So this is NOT about the well discussed ELT, but a fee charged at normal end of lease when tenant does not renew and moves out.

I've leased cars for well over a decade now and up to a few years ago, there was no fee at turn-in other than excess wear and tear and excess mileage. But recently various makes have charged $300-$700 fee at turn-in , just for the privilege of turning in the vehicle at lease end, but waive it if you lease another one of their vehicles.

So after being hit with another one of those, I thought, why can't a LL do this to keep a tenant renting with them rather than a competitor? You write into the lease a termination FEE of $500 or $1000 or whatever, that is due at lease end , but maybe waived if they move out of the area, buy a house, deployed as military, or rent another one of your units.

I'm all for adding fees on if you can, but this one doesn't feel right. I'm also one that's not really in favor of keeping a carpet cleaning fee from the deposit automatically. Normal wear and tear is expected. If it's stained and torn up, definitely. There are some here that it's automatic and written into the lease. I don't like that one.

I wouldn't have signed a vehicle lease with that verbiage either.

Fees are good to adding to the bottom line... but some fees are just a little too much and too far.

I get where you are coming from with this I'm just not sure if tenant's would appreciate it and you may end up losing a tenant because they know it's going to cost them just to leave at the end of a lease term.

It seems that lease initiation fees and lease exit fees are tools that would give us more flexibility in monthly lease fees.

The dominant property management company in my market implemented move in fees (not ren and non refundable) several years ago and was met with little resistance.

I like that an exit fee rewards the tenant staying put and with a built in increase in rate, this is pulling in the right direction.

David,

I like your creative thinking! Times are a changin and we need to keep up.

AT THE MOMENT I'm shy on it. Sure we could write it in the lease and not all leases go to court, but if it did I don't think MY judge would honor it.

Sisco's post about the MO company's signing fee has me pondering.

We charge $200 Exit Cleaning Fee if we have to send in house cleaners.

Doogie,

MY judge says OK to require carpet cleaning. He said "It's not the LL's dirt". Same as mopping the kitchen floor, sweeping out the garage, carrying out the trash on exit.

We've had ZERO pushback on carpet cleaning since implementing it 30 years ago. Carpets can hold allergens that don't affect ME but might affect the new resident.

PLUS it instantly eliminates any argument from the new res when they move out ("It was dirty when we moved in") because I have proof it was professionally cleaned at move IN.

My lease requires they use only our preferred cleaning guy.

The res has the choice to pre-pay directly to the cleaner and use coupons, etc just give us a copy of the receipt OR pay us $50 per room.

This is part of our system to get back perfect ready to rent homes. Working so far!

BRAD