What laws protect me from returning a deposit to hold an apt room when tenant bails? (New York: real estate, sublet)

[bekah15715]

I am a tenant in NYC and rent out one of my rooms occasionally to people. The last week of January a girl came to see the apt and said she wanted to move in. She gave me 350 cash and signed a receipt for it that also states that she is moving in on the 1st of february. we both signed. I turned away 4 other tenants because she had given me the deposit to hold the apt. on the 31st of jan she texted me to say she was not moving in and wanted her deposit back the next day. i think that her verbal agreement and deposit and her signing the receipt and agreement to move in on the 1st is enough to keep the money seeing as though ive yet to fill the room. someone please help with actual laws that protect my rights....

[mathjak107]

welcome to being a landlord. sorry there are no such thing as landlords rights in nyc.basically you have to sue to keep the deposit if the other person objects.

if your claiming your keeping the deposit because your holding them to the lease then you cant put the apartment up for rent and still claim its their apartment.


if your claiming damages,forget it, its very difficult to prove what your damages are since if they didnt committ to the apartment you would have to run more ads anyway. you cant say you turned others away because while they may have expressed interest you had no signed lease .its catch 22.

[nightnurse613]

I am not a native New Yorker, nor do I have the rep that Mathjak107 has but, if they gave you a cash deposit in which you agreed to rent them an apartment I would think that you should immediately attempt to rent out the apartment and advise them that, once you have a renter you will prorate the unused rent and return it (if any). [SIZE=2] When the prospective tenant changes their mind, then usually the landlord may keep some or all of the deposit, up to the extent they are damaged by the tenant's breach of the agreement. The landlord should make a good faith attempt to minimize their damages by locating another tenant as quickly as possible. [/SIZE]If they sue; you should be able to counter sue for the damages. I would always keep the name and phone number of prospective tenants just in case this happens in the future. Every state may be different.

[jcoltrane]

Originally Posted by nightnurse613

I am not a native New Yorker, nor do I have the rep that Mathjak107 has but, if they gave you a cash deposit in which you agreed to rent them an apartment I would think that you should immediately attempt to rent out the apartment and advise them that, once you have a renter you will prorate the unused rent and return it (if any). [SIZE=2] When the prospective tenant changes their mind, then usually the landlord may keep some or all of the deposit, up to the extent they are damaged by the tenant's breach of the agreement. The landlord should make a good faith attempt to minimize their damages by locating another tenant as quickly as possible. [/SIZE]If they sue; you should be able to counter sue for the damages. I would always keep the name and phone number of prospective tenants just in case this happens in the future. Every state may be different.

Precisely correct!

"Rep" doesn't mean a poster has the slightest idea what they are talking about; or even read the OP correctly.

You do NOT need to sue anyone for money held in your hand, for which you have a contract.

[bekah15715]

ok so just be solidify what u guys are telling me. if i have an agreement signed to move in by the tenant. i dont have to give the deposit back if they decide to change their mind? i just want to make sure that i am educated in the actual law about everything i am dealing with.

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by jcoltrane

Precisely correct!

"Rep" doesn't mean a poster has the slightest idea what they are talking about; or even read the OP correctly.

You do NOT need to sue anyone for money held in your hand, for which you have a contract.

you are just chock full of mis-information...

once a lease is signed its their apartment, no different than if they tried to get out of the lease early.

you must be awarded that money in court if the other party objects and claims reason . the op doesnt state the reason the lease is being broken so it cant be determined if perhaps there is a valid reason yet.



you can try to keep it and hope they forfeit it. but just because a lease is broken doesnt mean a thing until a judge says "yes,your entitled to keep the money for damages or are entitled to even more money until the apartment is rented...

there may be reasons a judge will find cause in favor of the tenant.

did you fail to tell them there were bed bugs as an example or failed to disclose any number of issues .

odds are the judge will very well say you can keep it if all they did is change their mind but the judge has to rule in your favor unless the other person is willing to forfeit it..

there are 2 ways to go about it, you can sue them for damages first as long as you can prove them . its no different than any other breach of a lease had they moved in. perhaps it will take you longer to find a new tenant than the depost covers. perhaps you will find a tenant the next day ,in which case you may not be awarded even the full amount of the deposit.

or you can let them sue you to get it back if thats all your asking for..


my vote is let them sue you to get it back if regardless of how long it takes to get another tenant isnt an issue for you.. then the burdeon is on them to show why they think they should get it back.

but then you wont be compenstated for damages if it takes longer than that deposit covers.

[mathjak107]

one thing i always caution is it is very easy for the landlord to drop the ball here and be entitled to nothing.

any time the apartment is under lease to the tenant even if the tenant hasnt moved in the landlord has to be very careful how they handle the re-renting.

you can with written authorization preferebly try to get another tenant for them so they are off the hook but you can only do it on their behalf.

if you make the mistake of just going to look for another tenant on your behalf then they may be off the hook for most of the damages because you took control back of the
apartment .

the laws are full of pitfalls and there is nothing like having an attorney who specializes in this stuff on your side when it comes to this stuff.

to ofton what we think is just black and white is really different shades of gray.


my ex wife chewed right through the terms of her lease when she wanted to get out of it early and broke it un-beknownst to the managing agent who never suspected anything more than black and white when it came to her breaking the terms of the lease . they thought they have a lease , she signed it, they have her deposit and she will pay until they re-rent.

wrong... there are un-suspecting ways that lease isnt valid anymore and they learned an expensive lesson about assuming things when it comes to the inner workings of laws.

it took them 2-1/2 months to re-rent and they had to give her back all but 1 week..

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by jcoltrane

Precisely correct!

"Rep" doesn't mean a poster has the slightest idea what they are talking about; or even read the OP correctly.

You do NOT need to sue anyone for money held in your hand, for which you have a contract.

by the way my advice comes from someone who i feel is one of the best real estate attorneys on the planet and handles our real estate holding company . we have lived and breathed many of these issues through the years both in and out of court.

and your law degree is from?????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????

i notice every time i prove you wrong in other threads you just vanish from the discussion.

was it you were out from law school that day and missed that class ?

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by bekah15715

I am a tenant in NYC and rent out one of my rooms occasionally to people. The last week of January a girl came to see the apt and said she wanted to move in. She gave me 350 cash and signed a receipt for it that also states that she is moving in on the 1st of february. we both signed. I turned away 4 other tenants because she had given me the deposit to hold the apt. on the 31st of jan she texted me to say she was not moving in and wanted her deposit back the next day. i think that her verbal agreement and deposit and her signing the receipt and agreement to move in on the 1st is enough to keep the money seeing as though ive yet to fill the room. someone please help with actual laws that protect my rights....

the reason jc is wrong is just because your holding a deposit ,doesnt mean you can keep that deposit unless the person is willing to forfeit it.

if they arent forfeiting it willingly then only a judge can allow you to keep it. even though there is a signed lease, if the t's arent crossed and the i's arent dotted then as we saw with my ex wife the landlord can not keep that money if a judge says they have to return it .

there is the lease wording, the circumstances for which the tenant wants out of the lease and the mechanics of how you handled the re-renting and the technique if any the tenant is using to break the terms of the lease that can make or break whether you will win or lose.

jc your taking a little bit of knowledge and playing lawyer based on what you think should happen with the little bit you know.. time and time again your wrong and should really get a better education on things if your going to keep telling me im wrong.

perhaps i can recommend a good attorney for you to consult ?

[jcoltrane]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

you are just chock full of mis-information...

once a lease is signed its their apartment, no different than if they tried to get out of the lease early.

you must be awarded that money in court if the other party objects and claims reason . the op doesnt state the reason the lease is being broken so it cant be determined if perhaps there is a valid reason yet.



you can try to keep it and hope they forfeit it. but just because a lease is broken doesnt mean a thing until a judge says "yes,your entitled to keep the money for damages or are entitled to even more money until the apartment is rented...

there may be reasons a judge will find cause in favor of the tenant.

did you fail to tell them there were bed bugs as an example or failed to disclose any number of issues .

odds are the judge will very well say you can keep it if all they did is change their mind but the judge has to rule in your favor unless the other person is willing to forfeit it..

there are 2 ways to go about it, you can sue them for damages first as long as you can prove them . its no different than any other breach of a lease had they moved in. perhaps it will take you longer to find a new tenant than the depost covers. perhaps you will find a tenant the next day ,in which case you may not be awarded even the full amount of the deposit.

or you can let them sue you to get it back if thats all your asking for..


my vote is let them sue you to get it back if regardless of how long it takes to get another tenant isnt an issue for you.. then the burdeon is on them to show why they think they should get it back.

but then you wont be compenstated for damages if it takes longer than that deposit covers.

You don't know WTH you are talking about!

I am not casting a vote, as when did the world work on consensus?

I deal strictly in the LAW!

****

I didn't even read your nonsensical jibberish, except the last couple of lines. Do you really think that any of that makes any relevant sense whatsoever?

****

First of all the OP is NOT a LL. He/she owns no property which she can let. She is engaging, as defined, in an illegal sublet of the LL's property. Dependant upon the lease provisions she likely has no right to take in a renter nor roommate, and certainly not w/o the LL's knowledge and permission.

So, your first proposition of welcoming the OP to being a LL is wholly erroneous in the most outstanding manner.

Second, you make facts out of whole cloth which is invisible!

LEASE? What lease? There is NO written lease whatsoever. At best, an Oral Contract c/b argued, unfortunately an oral contract cannot be conveyed as a lease. So effectively there is NO lease!

So, what we have here is a simple oral agreement for the OP to hold property that she does not own in anticipation of an illegal tenancy to begin on X date.

In a normal LL tenant relationship, the canceling tenant would forfeit the deposit to the extent that the LL is required to mitigate any damages by attempting to re rent the propertylease or the canceling tenant can make effort to secure a replacement tenant.

If a replacement tenant is secured in a timely manner than the canceling tenant would indeed be entitled to all or some of the deposit.

If no replacement is secured or in an untimely manner, then the deposit would be forfeit in whole or in part.

****

With regard to the OP, none of the above applies, because she is not the LL, she has no legal right to rent part nor any of the LL's property. In so doing, the OP is engaging in a illegality.

The oral agreement to enter into a tenancy on X date is illegal and therefore not legally binding.

The OP can either voluntarily return the deposit or the prospective tenant can sue for the return of the deposit.

In order for the OP to prevail, the OP would have to come to court with 'clean hands'. In other words, since the OP attempted an illegality, her hands are dirty. Consequently, the law does not allow for her to prevail.

You cannot come to court doing something illegal and expect the court to condone your wrong doings.

***

Now that is the freaking law you idiot, and it has nothing to do with votes or consensus.

Now go to school before your catches you playing lawyer on the Internet again!

****

You have never caught me wrong on anything whatsoever you blathering idiot. As I never claim to be *right*. I simply repeat in simple language what the law states. I never convey what "comes from" anyone. I have no need, as my personal knowledge and experience attest.

****

You are a lying deceitful human, and you know nothing of which you speak.

You seem to get your nuts off playing lawyer. Need a tissue?