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We are a couple from CA looking to move to a college town (my hometown) in Illinois this Fall. We found a place we love and they said the move-in date is August 15th. Later on while looking at the apartment, we learned we could get it renovated for a little higher rent (and we wanted to have a unit with a fireplace). It started off at $930/mo to now $1035/mo for it to be renovated and with fireplace. We get that. Cool! Let's sign the lease!
We recieve the DocuSign form in our email and have been hesitant to sign anything. Here's why:
Lease start date is August 15, 2014 which has been said from the get go before renovation was even discussed, so August 1st is not available for move in, regardless of renovation or not. The lease "term" ends on July 31, 2015.
I have a screen shot of part of the lease agreement below. The first month's payment is due on August 1, 2014 for a move in date of Aug, 15, 2014. There are two weeks that we are paying for when we are not there, but they disagree.
Leasing agent says: "The rent is based on a contract amount which is the top number listed on the financial diagram. We just take this number and divide it by 12 months to give you 12 even monthly payments rather than charging less when you move in and more when you move out (because the lease ends August 5th). It's pretty standard practice in this town because of the 2 week turnover period between leases."
We contacted her and she was incorrect about August 5th (typo) and said it ends on July 31st. Okay, we all make mistakes, but the two weeks we are paying for isn't making sense. At least to me. Bah!
Questions:
1.) Shouldn't we be paying for the first month's rent on the 15th of August and not the 1st?
2.) I'm thinking of saying, "Let's have the lease start on Sept 1st instead" since they are happy to have us lose out on $500+ dollars, I wanna see how they feel about that themselves.
3.) What would you do in this situation?
Thank you so much for reading my long post and thank you for any help/advice. This is a great forum.
P.S. I'm really heartbroken because we love the place (location and amenities), but I don't feel this is ethical and makes me question if we did sign the lease, what else would they pull?
It makes no sense for you to start paying rent on August 1st when your move-in date is the 15th. They should either pro-rate the first month's rent or amend the lease for its expiration date to be July 14th, 2015. Suggest you take this up with them in writing and see what explanation they come up with.
As SST SAID
Your lease should have the start and end date exactly one year (365 days) apart. IF you choose to stay for the extra time once the yearly lease agreement is ended you can give notice to stay for x days at a prorated amount based on your monthly rate. The full amount listed on the lease is based off a 365 day timeline correct? Aug 15 to July 31 is not 365 days. They can charge a full month up front with the understanding you don't pay last month Aug 1-15 prorated since they got it upfront at the beginning if the lease.
Are they expecting you to occupy Aug 15 2014 but vacate July 31 2015 or they allow you to stay till Aug 15 2015 one year later ?
Last edited by Electrician4you; 05-14-2014 at 07:50 PM..
As SST SAID
Your lease should have the exact start and end date exactly one year apart. IF you choose to stay for the extra time once the yearly lease agreement is ended you can give notice to stay for x days at a prorated amount based on your monthly rate. The full amount listed on the lease is based off a 365 day timeline correct? Aug 15 to July 31 is not 365 days. They can charge a full month up front with the understanding you don't pay last month Aug 1-15 prorated since they got it upfront at the beginning if the lease.
Are they expecting you to occupy Aug 15 2014 but vacate July 31 2015 or they allow you to stay till Aug 15 2015 one year later ?
What they told us is that it is a "term" which can be for how ever long we agree to/sign. Ultimately, not a year lease. And they don't prorate. So technically the 12,420.00 is what is paid for the "term" or lease.
It's hurting my head and just when I think it makes sense, I start to get pissed off because it seems really stupid to do this to a future tenant.
A lease term is a fixed non cancelable period for which a lease agreement is in force.
The LL needs to take the 12,420 term payment ( total amount he calculated for the lease ) and divide it by the amount of days you are renting for not the months as they are doing now since your lease starts and ends at less than 365 days timeline.
12,420 divided by 12 months is 1,035. That amount is based on a full 12 month calendar year which is 365 days. You're either renting a year lease or a term.
12420 divided by 365 is 34.02 per day.
365 days - 15 days you're NOT actually in possession of the property is 350 days
350 days x 34.02 is 11,907
11,907 divided by 12 payments is 992.25
Basically they are charging you for the 15 days you are not actually renting. You're simply paying their down time since they are basing the lease payments off a full calendar year time
You know what I do when a tenant wants to move in but will not occupy the full first month? I save myself the headache and I simply prorate. I don't see it as fair to charge when they are not occupying the premises.
This is common in apartments for college students. Usually if you renew the lease, you get to live there over that 2 week turnover period (because obviously, there wouldn't be any turnover). Make sure they will let you do that, and that they don't expect you to move out for 2 weeks then come back in. If so, you will be getting the use of that apartment for that 2 weeks you already paid for.
For any contract tings are negotiable if you don't agree than don't sign.
We however hardly ever negotiate and people are free to sign or not and we prorate for moving in based on a 30 day since that is how Florida law handles pro-ration.
If you sign it means you agree to the terms so never sign before you have in writing what you agree too otherwise you agree and have to deal with that.
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