom in July 2026 and I moved out August 2026. I didn't even get the notice until Oct 10th (it's even postmarked Oct 8th.)

I'm a relatively small landlord (10 doors), and the property in question is a modest single family home (3 Bedrooms/1 Bathroom) on slab.

My long term tenant "John" has been living on the property for eight years and has always been a reliable and communicative tenant. When he first moved in he had a great credit score, good career, presented very well, and always kept the house in great condition.

He continues to be a reliable low maintenance tenant that pays his rent on time but over the years his life and living conditions have changed, and I'm beginning to get concerned about the potential condition of the house. He married a woman with kids from a previous relationship who now live in the home, gave up his career, and just generally doesn't seem to taking great care of himself.

The times that I've gone to the house for scheduled visits everything looked fine but workers who have gone out for emergency maintenance calls have mentioned that the house was extremely dirty and that there were trash and beer bottles everywhere, etc. He continues to pay his rent on time and doesn't often reach out to me, but he's become harder to communicate with and has been pushing back on any regular maintenance that requires inside access so I suspect that the house is probably hoarded and/or extremely dirty.

Now that I've painted the picture... I guess my question is... Should I just look the other way and plan on doing a major overhaul of this property when he eventually leaves (which I was already planning to do anyway), or should I take a more aggressive approach now and force an inspection which may likely result in a notice to cure or quit.

Normally I'd go with the later but this guys has always been reliable and will probably live there another decade if I don't bother him and just make my peace with the fact that the house will probably be in s**t condition when I eventually get it back.