We had a year lease with a gentleman who was leasing a room in our home. Apparently there was a clash of personalities and a desire to move to a certain neighborhood. He wrote a note saying he was going to move out and he did move out more than 30 days later. He paid only a portion of the last month and I'm going to prorate him 2 days as he move out early the 3rd day of the month. There does not seem to be any reason not to give him back the difference but we have not been able to rent the room and have been advised that since he broke the lease we don't owe him anything. The room has been vacant for a little more than a month. We live in Florida. He's asking for his money. What should I do? His social worker arranged for some paperwork we all signed agreeing to a years lease but it says nothing should anyone break the agreement.

You owe him nothing, if he broke the lease.

With a few stipulations.

Have you tried to re-rent the room?

As long as the answer to that is yes, then you have no obligation to refund the security deposit as long as that deposit is not more than you would have collected up to the room being rented again.

If his deposit was equal to one months rent, and the room has been advertised since he broke the lease, and has been vacant for more than a month, he gets nothing back.

That's understandable, so call a lawyer.

In Florida there is no obligation on the landlord to try to re-rent the room after the tenant has broken their lease. If they choose, the landlord can sit back and do nothing but continue to collect the rent until the end of the lease term.

You must send the tenant an itemization of the way in which the security deposit was used. If the tenant left owing rent then you can state in the itemization that the deposit was applied to the back rent.

I suggest that you send your former tenant a letter stating that his security deposit has been applied to the rent that was due under the terms of the lease he signed and that when the room finally gets re-rented you will send him a letter letting him know how much more he still owes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by brk4me

We had a year lease with a gentleman who was leasing a room in our home. Apparently there was a clash of personalities and a desire to move to a certain neighborhood. He wrote a note saying he was going to move out and he did move out more than 30 days later. He paid only a portion of the last month and I'm going to prorate him 2 days as he move out early the 3rd day of the month. There does not seem to be any reason not to give him back the difference but we have not been able to rent the room and have been advised that since he broke the lease we don't owe him anything. The room has been vacant for a little more than a month. We live in Florida. He's asking for his money. What should I do? His social worker arranged for some paperwork we all signed agreeing to a years lease but it says nothing should anyone break the agreement.

---

Security deposits are used to compensate for minor damages caused by tenant's negligence during occupancy. This advance payment is kept by the landlord till tenant is moving out. If there is nothing to compensate for, then the landlord is required to give that money back to the tenant.One thing I may ask is "can you prove that his 30 day delay in moving out prevented you from renting the room to the next tenant?' if yes, then keep the money. In your case, since there was no penalty subscribed for breach of contract agreement, the situation becomes dicy. In some states, both tenant and landlord are required to give 60 day notice regardless of whether that was stated in the contract or not. If you were to kick your tenant out for non payment of rent, the police would have requested you to allow him/her 30 days to look for another place without paying rent. If the reason for collecting the security deposit was not stated in the agreement, you may refuse to give it back to him as well. Good Luck!