Posted by John Merchant on November 11, 2009 at 10:34:22:
If he were here in WA State he’d have broken the law withholding any deposit for that rent unless he very carefully followed our Tenant friendly law.
So best rule is read and know your LL/T law BEFORE even renting, but certainly before withholding or messing with T’s security deposit.
As a lawyer if I had a choice of representing T or LL these days I’d always pick T as law, public opinion, sympathy are all on T’s side and the LL is always an evil, avaricious Simon Legree.
I’ve taken money from LLs who wrongfully just withheld that security deposit BEFORE they learned our law on it.
I’d bet there’s LL Rental Ass’n that a PA LL could join and that would educate the PA LL as to how to operate his rentals totally according to PA law and not get himself into trouble.
Posted by Zhe Ren on November 03, 2009 at 10:35:42:
My tenant’s lease is supposed to end on Oct 31. And based on the lease agreement, she is supposed to give 45 days notice. But she did not notify me and just moved out. Can I ask her to pay 45-day rents. If she doesn’t pay, can I use the security deposit to pay the rents. The property is located in PA.
Thanks much.
Zhe
Posted by -Steve- on December 09, 2009 at 18:41:26:
Your lease agreement expired and the tenant moved. I don’t see why they would need to give you a notice and I wouldn’t count on getting any additional rent.
I don’t know the laws in Pennsylvania,but if you have a deposit, I’d go ahead and apply it to any rent you lost because she moved early. Keep in mind you should probably take steps to advertise and find a new tenant to mitigate your losses. If the tenant doesn’t like your accounting, at least you can argue about whether you may need to refund her a portion, instead of you trying to get money from her, which is not a bad position in which to be.