Military Tenant "opt out" of signed lease prior to move in.

[Christopher Morin]

Hi all, to start I'll start to say that I'm new here, and very new to real estate in general.  So go figure I have an issue with my first tenant, in my first rental property ever.  I'm in Okaloosa county Florida. Here are the details.

The tenant contacted me while deployed (return approx 30 jan 2015), stating that they already knew what the property looked like and would like to hand over a security deposit to secure it.  I responded and said that they would need to sign a lease prior to me receiving any deposit.  So I had them apply, they had a friend do a walk-through, and I told them that the only way I'd "hold" the property was if they signed a lease with an effective date of 1 Jan, and they would owe me January rent (despite their return date of approx 30). 

The tenant readily agreed, and we signed a lease about a week ago via e-mail correspondence with an effective date of 1 Jan.  She said she would have her mother postmark 1st months rent and security deposit, which I have not yet received.  We arranged to hand over the keys on her return.

 I included in additional clause "Tenant acknowledged that even though they will not physically inhabit the home until they return from deployment (after the lease effective date) they are still responsible for the terms and provisions in this agreement."

Today the tenant asked for a reduction on the January rent, and I said no.  They then came back and said they "decided to opt-out of signing the lease."  Whoa whoa whoa!  After already delaying December's rent, now I'd be missing on January rent even though they knew the terms they were agreeing to.   There is no provision for early termination of the lease

So my question is, do I have a leg to stand on trying to pursue this if she "backs out"?  I am active duty military myself, I'm not trying to screw her based on her situation, but she fully knew everything she was signing up for.  Is this just something I have to write off as a loss?  Even if I can levy a damages judgement for lost rent, how can I serve them at an address when they never even moved in?  Looking for any advice you guys have...

[Nazz Wang]

Sorry to hear about all the stress. I would say to move on and find a new tenant.
If you insisted they pay and move in per your lease, do you want to start a hopefully long working relationship like that? And how can you trust someone who doesn't honor their words to execute the lease and take care Of your property?
If you want to get loss in rent damage, how much did you really lose? I am feeling like this is far from an ideal tenant applicant and yet you decided to rent to them, which tells me perhaps you didn't get other interested parties. So I would reevaluate the pricing. It is perhaps priced too high. In reality, would you have rented it at this price to any body else if this trouble tenant didn't commit to the lease?
Third, I always take a non refundable holding deposit before I process any tenant applications. It is anywhere from $200-500, which means when I receive this in cash, money order or cashiers check, I will take the property off the market, and process the applicants application. If the application falls thru because of untimely or the lack of cooperation from the tenant, or any other wrong doing, I forfeit the holding deposit. If the application doesn't go through because of something out of their control, like job loss, or whatever, I return the deposit. If the application goes through, I apply that fee towards their deposit. That way, you can cover this exact situation.
Honestly, congratulations! You just had your first lesson as a landlord, and it only costed you one month rent. Many lessons can only be learned through making mistakes, and most mistakes are very expensive.