breaking our Tenant Leese thread 2... whats your take on this one?

[I Love My Sailor]

Okay .... as many of you may have read, my husband and I bought a house but had to break our apartment Leese. The Leese stated that we would have to pay 2 months rent and forfeit our security deposit. I know that by law they can not double charge 2 tenants so we paid the two months rent and hoped the apartment would rent out before then and we could recoup some of our money. Well it just so happened that the place leased out again a week after we terminated our Leese. So we paid for the week the apartment was vacant and got the rest back. I asked for the security deposit back because the place rented out and there was no damage, At that time the real estate company proceed to tell me that in fact by law they could keep our 2 months rent even with the new tenants but the owner of the house was just being nice to give it back to us but they decided to keep the deposit. I didn''t think that was legal, so I looked up GEorgia law and it said nothing in perticual about if the lease is terminated early
but clearly states that the lanlord d has 30 days after Leese termination to provide a written letter as to why they are keeping the deposit or they loose the wright to keep any of it.Georgia law also states that a SD must be used for damage to the unit and can not be used for penalties. We sent a letter the the company stating Georgia law and they send us a written letter back telling us our deposit was a penalty for breaking the Leese.. The reason we sent the letter is because we consulted a lawyer with Navy Legal and the guy was new to the area but he looked up GA law and told us that we should get our deposit back and to send the letter, they would probably blow it of.... if so to go back and the lawyer will send a letter.

What do you think in your honest opinion about this situation

Thanks

Sailor

 

[neatfreak]

Your post was rather confusing...but if Georgia law states that the SD can only be used for damage then yes you should get it back if you go to court.

 

[Steel]

Date: 9/22/2009 6:52:30 PM
Author: neatfreak
Your post was rather confusing...but if Georgia law states that the SD can only be used for damage then yes you should get it back if you go to court.

+1

Sailor,

If you consulted a lawyer then you already have your answer - you are entitled to your deposit.

You started off your post saying that your lease required you to pay 2 months rent and forfeit your deposit - did you mean that, this is the penalty for pulling out of the lease? I suppose it is neither here nor there if you are sure that your State does not allow the deposit to be forfeited as a penalty because you cannot contract out of your statutory rights.

 

[kama_s]

Holy spelling batman!!!

 

[Italiahaircolor]

As someone who owns property that is rented out, damage doesn''t always mean a hole in the wall or obvious in your face damage. Damage can be pet odor or smoke odor, a fresh coat of paint, patching of nail holes, replacing flooring that is worn/damaged. Basically, whats good for you might not meet the expectations of a new renter--ergo, it needs to be fixed at the previous renters expense. I can almost promise you, whenever you vacate a property there is clean up involved in preping the space for a new tenant. I always advise my tenants to take pictures of any damage, and the property before they leave--just so that we''re both on the same page to what will fall to them and what is covered by me.

It is true that you cannot charge double rent, so your landlord is required to refund the advanced rent you were charged when they found a new tenant. She wasn''t doing you any favors there.

Now, I would caution you about getting lawyers involved. Depending on how much your security depo was, it might not be worth it. As sad as that is, you could be fighting to get a small sum of money back and in the process spend three times that much. Really consider that before going forward. It might boil down to the principal of the issue for you, but in business (which is what this is) you need to think dollars and cents.

 

[I Love My Sailor]

My husband is in the navy and legal services are provided for all branches of the military at no cost.

 

[lucyandroger]

Date: 9/23/2009 6:46:54 AM
Author: I Love My Sailor
My husband is in the navy and legal services are provided for all branches of the military at no cost.

That''s great! So, I would do as your lawyer advised and return to him so he can draft another letter for you. Good luck!

 

[KimberlyH]

If I signed a lease stating that I would forfeit my security deposit for breaking the contract and then I broke the contract I would expect to forfit the security deposit, new tenants found or not. It is not cheap to turn a unit (cleaning, paint, advertisement, time spent showing the space) and if you agreed to stay in the space for X amount of time and renege they have a right to recoup some of those costs. If I were unsure of the legality of the terms of the lease, I would have checked into them before signing the contract.

 

[lucyandroger]

FYI - You may want to check out this site http://www.dca.state.ga.us/housing/HousingDevelopment/programs/downloads/landlord/lstermrenu.html

In part, "if your lease had an early termination penalty provision, you would have to pay the designated penalty even if the unit was immediately re-rented..."

http://www.dca.state.ga.us/housing/HousingDevelopment/programs/downloads/FAQHANDB-PgNo.pdf

"Where the lease identifies a lump sum amount that must be paid if the lease is terminated
before it expires, a tenant can generally be charged that amount. If the parties to the lease agree
what the damages for early termination will be, the damages are said to be liquidated. Such lease
terms will be enforced if the damage caused by the termination are difficult to estimate and the
agreed amount is a reasonable estimate of the landlord’s loss and the expenses caused by the
termination. The early termination fee should not be so high that it is actually a penalty."

Basically, you need to speak to your lawyer. You''re lucky enough to have free legal services - you should use them!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Well, I don't know all of your particular situation, but we ran into our own similar problem.

The rental agency HAD to give back our last month's rent (because they rented the place out) along with our deposit. They procrastinated and procrastinated. . .kept shuffling me around to different people in the management company and making excuses. I talked to over 5 people with no resolution.

After 30 days, I had had it and called them and said, "have the check ready this afternoon, or I'm filing in small claims court." Guess what they did? They said drive down and the check will be waiting up front. Clearly I had them because not only did they return the money, they also gave me back my $400 non-refundable pet deposit!

Bring up court and they will get their act together.

ETA - I absolutely HATE to correct people on spelling, so don't take offense to this. I only am writing this because I think it may look better on your letters/emails - it's spelled "lease."

 

[Italiahaircolor]

Date: 9/23/2009 6:46:54 AM
Author: I Love My Sailor
My husband is in the navy and legal services are provided for all branches of the military at no cost.

This is good...however, that doesn''t mean the ex-landlord wont counter-sue for her legal fees. This does happen.

I personally do absolutely counter-sue for my legal expenses if someone was trying to back out of an agreement.

 

[partgypsy]

I''m not a lawyer, but if you signed a lease that says you give up 2 months rent and security deposit if you break the lease, seems pretty straight-forward. You might have gotten off easy (at least they didn''t keep 2 months rent).

Not that I don''t sympathize. My sister and I rented a hole for 1 year. We didn''t break the lease but certainly weren''t going to stay there another year. As soon as we notified her we were not renewing, the landlady became very hostile, using her key to come into our apartment unannounced (no 24 hour notice) and then calling us to complain that the apartment was messy! Total invasion. Knowing how she was, we made sure we made the place look nicer than when we moved in (to give you an idea, the entire inside of the fridge was covered in black mold when we moved in). Our Dad at the time helped us moved so he also saw the condition. 30 days pass, no security deposit. We are not rich, 400 was alot to us. We call, write a letter. We then have my Dad''s lawyer write a letter. She then sends us a letter detailing all these mysterious charges including late payment fees

we did not pay our rent late! and cleaning fees that exactly total our security deposit. When my Dad''s lawyer calls on our behalf again, he is met with obscenities. Maybe we could have won, but considering she had the balls to cuss out an attorney, didn''t seem worth it to pursue.

 

[Octavia]

Part Gypsy, you should have fought her! In my state, once 30 days have passed without a letter from the landlord detailing damages deducted from the security deposit and/or the return of the balance, the tenant is entitled to double the deposit amount and the landlord can no longer deduct damages. I don''t know if all states are like this, but I do know that a few others have a substantially similar law.

ILMS, I think your landlord probably made a mistake in refunding you the rent penalty and keeping the security deposit, and perhaps should technically have done it the other way (if your state doesn''t allow tenants to waive their right to security deposits -- again, I have no idea what the actual law is in GA). However, I think they already gave you a gift by lowering your penalty amount (operating under the assumption that your lease doesn''t prorate the penalty amount if the apartment is re-rented quickly). I think it''s not very good faith on your part to try to avoid entirely the penalty that you agreed to when you signed the lease. I also believe in karma...you may have completely different views. Either way, I hope you can resolve things to everyone''s satisfaction.