[Honey500]

My daughter just signed a rental lease and paid the first months rent plus a sizable security deposit. Two days later she found a bigger and nicer house for the same price. She called the first landlord and explained the situation. The first months rent was returned but none of the deposit. They weren't in the rental yet not even to flush a commode. Do they have a right to any of the deposit? We live in Pa.

[dmatos]

It all depends on the terms of the lease that she signed. A lease is a legal contract. Normally, they are signed for a year or longer. Sometimes, there is an escape clause, which allows the tenant to leave early. Sometimes, this early leaving incurs a penalty.

Read the lease carefully. If there is no escape clause, then you are probably lucky that your daughter was allowed to leave at all. The landlord would be in their legal right to demand full payment once a month until the expiration of the lease, as long as they were holding up their end of the deal.