Tenant prepaid lease and wants to cancel stay before moving in

[Joseph Hummel]

I have a tenant (a non-profit business) who hosts a huge summer event here, and they are suppose to move into our place in June. This is the 3rd year we worked with them, and they are great tenants. They signed and prepaid their 3 mos lease back in January before covid, in March we bought another house and use the other just as a rental. We opened a discussion about a month ago in case their event was impacted with covid. 

I want to do the right thing so I just need some ideas of how I can make this a win-win. We can't pay back their lease in a full.

1. Am I required to refund their lease payment if they decide not to move in? (the lease states no refund of rents)

2. doesn't PPP and SBA loans cover this loss for them if they apply and receive it?

I could rent it to someone else if they don't move in, I could pay them some of it back from my cashflow, but even if we paid$1000/mo for the next year would barely be able to pay it all back. We could apply the lease toward next years stay (hoping this option works). 

Anyone else have any ideas?

[Bjorn Ahlblad]

@Joseph Hummel if your lease states no refunds then that is, or should set the expectation. You can negotiate or modify from there-your choice. You are not under any obligation for a refund other than that. Personally I would take into consideration next year's stay just like you suggest. Take some money now as a cancellation fee and refund the rest, or apply it to next year.