Tenant Never Returned Lease - Now Wants Security Deposit Back

[STT Resident]

Originally Posted by bentlebee

Sorry to say, but you have learned your lesson the hard way. Never give the keys unless the lease is signed (sec. deposit paid in full) and you got the orginals back by mail. Never sign your self unless the tenants have signed the lease to prevent the tenants to change anything on the lease and later have an issue due to that.

Mostly I meet the tenants to sign the lease, if that is for a reason not possible I would sent one copy unsigned by us and sign after they have returned it, than I make copies and either scan and email them, fax them or leave them at the property.

I make tons of pictures with dates on them before they move in...just to be sure.

Not all tenants and LL are bad, but there are ones who try to be one step ahead and it seems you have met tenants who know a little bit how to work the system...

It's sad that these days one has to be so cautious about entering into agreements but it behooves both LLs and tenants to be aware of what a lease agreement entails and be aware of what state laws say.

I had a "bad" LL several years ago and gave him a 30 day notice of quit. Several months later I received a summons to Small Claims court. The LL was suing me for breaking a year lease and demanding that I pay him for the remainder of the lease term which was something like four or five months. I went to court on the appointed day.

The judge was obviously leaning heavily towards the LL until I nicely interrupted and asked him to look at the lease copy he'd been provided with. The LL had never signed it. I had signed it, had it duly notarized, sent it to him for his signature but he never sent me back a signed copy.

The judge said, "Oops, I hadn't noticed that!" and immediately ruled in my favor since it was thus deemed a month to month and I had given the required 30 days notice of quit. You live and learn that crossing the t's and dotting the i's is the only way to go with any contractual agreement whether you be a LL or a tenant. I've also been a LL and learned many things the hard way!

[NY Annie]

Exactly what STT said - if you do not have a signed copy of the lease, then the tenant is a month-to-month tenant. Look up the landlord-tenant laws for Florida and you will find the procedure for dealing with the return of the security deposit. Be sure to follow the procedures exactly, especially time. in many states, there are severe penalties for not following procedure for return of security deposit within xdays - sometimes up to 3x PLUS the deposit.

[LongtimeBravesFan]

Whenever I've rented, I signed a lease at move in and we each got a copy. I don't undertsand why you gave them both copies.

If they don't produce a lease, they can't prove what they paid you or even that they lived there.

[jdm2008]

Originally Posted by The Spud

Hi there. Any help would be appreciated. We gave our tenant 2 copies of a lease asking that one copy be returned. Despite repeated requests, we never got a copy back. They now claim there was no lease. All other tenants have one which we can prove. They also bragged to other tenants that they didn't return it on purpose in order to get their security deposit back. They broke the lease months early and now want the security deposit in full returned.

Any idea how this will go if we end up in small claims court? FLORIDA.

It will go against you because they are correct in their claim that there is no lease. They didn't sign it so there is no lease to break. Even if the tenant is truthful that they moved in and you sent them a lease to sign and they say they decided not to sign it and ignored you and continued living there, they would still be entitled to their deposit back.

[jdm2008]

Originally Posted by LongtimeBravesFan

Whenever I've rented, I signed a lease at move in and we each got a copy. I don't undertsand why you gave them both copies.

If they don't produce a lease, they can't prove what they paid you or even that they lived there.

No thats not correct. There are canceled checks, mail etc for that. A lease wouldn't prove any of that anyways. Plenty of landlord tenant relationships proceed with no written lease.