[chod101]

I had my rental home up for rent beginning of June. A couple decided they wanted it and paid a full months rent to hold property until end of June. They had keys, garage door opener etc...access to the home and moved a few boxes in. They never paid a move in deposit nor a pet deposit, and wanted to pay in payments. We refused and now they are threatening to sue for the months rent that was paid, because they never "officially" moved in. Do they have a case?

[karibear]

Originally Posted by chod101

I had my rental home up for rent beginning of June. A couple decided they wanted it and paid a full months rent to hold property until end of June. They had keys, garage door opener etc...access to the home and moved a few boxes in. They never paid a move in deposit nor a pet deposit, and wanted to pay in payments. We refused and now they are threatening to sue for the months rent that was paid, because they never "officially" moved in. Do they have a case?

I don't think so. They had their stuff there whether their bodies were there or not, and you couldn't rent it to anyone else. But I'd contact an attorney.

[Goodpasture]

nope, no case at all (I am NOT an attorney), but in Oklahoma, all real estate transactions have to be in writing.The fact is, they did occupy it, and whether or not they put stuff in it, is irrelevant. It was off the market and therefore could not be rented. In fact I would consider filing suit against them for them not giving you at least 30 days notice of vacating the premises. The most they can do is sue in small claims court, no attorney will take a case where his fee is going to be greater than the potential proceeds of winning the suit.....particularly when the retainer will have to be made in "payments."

I can see you questioning the plaintiff......did you store anything in the property? did you have keys and access to the property? did you ever open the garage door? did you have a verbal agreement to pay deposits, rent, and move in on some date in the future? The verdict will be a simple "you entered into a month by month rental agreement which any person can do. However, once you take possession you don't get refunds. You are ordered to pay all costs and damages, case dismissed."

Maybe if you petition Judge Judy with your story you can both get an expense paid visit to New York.............

[mkfarnam]

Originally Posted by chod101

I had my rental home up for rent beginning of June. A couple decided they wanted it and paid a full months rent to hold property until end of June. They had keys, garage door opener etc...access to the home and moved a few boxes in. They never paid a move in deposit nor a pet deposit, and wanted to pay in payments. We refused and now they are threatening to sue for the months rent that was paid, because they never "officially" moved in. Do they have a case?

Is there a signed, written rental argeement?

[mkfarnam]

What's this "move-in" fee ? They can pay the rent but if they don't pay this "move-in" fee they're not allowed to live there?

[chod101]

1. There was NOT a written lease signed. This kind of concerned me at first not knowing if they would pay the full deposit. We agreed to let them pay the deposit on 6/28 (date of move in) which is also when they would have signed the lease. Then this last weekend the tenant gets upset that we won't allow payments on deposit and says "forget the whole thing." We now have a letter from the individual, threatening to take us to small claims court.

2. Actually it is called a security deposit, which is pretty much standard on all rental properties. Most lease agreements reqiure a minimum deposit plus one month's rent prior to moving in.

[karibear]

Originally Posted by chod101

1. There was NOT a written lease signed. This kind of concerned me at first not knowing if they would pay the full deposit. We agreed to let them pay the deposit on 6/28 (date of move in) which is also when they would have signed the lease. Then this last weekend the tenant gets upset that we won't allow payments on deposit and says "forget the whole thing." We now have a letter from the individual, threatening to take us to small claims court.

2. Actually it is called a security deposit, which is pretty much standard on all rental properties. Most lease agreements reqiure a minimum deposit plus one month's rent prior to moving in.

You could inform them that you plan to countersue for not having gotten the standard 30 day written notice to leave.

But if I were you, I'd just be grateful I didn't have them for tenants. Several years ago, my mother rented a house to some people with the understanding that they would be able to purchase it when they got financing - they never did, and when they moved out, they also took all her appliances and trashed the place. There was around 30,000.00 worth of damage done. She took them to court, but the judge said "You're an old lady, you don't need that money." [Huh?!?] She had to pay for all the repairs herself, then the people declared bankruptcy so she'd never be able to go after them again.

[Goodpasture]

Hire a management company to do the rental for you. There is absolutely no reason you should have to go through that nonsense with anyone. A management company will charge them to pull a credit report, will check with prior landlords, and will do all the advertising. If you do not want them to operate it long term they will do all the screening and marketing, then when you get a tenant you like, you an start collecting the rent. It will cost you about 1 months rent for this service. If you want them to collect the rent, pay the mortgage, and take care of issues as they arise (including non-payment and evictions) it will cost about 10% of the rents collected.

I'm a Realtor, I have worked in property management companies, I use them (an agency other than the one I work for) for my rent collection because I don't want to be bothered with the day to day servicing of rental properties.

[mkfarnam]

This is nothing against the original topic.

No offence GP, but I despise Management Companies.
They're nothing but illegitimate, inconsiderate , money grubbing, selfricious thieves that run their own buisines off the money of property owners.
As far as they're conserned, tenants are too dumb to know their rights, so they have no rights and they're treated lower than dirt.
They will ignore every right and break every Law in the book to get what the want.
That is until someone who does know their rights and the Laws stands up against them.
I've posted a thread about my experience with a Management Company after a 26 year lease I had in Ca, then receive a "phony" Civil junction once I got to OK.


Any honest, good going landlord/landlady with a good reputation with their tenants and decides to turn it over to a management Co. can expect their reputation to be shot to hell.

[karibear]

I have to agree somewhat with MK on management cmpanies. My only experience has been in MO, WA, and AK, and none of them were good. The one place we wanted to rent in MO had a 4 page list of 'requirements' just to apply for it - including supplying them with medical histories, criminal histories, a clearance from the state's social services, a 10 year long history of previous rentals - we took one look at it and threw it away. What was kind of scary was that there actually were 350-400 applicants [people who'd actually filled those things out] for nearly every place that was rented. The one in AK was managing the place we'd bought when we bought it, and kept on managing it until we finally moved in - and the guy who was the manager replaced a broken fridge with one from another place he was managing and charged ME 200.00 for it. Two months later I bought a better one at a thrift shop for 6.00. The trailer park where I lived in WA was run by a property management company - they did absolutely nothing for the park other than raise the space rent. Between '04 and '08 it went from 290.00/mo to 385.00/mo, and I hear that it's going up again 1/1/09 to 500.00/mo. One would think they'd do SOMEthing for that, but they don't. Residents are rsponsible for their own water/sewer/garbage, lawn care, etc. And the guy who was 'recommended' as the person to hire for lawn care was a brother of the person who owned the management company, and he charged 75.00 to mow a single trailer space. I won't say what he quoted me to 'clean up' my yard before I left, but it included gas, mileage [wear and tear on his truck[, the time he spent driving both to the dump and back home again, the time it took him to load the truck... I suggested he just park the truck in front of my place, since he just lived around the corner, and I'd load it - and he said no way was he going to leave his truck unsupervised and I'd still have to pay him an hourly rate for just standing there and watching me.