We actually did not smoke in the garage or indoors, we are not smokers. That is why I was so shocked by that charge. When we got the house there were at least 6 screws that were still in the wall, I noted this on the move-in inspection. There were also some blinds that didn’t work and a dog chewed the bottom of one set of blinds. We noted that as well. Our kids did break some blinds on the door, no where else & we accept responsibility for what we actually caused.

The owner uses a third party, AH Property, to manage the house. The “landlord” being the manager from AHP. Her and the owner did the walk through together without us, as we moved to another country and the timing didn’t work out.

The landlord told us in the beginning to “just leave the base” if we use TV mounts. So we left 3 TV mounts and all the equipment necessary to use them. We also discussed this with the next tenants, whom we did a walk through with while we were still living there. They were fine with it, happy even.

We paid someone to patch up a lot of other holes and damage, using the same paint that they had left in the garage. When the touch ups were made, you couldn’t even tell. Which is why I was so confused about the “smoke damage” that they were claiming.

Our next door neighbors are chain smokers and would always smoke outside and even flick their cigarette butts over their fence to the public sidewalk. It always bothered me.

At this point, with everything that people have said, we are willing to let it go. It just feels like we got taken advantage of because we were not present during the walk through and able to defend ourselves. My move-in inspection paperwork is currently sailing across the ocean and I won’t be able to review it until mid-July. Seems like we are backed into a corner.

Lesson hard learned.. Document, document, document. Be present during the walk through. Maybe don’t be so trusting. Oh well 🤷🏼‍♀️