I had a guy sign a lease to move in starting Nov. 1 His been out of town so I hadn't giving him the keys nor his copy of the lease? Today is the 4th and is finally telling me that he decided on another place?
What should I do? Is he responsible for the terms even though he didn't get a copy?

Yes, he is responsible for the terms of the lease. According to the law in most states the landlord has to make a good faith effort to re-rent the premises. The tenant is responsible for the rent until either the premises are re-rented or until the end of the term of the lease he signed, whichever is earlier.

You did say he signed the lease? If so that's a commitment. He is responsible for paying the rent until you can rerent the unit. Did you collect any security depost from him?

I'd just advise you to let practicality be your guide here.

Trying to force a renter to rent, or a buyer to buy, is usually a waste of time and money and it's more practical to go find another, good renter.

I would try to get a mutual hold-harmless agreement stating that you both release each other and you can rent the property to another renter... and he can find another place to live and owe you nothing.

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Originally Posted by John WA

I would try to get a mutual hold-harmless agreement stating that you both release each other and you can go ahead and rent the property to another renter...and he can go ahead and find another place to live and owe you nothing.

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Excuse me? The landlord acted in good faith in renting to this person. He took the unit off the market when this person agreed to rent. So your advice is to just let this guy off the hook and have the landlord swallow the lost rental?

Is this how you counselled your clients?

No one is suggesting the landlord force the renter to rent the unit. But the landlord lost money as a result of the renter reneging on his contract. The landlord has the right and certainly should try to get compensated for those loses. He should hold the renter responsible for the rent until he can find a replacement.

I have to agree with ScottGem in this case. The "tenant" is clearly having no regard for the contract they entered into. Now, where I'm located I could legally take this person to the cleaners. It varies a lot by location what they can get a judgement for. I would make sure my expenses were covered and leave it at that.

I hope the landlord got a deposit!

No argument that the Tenant should be made to pay, but it appears to me that around the country, most Landlords aren't willing to spend the attorneys fees, court costs and time required to sue the renegade Tenant, then pursue him with asset discovery to try to collect.

But by all means, see for yourself, go price what your lawyer would charge you and then you decide it it's worth it to you to spend whatever you have to, in order to punish and try to collect from your runaway T.

I personally don't always follow my own advice, and being a retired lawyer and having a bit of courthouse know-how, have filed several pro se suits against various debtors, bad tenants, etc. and as a result have a file folder or two filled with Judgments against these characters... but I'm rarely able to collect as these bums don't normally have anything to go after.

Here in the Seattle area we landlords are fortunate in that we have a couple of Rental Associations to which we can report bad tenants and because our RA's are so large (one has about 15,000 members in WA State; another has 1500 or so) a bad report to one of the big RAs can really makes it tough for those bad tenants to go find another rental.

So if you have such an 'n, it sure might pay you to belong and to use them to help screen for bad tenants, also gives you a place to report such bad faith dealings by those bad tenants.

Having some bad tenants over the years has made me a much more discerning and careful landlord and nowadays because of the care I use in checking out my Ts, I rarely get a really bad one.

I'm sure there are a number of good websites on how to check out a prospective T (Mr. Landlord, I know) so I'd recommend before you again rent your place, do some digging and see how the pros do it.

Now, on the present bad apple on whom you were depending and trusting to move in and rent from you, I'd at the very least serve the guy with a notice that you are going to report him to your local Rental 'n (whether you have one or not) and you will sue him so as to officially get him a bad local rep.

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Originally Posted by John WA

But by all means, see for yourself, go price what your lawyer would charge you and then you decide it it's worth it to you to spend whatever you have to, in order to punish and try to collect from your runaway T.

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Well, one thing I agree with you on is that you have to look at the reward vs. cost and not just act out of vendictivemenss.

But, here in TX, and I believe almost everywhere, there's not attorney necessary in this equation. It's an inexpensive filing fee in small claims court. And then if you employ some sort of collection professionals they'll take a (large) cut. I can ask for that cut in my judgement(it reads "costs and fees incurred in the collection of this judgement", or something very close to that - I don't know about other states.)

I do agree that one has to do a cost vs benefit calculation here. But RockinMommy is correct that the costs for this should be minimal. And it should at least be investigated.

There are landlord associations in most areas. I highly recommend any landlord, especially one not familiar with the laws, join their local association. The association can do things for you like provide lease templates, reference checking, credit reporting and much more.