Last Months Rent

[Wade G.]

I have never been completely comfortable with the whole last months rent situation. My lease states that the security deposit cannot ever be applied towards rent. Well, it has finally happened and a tenant is trying to stay in the house and use the security deposit as the last months rent. She is to move out on Sept 16th. As of today I still have not recieved the prorated rent for this month and I know what she is trying to do. I did not begin the eviction process as I should have on the 5th because I figured there would not be enough time to deal with it anyway. In hind sight I know I should have started the process anyway. So, how does everyone else handle the last months rent situation? I have never had a problem until now. I'm thinking there is going to be enough damage to eat up the security deposit so she is atttempting to get ahead of the game and basically not have to pay for any repairs by using the deposit as rent.

[Arthur Garcia]

Wade,

I think the question comes down to how much time you want to invest in this situation.

If she is leaving on the 16th and you have a security deposit, you might just chalk it up to a loss. I've dealt this with this issue several times and unless I feel really strongly about go after the tenants, I'll just focus on rehabbing the unit and moving on.

You can try to collect, but I've found most of my tenants don't really have any money to go after.

Just my two cents.

AG