Applicants sign rental contract.

Then they want out due to their misunderstanding.

Then they want to cancel that decision & stay.

They haven't moved in.

I said nope I accepted your vacate notice.

They said they want a refund on all their rent & deposit.

They said I can keep the application fee because they understand that money was used.

Anyone have this happen?

How did you handle it?

Did you sign a holding fee agreement with them? Did you take the home off the market because this couple was moving in?

I ALWAYS sign a holding fee agreement if they are not moving in right away. That spells out the penalities if they don't sign the lease or don't execute it. Once the lease is actually signed, the Early Lease Buy Out Fee, which is ALSO in the lease, goes into effect.

I've got one now, signed the lease. It starts in two weeks Just got email that they decided not to move. I sent them an invoice for the early lease buy out, since the lease is signed and they have tied up the home for 2 months.

Done this twice. First time was an elderly mom and her grown daughter rented the place. Younger son and daughter came over and yelled at me for taking advantage of mom (who they said was incompetent). She wasn't incompetent but son saw dollar signs leaving his inheritance since mom was going to sell her home to move here. Not wanting to get involved in a family fight, I refunded the security since they hadn't moved in. I kept the first month's rent until I could re- rent the place. Took another month so I kept it all. I made them sign that they got their deposit back and that they understood that 'some' rent might come back to them IF I got another tenant in before the 30 days was up.

Second case was a son and girlfriend couple who were going to 'take over' from the Dad when he was moving. Just a straight swap with me not having to do any cleaning. All paid and ready to go when the female got nasty and demanding to me more than once and I decided this was not going to work. I refunded ALL monies paid and made them sign they got every penny back. Problem solved. I wanted no part of the female half and her threats and it was easier to just undo the entire transaction.

Both these provisions are in my Rental Agreement just in case I need to prove anything in court.

Probably a wise move to not want them to stay, maybe a little too flaky, or something like that.

Don't really know how I would handle refund.without asking legal opinion. If they think they will lose rent and deposit, who knows if they might decide to stay and never make another payment. As long as they have turned over keys and you have taken possession of the premises, you would seem to have the upper hand in deciding how to deal with refund.

The caution above is why I would want some legal advice,

Marv,

Yeah they either found a cheaper place or split up overnight.

ELT solves this.

While you may have legal justification to keep their money as you will suffer a loss, I personally would give back all or most of it and move on. It's just not worth the aggravation. But maybe that's the older, softer "me."

This happened to me years ago when I was greener than I am now. I sought legal advice. The advice was follow the terms of the signed Lease in accordance with state LL/T law.

The part of my lease that addresses the Security Deposit says this:

Security Deposit: Renter agrees that such deposit is NOT to be considered or used as ‘last month’s rent’. No fees may be deducted from the Renter Security Deposit until the termination of the tenancy. Housing Provider will hold the Renter Security Deposit in a Trust account with *** Bank in accordance with the NCTSA. Any interest that accrues is for the benefit of the Housing Provider. Upon any termination of the tenancy herein created, the Housing Provider may deduct from the Renter Security Deposit amounts sufficient to pay: 1) any damages sustained by the Housing Provider as a result of the Renter’s nonpayment of rent or nonfulfillment of the Initial Term or any renewable periods, including the Renter’s failure to enter into possession; 2) any damages to the Premises for which the Renter is responsible; 3) any unpaid bills which become a lien against the Premises due to the Renter’s occupancy; 4) any costs of re-renting the Premises after a breach of this lease by the Renter; 5) any court costs incurred by the Housing Provider in connection with terminating the tenancy; 6) any other damages of the Housing Provider which may then be a permitted use of the Renter Security Deposit under the laws of this State.

I had a woman from the East Coast, whose husband was a contractor in Afghanistan, move to our town to be close to her husband's family. She needed the support to help raise the kids, who had some issues, and weren't planning on staying long--- just while they built their dream house. She loved the house based on her MIL's videos to her--- but she cried through walkthrough and cried through lease-signing. She explained she was just "missing her husband" and realized that her mega-top-of-the-line washer/dryer set wouldn't fit in the utility room, which was set up to accommodate a much more ordinary washer/dryer set. But in reality, her previous place had been a $4000/month new build, and my little 1920's 3/1.5 just wasn't good enough for her, even on a temporary basis.

I let her out of the lease a few hours later. I didn't want to rent to someone who hated my house. It's also made me much more leery about renting places sight-unseen.

Another time, I had a couple that was moving into their first place together. If either of them was under 50, I don't remember. They were lovey-dovey all the way through lease-signing at 4:30... at 8 am, she called me to tell me the whole thing was off and they were splitting up. It seems he had a drinking problem, and they got into a huge fight after I'd left. I let them back out as well... because I'm not going to bend over backwards to keep a ragey toxic couple in possession of my house.

Thank you for taking the time to answer.

I was able to get the couple to sign a Mutual termination agreement.

I'm keeping $150 as liquidated damages.

AOA advisor said they couldn't comment on the legality of this agreement.

I definitely will keep documentation on this.

Most everything has been in writing.

I have her wishy washy text messages & emails.