New Tenant waits til the first to tell us not moving in

[tv0526]

What is the name of your state (AL)?

Help! We have a rental agreement that is to begin today, I get a text (yea, a text) that says they are not going to move in. They have paid the deposit, and I contacted them today to get the keys to them, and got the text back. Now what do we do? We have turned down numerous applicants and now we have 2 mortgages. any advice?

 

[CourtClerk]

Call some of your other applicants. Keep the deposit.

 

[tv0526]

threatening to sue

now I am getting tons of texts saying she is calling her atty in the morning! Can she sue us?

 

[MIRAKALES]

Tenant forfeits the deposit. LL can apply the deposit to cover lost rent and damages. To legally mitigate damages, LL should begin to re-advertise the property. Tenants lawsuit would be baseless unless there was no written lease agreement and/or the “deposit” was not a holding fee. Nevertheless, tenant is required to provide thirty (30) days advance written notice of intent to terminate. If the intent was to rent the premises to this particular tenant then tenant is not entitled to deposit refund.

 

[CA LL]

You should never take a "security deposit" to hold a property..you should take a HOLDING DEPOSIT or FEE (depending on YOUR state law).

You cannot just 'keep' the security deposit. You must first try to re-rent the property to mitigate your losses and send an accounting and refund any that is left. SOME STATES will not allow you to keep ANY of it if you did not have the proper wording in whatever document(s) were signed.

Please learn from this and use correct forms and collect a HOLDING DEPOSIT that can/will convert to SD if/when both parties perform as specified in the holding agreement.

 

[Mrs. D]

Did they sign the lease already? If they signed the lease, they entered a legally binding contract with you and cannot just text you to say they're not going to uphold their end of the bargain. If there was no lease, it could get a little trickier, but you were still damaged by the tenant's actions. Paying a deposit is proof of an agreement to enter into a contract. I would say hold the deposit, try to find a new tenant. Once you find the new tenant, deduct whatever rent and reasonable expenses you incurred in re-renting the property from the deposit and return the rest (if there is any) or sue for the excess (if your expenses are more than the deposit). Let the tenant sue you, she'll have to prove that she had the right to break her either written (if she already signed the lease) or verbal (if all she did was pay the deposit) contract to rent the premises. I don't think that's a battle the tenant can win.

 

[aabbcc]

Let the tenant call their attorney (smells like a bluff to me). Ask for their attorney's name and number. I have been known to call the tenant's attorney before the tenant. And, believe me, it's a lot easier working with an attorney as opposed to a tenant !!!!

In the mean time, start showing the property.