Getting "leasing fee" back from realtor after their renter bails

[Charlie Claxton]

Hi BP family,

I haven't been on much lately, but today I am back for advice.  Instead of calling my attorney and letting her tell me how dumb I am (haha), I thought I would reach out here and see what my fellow investors can tell me.

The situation: one of my companies provides housing (short tern, furnished) to the film and television industry.  We have a pretty big number of units here in Georgia as far as corporate housing goes, but every once in awhile we get a unit that is a loser in terms of our clients liking it- so we turn them into long-term 12 month rentals. Well in this case, we have a 2/2 loft in west midtown Atlanta- we posted the usual marketing for the unit, and we took applications from a few tenants but none that passed our application process (we can be picky when we have spent significant capital furnishing units)  . Well after about a week and half a broker came to us, representing a gentleman that does music production and said that his client would like to lease the unit. His client passed the application process, signed a 12 month lease in January and it is now march and his client is breaking his lease and refuses to pay (we have already sent demand letter and are moving to eviction process- we will end up with a judgment which we will sale at a later time). But we paid this agent $2,000.00 (they kept the first month's rent) to bring us this client, they assured us that if the client did not fulfil their lease, then we would be refunded their leasing fee.... They have not responded to text or emails with us asking (not demanding) the fee back.. We thought we would prorate the fee, let them keep a prorate amount of the 2K that is equal to the two months out of 12 that their renter paid....No reply from them... My question to the BP community is, WHAT DO I DO? If I bring my attorney in, she is VERY expensive so basically she would eat up the some-what minimum amount (2K).... In Georgia, aren't realtors required to abide by certain guidelines?... I would love to hear anyone's thoughts or feelings on this situation.

[Dave Toelkes]

Do you have your agreement with the agent in writing?  If not, then it is probably unenforceable.