No Signs

Of the tenants since Wednesday. There are a LOT of their personal items left in the house (food, dishes, medications, tools, cleaning supplies, houseplants, books etc), and the whole house to clean in the next 48-hours. I keep telling myself, ‘because other people don’t operate like you do, doesn’t mean it’s not all going to come together.’ This doesn’t work very well… I am the sort of person that in the face of the unknown, I have to start creating possible scenarios. What are the likely outcomes?

• The very worst is that they are going to ‘abandon’ their belongings and not participate in the move-out walk through. The lease dictates what happens in this situation, and leaves me dealing with all their shit, cleaning the house, and a bunch of legal moves. I don’t think this is what’s afoot.
• Equally as unfortunate is something medically has happened to the elder of the couple. They do not appear to be in the best of health. How this situation would play out is wholly dependent on them communicating, which they seem to have stopped doing.
• They are going to wait until Tuesday to show up and complete their move-out and cleaning because:
  • They want to spend the least amount of time here they possibly can.
  • They are playing a mind game and are, essentially, keeping me from doing touch up painting and other ‘fair wear and tear’ repairs. This will very likely keep me here longer, should this be the case.
  • They’re going to come in last minute and try to contest the starting condition of the house, try to use/weaponize old conversations against me, essentially attempting to last-minute bully me. Yeah, I know this sounds like a little too much, but they’ve already proven themselves to be perfectly capable of some pretty low brow behavior. This is why a friend will be with me during the walk-through.
• They are done, have closed the door on this year of their lives. I get that, on top of engaging in serial enthusiasm (personally and professionally), they too let go of prior interests that now seem boring, yesterday, or a ‘yawn.’ It would not surprise me if they mostly let go of their responsibility to clean, thereby losing their deposit, because they’re simply done. This is my best guess.