Skipping out early on a one year lease

[Jason Avila]

I made a mistake in trying to help someone out. Now I need to clean it up.

I’m in the Army and purchased a house, came down on orders to move 6 months later. Had just started renovations and was on the clock to finish so we could get it rented out. Found someone interested in the place even though it was still in Reno mode. Kitchen master bath and floors being redone. They signed a 1 year lease as is and understood the work would continue for a little bit as they moved in. 3 weeks into the lease I get a call from the tenant asking to put in a 30 day notice due to the work. I only let them in before it was complete to get them into a place since they were in immediate need.

Question is, is this grounds to retain their deposit? Now I have to find a new tenant while still trying to finish the work with someone in the place. I know, rookie mistake. Lesson learned.

[Marc Winter]

@Jason Avila,

Thanks for serving our country!

@Christine Kankowski may be correct, however you need to check through your lease to see if any notice to leave is provided for.  

In our leases, we give a 60-day notice (tenant to owner or vice/versa).  The idea behind that is sometimes people simply must move.  I'd rather have notice from them than discover they moved out in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter, with the utilities turned off.

All that being said, it will be a tough fight for you to get this tenant to pay up.  You are, I assume, not local to the property now, so that is a disadvantage.  Old real estate saying:  "the only thing worse than a vacant unit is a unit with a bad tenant in it."

Get yourself an experienced, professional, local property manager and have them supervise the (expected) move-out and balance of the renovations, and get the property re-rented.  

Good luck.  Stay safe!