Renew Lease with a renewel holding deposit

[Karl Huth]

I have a good group of tenants and their lease is up in 5 months, they are currently on a year to year lease. I contacted them wondering if they would like to renew for another year and lucky they said yes. In the past I have gotten burned because the tenants have said they would renew and then at the 12th hour decided not to, leaving me with a vacant property and me scrambling to get the property cleaned and ready for new tenants=slower turnover=lost profit. Has anyone charged a 'holding deposit' to protect yourself from this? The idea is that if they do go through with the new lease I can apply it to the first months rent on the new lease but if they decide to back I would not refund it and it would cover me while I look for new tenants.