New applicant injury

[Sarah Stamper]

I recently accepted an application for renters moving in, end of this month. They have not signed the lease or paid the deposit yet. That was supposed to happen by the end of this week but I have not sent them the lease yet because I am having second thoughts about renting to them after the husband had an accident this week at work. Together they met my rental requirements. She informed me Wednesday that her husband went to the hospital because he had an accident at work. I was supposed to send her the lease to sign yesterday and she was planning to send me the deposit by today. She informed me today that her husband will be on workers comp & they still want to move in as soon as possible because they have to be out of their place. They plan to have family help them move. But with his accident now I have concerns about accepting them as renters and moving forward with signing the lease. He is the main earner & now their main income source is workers comp. I haven’t asked her any questions yet. I am not sure if I can ask or if he will know when is he going back to work? How much is workers comp is paying? How long is workers comp paying? Will he get paid the same amount? As a landlord should I just tell them I am just going to go with another applicant? To avoid any potential problems. They are a nice hard working family. I told her I didn’t send her the lease to sign yet because I knew she had ‘a lot on her plate.’

What would you do? I tried calling my lawyer but he was too busy to respond. I don’t think I can stall any more. They are ready to sign the lease and pay deposit,

[Adam Martin]

I just deleted a long post since I didn't read the last sentence.  Your contract is only verbal at this point and no money has changed hands however a verbal contract is there.  I would suggest just being open and ask what happened and what the plan is.  Worst case you can always just do M2M and phrase it as things are uncertain for them and you don't feel right locking them into a contract if there is any uncertainty on their ability to fulfill it and you don't want to cause an undue hardship.  In the future get the money up front, I give 2 days to hand over funds and sign.  It is in that order, never let them sign with no certified funds in your hand, if they don't pay you end up in a tough spot.  I am also concerned about their rush to move, hopefully you did a background check and they have a legitimate reason.