All Forum Posts by: Sarah Miller

Ok and what if he is saying he will refund me February rent but is trying to also deduct "wall damage" and water bill from that rent? Also, we never gave him a date that we were handing over possession since we still had stuff there. Thats the only reason we found out new people had moved in was because I told him we were getting the remaining stuff out and was GOING to hand over possession soon after. He jumped the gun and moved people in before that.

But we didnt break the lease. We hadnt even vacated the property. We still had stuff there and KEYS. What if we still had stuff in the basement or something and he just let some new people move in?! I still dont know for sure if we did leave anything there because we hadnt handed over possession.... 

Also, i would think that even if it is in the lease that we "forfeit our security deposit" this goes against what is considered a lawful application of the security deposit in the state of Ohio. if there was an "early termination fee" that could have been DEDUCTED from the security deposit then thats different.

its in our lease that if we terminate the lease early, then we forfeit our security deposit. But WE DID NOT BREAK THE LEASE EARLY. We PAID rent for February and was not informed of a new tenant moving in February 10th.  We still had stuff there... And we still had our keys..... so i dont really know where WE broke the lease when we still had possession of the property and were still paying rent....

But didnt he breach contract the minute he allowed a new tenant t9 sign a new lease and MOVE IN without telling US when we hadnt handed over possession yet and were still paying rent?! We still had stuff there, we still were paying utilities, we still had our keys and were still paying rent! We had communicated on multiple occasions that we would continue paying rent through our lease if we needed to.

Hello! A little long but I really value opinions here.....

We rented a house for a short time while looking to purchase a new one.  We signed a 12 month lease knowing there was a possibility we would find a house sooner than that.  Well, that's exactly what happened.  We had been in the rental for 5 months when we signed a purchase agreement for a new house.  We kept the property manager informed of everything and even told him when we would be out for sure 2 months in advance.  Well, he was able to find a tenant pretty quickly within 2 weeks after we moved out (we also continued paying rent since this overlapped a month beginning).  HOWEVER, he literally NEVER told us they found a new tenant.  We still had things in the backyard and my husband went over to get them and he was there the minute I got an email from the PM saying someone already moved in.  WE STILL HAD OUR KEYS!!  HOPE HE CHANGED THE LOCKS!! anyway.... The PM had done a walkthrough with us prior to that and said the place looked excellent and we would be getting back the majority of our security deposit minus just some hole patching on the walls (we hung TVs).  We cleaned the place from top to bottom and it was "move in ready" per his words.

The rest of the story is a little longer than necassary so anyway, he is trying to keep our security deposit 100% citing our lease agreement.  The lease states "The tenants will forfeit the security deposit if they vacate the premises prior to the full term of the lease expiring".  I understand that the lease says this, however as a landlord myself, I don't think this statement by itself is legal.  I thought the security deposit could only be held to mitigate damages.  Since they re-rented the house pretty quickly, and we continued to pay rent until that happened, I don't really see any reason why they could hold our security deposit.  (BTW this is in Ohio)

ADDITIONALLY, he is saying that he has until March 30th to get back to me on the security deposit.............. The law states that I am entitled to my itemized deduction list and refund check within 30 days of the date the lease terminates.  Now, I would think that the minute those new tenants signed their lease, that terminates OUR lease.... correct?  If they don't inform within that 30 days can't we go to small claims??

Any and all advice is welcome.  Pretty peeved off right now as this is a large sum of money!

I will definitely try and come next week as well!! Looking forward to networking :-).

I'll put it on my calendar but not sure if I can make it.

Hi!! I have 2 duplexes I would love to sell.  They are not currently listed with a Realtor but my mother is a broker and available free of charge for services if a purchase happened.  One is in Canton, OH another is in Alliance, OH.  Canton rents at $700/mo each unit - 2 units (one tenant gets discount for yardwork) I bought it for $82k. Alliance rents at $650/mo each unit (one tenant gets discount for yardwork), I bought at auction but would sell happily at $100k - renovated a lot in 2015 when purchased (plumbing, AC, furnaces, hot water tanks, roof, flooring, paint).  It also has an extra 2 car tandem garage which could be rented easily to someone as storage but we just never got around to it.

Both are fully rented with happy tenants on automatic draft rent payments each month.  I have had excellent landlording experiences with both properties but I am over my head in student loan debt and need the equity for my financial goals.  I have rent rolls and detailed financials available for both units on request.  I pay Water/Sewer/Trash on both properties and electric for one of the garages as it is a separate and individual breaker box.

If you are seriously interested, please message me.  I'm serious about selling but only for a serious inquiry.

Thank you for the insightful feedback @Crystal Smith