Last Months Rent and Security Deposits

[Peter Paxos]

Hi BP family: Hope all had a great July 4th holiday. My question to the group is pretty straight forward.......How do you actually avoid having a tenant use the security deposit as the last months rent? You can agree on it when you first lease it to them and even put it in writing, but when they give you 30 days notice and tell you they aren’t giving you the rent and will use the security deposit what choice do you have? Is there a smarter way to approach this? Thanks. Peter.

[Walt Dockery]

I collect first months rent, last months rent, and security deposit as move in costs.  I already have their last months rent.  I view collecting that up front as just as important as the security deposit, maybe even more so.