Help...Expensive Lease....3rd party tenant screening... (rental, refundable, credit)
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My fiance and I are moving to Miami bc I'm adding another office to my company and considering the fact that there are 1000 condos to choose from I didn't want to rush to buy. So without even seeing, any places, we found an amazing place in south beach and the owner had been a client of my realtor and wanted someone to just cover the bills of his rental and had just slashed the price for a $1.5M condo from $9500/month to $5,200/month so we signed the lease sight unseen....its with the biggest realty firm in miami so Im not scared about that part.....here's what got me mad
I originally wanted a november 1 move bc our lease here ends then, owner stressed he was tired of losing money and wanted someone in ASAP so I rushed, overnighted our realtor (3) $5,200 checks(in excrow now with large realty company)....1st,last,security...(1) $1,000 of which $850 is refundable elevator move in....and (2) $100 app fee checks so the condo could start our condo board approval.....this was LAST WEEK...he wanted condo leased by October 1, this all went down last monday.
Anyways, owner approved us and the condo board has its own approval via 3rd party service and its been 5 business days.....but the owner SWORE it wouldn't take that long and now its the 2nd and my lease states the first.....my realtor is non chalant and says we'll take care of that later BUT Im getting stressed bc we already had plane tickets for this monday to go to miami to look for condos for lease but changed our tickets and hotel for $500 total(expedia sucks) and now I have no idea when to have the movers come to my place here and Im in san diego! Its just so damn annoying with this condo board, I have never been to jail, great credit....fiance has meh credit(520 for her....thats why no wedding yet).....we're both on the lease, could this be the hold up??? She has a car lien from 6 years ago for a car she doesnt even have...long story with her sister....but WTF owner has 15K from me, building has another $1.2K and all I have is a ton of stress bc Nobody is giving me a date to buy a plane ticket or arrange movers
HOW DAMN LONG DOES 3RD PARTY TENANT SCREENING TAKE....I screen employees all the time on public data and it takes moments!
and isnt the lease the owner and i have copies of "void" now that its 10/2 and it states lease starts on 10/1....just frustrated bc landlord is overseas investor and I dont think he knows the whole process of getting board approval....something Ive never dealt with in my life...submitting tax returns and all kinds of other non sense references out here in SD
Wow, its a really good thing that your money went to a large real estate company, because everything else about this screams scam.
1. A huge price reduction
2. You've never seen the property or met with anyone in person (hopefully you have at least had a phone conversation...if the whole thing has been email, that is an even bigger warning sign)
3. You had to send a large amount of money and sign a lease before you even received approval (if board approval is required and you don't have that yet, then you aren't approved yet)
4. LL is overseas
That doesn't just scream scam, it is trying to beat you over the head with warning signs. But if the money really is in escrow with a large real estate firm, then it may be ok. Have you been in contact directly with the realty office to make sure they really have your money? Were your checks made out to the real estate trust account?
Assuming this isn't a scam, have you tried calling to find out what the holdup is? Personally, I wouldn't plan movers or transportation until you are approved. And that approval is out of the landlord's hands right now. If the condo is taking their sweet time to approve or deny, all you can do is wait it out. The fact that you had to change your flight schedule is just something that happens sometimes when trying to move long distances.
But if you do eventually get approved, since you paid for the full month of October, and didn't get it, I would definitely negotiate November's rent at a discounted rate to compensate.
I'd add that technically the lease you have is legally void as its terms haven't been met.
I don't know if it was technically a valid lease in the first place. The Condo rules obviously say that board approval is required for the LL to enter into a lease, and that approval has not been given. So the lease may have been void right from the start (unless it says in it somewhere that it is contingent on receipt of board approval).
Sounds like you should pack your stuff up in a Pack Rat or a PODs here, fly there, stay at a really nice hotel until you buy (or rent), then have your PODs delivered with all of your stuff. Sounds like you got the $$ for all of that.
If your lease is void, get your $$ back and put the move back into *YOUR* hands.
I am in SW Fl and it can take up to 2 full weeks. Give them some time.
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