Signed Lease, No Deposit and Tenant backed out! New Jersey (apartment, eviction)

[j2roch]

Had a lady sign a 2 year lease on July 7th, 2010 for occupancy to start August 1st, 2010. She has a copy and so do I. Also, sent a copy of Truth in Renting document. She didn't have Security Deposit and said she would get it to me the following week. I won't go on with all the excuses I heard from here about getting the Deposit, but she eventually said I would have first months, last months and Security Deposit on August 1st. Come August 1st she shows up and says, she has just been accepted for a Doctoral Program and really doesn't want to move now. I told her she is responsible for the lease. She then said she wasn't really sure if she is going to take the Program and might move in September 1st. I told her I need an answer right now. NO MAYBE's! She told me to relist the house on Craigslist and try to rent it out again. I told her I would and that she is still responsible for all the rent in total days the house is vacant. She then just left.

What action if any can I take to recover my costs of a vacant house? Also, I flew in from out of town to meet her. Now I'll have to fly in again for the potential new tenant. Can I charge her for that also?

Any help would be appreciated.

Jeff

[ShaneSA]

The first mistake was signing the lease with no money. Second mistake was, when the excuses start, that's a red flag and you do not want the tenant.
At this point chalk it up to lesson learned and move on. You can sue her till doomsday and never see a dime. She has no money. It also sounds like she a flake.
You can spin wheels and spend money on a lawyer to sue or waste time in small claims court.
It's like teaching a pig to dance. It only aggravates the pig, and frustrates you.
Gp through the process of renting again.

[jamaicabound60565]

I agree with the previous poster, don't waste any more time. Your not a credit union and not their friend, if they dont have the money no lease is signed and the place isn't held for them.

[NY Annie]

It's a good bet that your lease has some language that makes it not valid UNTIL earnest money is received in the form of deposit, security deposit, first month's rent, etc.

As the other posters have already said, you're probably ahead of the game. At least the apt is free to rent as opposed to spending time trying to collect rent from a flake.

[PacificFlights]

I agree. Just check your laws. Example, on hawaii a lease to rent is valid when signed by both parties, even if the tenant has not paid any money. The LL can't rent out the apartment to anyone else and must honor the lease on the day it starts. But come day one, if the tenant has not taken possession and paid the money for deposits or first month rent (unless the landloard agreed to waive that payment) the lease automatically becomes null and void. The prospective tenant can't come back later claiming they had signed a lease.

[bentlebee]

Never sign a lease without money down at the same time.

I put in all my rental leases that the sec. deposit is non refundable until the tenant moves in. At that time it will become refundable. So i can use the sec. deposit if the tenant backs out...which never happened so far.

[virgode]

Ditto on Bentlebees reply...no deposit...no lease, however, she did sign a contract. Considering you need to fly in.. you dodged a bullet and should be cautious in evaluating your prospects for rental to avoid eviction problems. Who is doing maintenance in your absense? A property management company may be a good alternative for you, but to answer the question...

The only recourse would be to advertise and rent the unit, then file in small claims to recover the rent for the time period the unit was vacant.

Your costs are filing fees, they can be recovered, if the judgment isn't paid you would then file a garnishment of wages... percentages of her monthly income until the debt amount is met.

[sunsprit]

Your contract is only valid to the extent that the parties agree and act in accordance with the lease.

Absent any value received by you in exchange for the value offered to the prospective tenant, the lease simply doesn't exist where time was/is of essence for the receipt of funds.

While you may have received damage and expenses from this episode, and lost rental income ... it's good that you didn't have this person move into your place only to soon break the lease and cause you yet more expenses.

All in all, probably unrecoverable damages after you factor in any costs of going after this person and then trying to collect on a judgement. Such is life in the landlord biz, and you should factor in an amount in your cash flow to cover vacancies in the normal course of doing business.

Probably best to simply move on and focus your energies upon locating another, paying tenant.

[bentlebee]

I agree...to hire a management company...it would have saved you all this and the money for the ticket. If you now will go after the tenant you first have to find where he/she went...

[Melissa78703]

All I have to say is: Don't be too big of a jerk.

When my dad became terminally ill and I had to move back to where he and my mom lived, my landlord refused to let me out of my lease. So I ended up paying for an empty house for a year. He simply refused to re-let it, even though he could have easily done so. Nor would he allow me to sublet! I could have really used that money for my dad's hospital expenses. Because of that jerk of a landlord, I paid more than $12K in a house I never lived in. Of course, he found a reason to keep my deposit money, too, when I never even moved in.

I realize that this is inconvenient, but do you really want this woman to forgo her education to move into the house? My family had rental property when I was growing up, and my dad was always very benevolent about letting people out of the lease when they had a good reason for needing to do so. Most of the time, they could no longer afford to pay the rent.